After the loss of jobs in the oil industry, the closure of General Motors' Shreveport Operations, and other economic problems, it struggled with a declining population, poverty, drugs, and violent crime.

[17][18][19][20] Companies with significant operations or headquarters in Shreveport are Amazon, Regions Financial Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, AT&T Mobility, United Parcel Service, Walmart, SWEPCO, General Electric, UOP LLC,[21] Calumet Specialty Products Partners, and APS Payroll.

"The period May 13–21, 1865, was filled with great uncertainly after soldiers learned of the surrenders of Lee and Johnston, the Good Friday assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the rapid departure of their own generals.

But seasonal water levels got so low at one point that Union Admiral David Dixon Porter was trapped with his gunboats north of Alexandria.

Bluesmen Jesse Thomas, Dave Alexander, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and the early jazz and ragtime composers Bill Wray and Willian Christopher O'Hare were all from Shreveport.

In 1926, Shreveport citizens learned that the 3rd Attack Wing stationed at Fort Crockett, Texas, would be enlarged by 500 percent and would require at least 20,000 acres (81 km2) to support aerial gunnery and a bombing range.

The efforts to procure the government's commitment to build the facility in the Greater Shreveport metropolitan area were spearheaded by a committee co-chaired by local civic leaders Andrew Querbes and John D. Ewing, beginning in 1927.

However, in February 1928, a young crop duster, an Air Corps captain named Harold Ross Harris, was hired to fly over the local area in order to find a suitable site for the airfield.

Shreveport had originally proposed a site adjacent to Cross Lake, but the United States Department of War deemed this location inappropriate due to the lack of suitable terrain for the facility's future expansion.

Subsequent to the establishment of the military installation, Bossier City grew and expanded southward and eastward, eventually enveloping the area surrounding the base.

The field exercise's mission was accomplished largely due to General George S. Patton, who commanded the mock "Blue" army's 2nd Armored Division.

In the mid-1950s, KWKH was the first major radio station to feature the music of Presley on its long-running Louisiana Hayride program at the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium.

African American veterans of World War II were among activists in Shreveport through the 1960s who worked in the civil rights movement to correct injustices under Jim Crow and disenfranchisement of blacks.

The Shreveport home of Dr. C. O. Simpkins was bombed in retaliation for his work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.[29][30] In September 1963 George W. D'Artois, Public Service Commissioner, refused a permit for a march to the Little Union Baptist Church in Shreveport, where mourners gathered to honor and commemorate four black girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing on September 15 in Birmingham, Alabama.

[29][31] Also in 1963, headlines across the country reported that African American musician Sam Cooke was arrested in Shreveport after his band tried to register at a "whites-only" Holiday Inn, where they planned to stay before performing in the city.

[36] Since the downturn in the oil industry and other economic problems, the city has struggled with a declining population, unemployment, poverty, drugs and violent crime.

The "Streetscape" project, inspired by the coming of riverboat gaming, gave Shreveport's downtown traditional brick sidewalks, statues, sculptures, and mosaics.

Severe thunderstorms with heavy rain, hail, damaging winds and tornadoes occur in the area during the spring and summer months.

Data from the 2020 United States census reflected growing trends of Hispanic and Latino, and Asian American population growth nationwide.

Its residents were predominantly Protestant through the nineteenth century, and today, Baptists form the majority of Christians in Shreveport, followed by Methodists and Roman Catholics.

[88] The large Holy Trinity Catholic Church, located downtown, was founded in 1858; it served Irish and German immigrants as well as native-born residents.

[89] Particularly striking in size and architecture is St. Mark's Cathedral, an Episcopal Church congregation dating its establishment to the first religious service held in Shreveport in 1839.

Beginning in 1930, United Gas Corporation, the nation's busiest pipeline operator and massive integrated oil company, was headquartered in Shreveport.

In addition to GM, other notable large companies that have had or still have Shreveport manufacturing/assembly or production facilities or operations include: General Electric (electric transformer production), Western Electric (payphone manufacturing, approximately 7,500 employees at its peak, changed ownership through the years but closed in 2001)[102] Honeywell UOP, Libbey-Owens-Ford, Beaird-Poulan (the originator of and, for decades, the only manufacturer of the single-operator chainsaw in the world),[103] Calumet Specialty Products Partners (originally United Gas Corporation's Atlas Processing Unit and then Pennzoil), and Frymaster, LLC (a subsidiary of The Manitowoc Company).

It has since slowed to a degree since natural gas prices have decreased but is still the 3rd highest ranked basin in the US in terms of number of active drilling rigs.

[118] However, by 2021, Auntie Anne's, Gymboree, Grimaldi's Pizzeria, and Sears had closed their Mall St. Vincent operations, leaving Dilliards as the only anchor store.

[120] In 2020, Advanced Aero Services planned to open a facility at Shreveport Regional Airport,[14][13] while employer Libbey Glass closed its doors for good after 47 years of operation, resulting in the loss of 450 jobs.

[121] On July 31, 2020, the Shreveport Economic Recovery Task Force released a revitalization plan with a primary focus on the downtown area.

Shreveport's most recent independent minor league baseball team, the Shreveport-Bossier Captains, ceased operations in 2011 and moved to Laredo, Texas.

Shreveport lies along the route of the proposed Interstate 69 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) superhighway that will link Canada, the U.S. industrial Midwest, Texas, and Mexico.