Caddo Public Schools (Louisiana)

Caddo Public Schools is a school district based in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. The district serves all of Caddo Parish.

Its founding superintendent was Clifton Ellis Byrd, a Virginia native, who assumed the chief administrative position in 1907 and continued until his death in 1926. C.E. Byrd High School, which was established in 1925 and is located on Line Avenue in Shreveport, bears his name.

In 1965, the board was sued by E. Edward Jones and his wife, Leslie, to compel, successfully, the desegregation of Caddo Parish public schools. Jones, a former Caddo Parish educator, was a pastor and civil rights figure in Shreveport, who from 1986 to 2003 was the president of the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.[1]

A former Caddo Parish school superintendent, Walter C. Lee of Shreveport, was a long-term member of the elected Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

In 1970, the first three Republicans of the 20th century were elected to the Caddo Parish School Board, Joel B. Brown, E. L. "Ed" McGuire, and Billy Guin, later the last of the Shreveport municipal utility commissioners. Among those elected with Brown, McGuire, and Guin was Pike Hall, Jr., a Shreveport attorney who later served on the state appeal court and the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Another former board member, Mike Powell, was the District 6 state representative from 2004 to 2007.