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Bossier City, Louisiana (U.S.)

Bossier Parish

image located by Valentin Poposki, 24 October 2010
from: www.bossiercity.org/

Description of the flag
Seal

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Description of the flag

The star represents the city of Bossier City on the East-Bank of the rambling Red River which is symbolized by the red serpentine charge. Ratio is 3:5
C. Eugene Baldwin, 15 November 1998

From The Times in Shreveport
by Eric J. Brock:

The Bossier City flag came about as the result of a 1986 contest sponsored by the now-defunct National Bank of Bossier, the Bossier City mayor’s office, and the Bossier City Chamber of Commerce in connection with the completion of the new Bossier City Civic Center complex on Benton Road. A panel of judged formed by the city, bank, and arts community of Bossier chose the winning design, which was announced April 23, 1986. The winner was Bossier City resident Randy Canterbury, then 30 years old, whose design prevailed over the 142 other entries to become the new banner of his home town. The winning design is a flag composed of three equal-size horizontal bars, the top and bottom of which are a pale blue, the center of which is white. A wide, curving red ribbon traverses the three bars, running vertically near the hoist of the flag. To its right, in the white bar and slightly overlapping the red ribbon, is a blue-gray five-pointed star. To the right of the star, in the middle of the white central bar, is the name “Bossier City” in a stylized cursive script in black letters.

The red ribbon, of course, represents the Red River. The star to its right represents Bossier City’s location on the right bank or eastern side of the river. Some newer versions of the flag do not include the words in the design, opting instead for the star alone to symbolize the city. Bossier’s newly repainted water towers feature this flag design.

The move to have a flag for Bossier City originated about 1984, when the idea was first discussed by then-Mayor Don Jones. Nothing concrete developed, however, until Seth Morehead, then president of the National Bank of Bossier, proposed that the bank work with the city to develop the flag as a means to promote civic pride and development in Bossier City. The official name of the flag project was “Standing Proud: Bossier City.”

A contest was then opened to any resident of Bossier Parish, regardless of age, to submit designs for a potential new city flag. The contest, which promised $500 and an example of the new flag to the winner, officially got underway April 6, 1986. Entry forms were published in the Shreveport area newspapers on April 6 and 13, with the deadline for entries set for April 21. The winning design was announced by Mayor Jones, NBB President Morehead, and City Council President Wanda Bennett two days later.

The Bossier City flag was promoted by NBB, which sold them to the public at cost. Examples could be seen flying above the new civic complex and on public buildings throughout Bossier. Unfortunately, new examples were not readily available to replace old flags as they became faded and tattered. Eventually, the Bossier City flag largely disappeared from the scene. Indeed, as new a banner as it is, the Bossier City flag was left out of the otherwise excellent volume, The Flags of Louisiana, by Jeanne Frois, no doubt because the author was unaware of it. Hopefully this will be remedied in future editions of that book.

But the painting of the water towers earlier this year under the administration of Mayor George Dement has brought Bossier City’s flag design back into the light. Like the revival of interest in the Shreveport city flag, let us hope that a revival of interest in the Bossier City flag is on its way. Soon we may see both flags flying high above the cities they represent.

Eric J. Brock is a Shreveport historian.

Located by Paul Bassinson, 23 January 2021

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 17 August 2019

Source: http://bossiercity.org/
Paul Bassinson, 17 August 2019