The Korner Lounge at 800 Louisiana Ave. in Shreveport, Louisiana’s second-oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ bar, has been approved for a state historical marker.
BUT the bar has to come up with $3,000 in advance to pay for the plaque and its installation.
As of 12:45 p.m. today (Monday, Oct. 26) the bar’s GoFundMe page has raised $1,095 — or 37 percent of the total needed.
The staff and patrons of The Korner Lounge celebrated the bar’s 75th anniversary back in July. And while that party “full of glitter and celebration, we now have the opportunity to make a true proclamation,” the GoFundMe page notes.
The historical marker plaque will read: “Est. in 1951, The Korner Lounge is Louisiana’s second oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ bar. It is among the oldest in the U.S. and serves as a landmark for civil rights in the South. It is regarded as a safe haven for all. The original Bevador, said to have fallen off a nearby train, is still in use today. SPONSORED BY FRIENDS OF THE KORNER LOUNGE.”
(A Bevador, by the way, is “a vintage, cylindrical, beer-bottle-shaped commercial refrigerator manufactured by the Jewett Refrigerator Company of Buffalo, New York, starting in the 1930s and continuing through the 1950s.)
The GoFundMe also notes that the plaque will be installed after it is paid for in full, and that process can take up to six months.
— Tammye Nash