Greg Tarver

Gregory Williams "Greg" Tarver, Sr.
Preceded by	Bill Keith
Succeeded by	Lydia Patrice Jackson
In office 1984–2004
Incumbent
Assumed office  2012
Preceded by	Lydia P. Jackson
Shreveport City Council member
In office 1978–1984
Preceded by	New position
District 5 member of the former Caddo Parish Police Jury
In office 1975–1978
Born	March 30, 1946 Shreveport, Louisiana
Nationality	African American
Political party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Velma Jean Kirksey Tarver
Children	Gregory Tarver, Jr. Balistine Tarver Anderson Lauren Tarver Rebekah Tarver Carolyne Tarver
Residence	Shreveport, Louisiana
Alma mater	Alton Senior High School (Alton, Illinois) Grambling State University (Lincoln Parish, Louisiana)
Occupation	Funeral home owner
Religion	Baptist

Gregory Williams Tarver, Sr., known as Greg Tarver (born March 30, 1946), is an African American businessman and Democratic politician in Shreveport, Louisiana, who served on the Shreveport City Council from 1978 to 1984 and as a state senator from the predominantly black District 39 in Caddo Parish from 1984 to 2004.

After an eight-year hiatus, Tarver returned to the state Senate on January 9, 2012. In the general election held on November 19, 2011, he unseated his successor, Lydia Patrice Jackson, the daughter of former state Representative Alfonse Jackson, Jr. (1927-2014).

Background

Tarver's family has operated the J. S. Williams Funeral Home and insurance companies in Shreveport for more than a century. Tarver graduated from Alton Senior High School in Alton in Madison County, Illinois, home of the 19th century abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1802-1837). He also attended a business college and the historically black Grambling State University in Grambling west of Ruston in Lincoln Parish. He served in the military from 1967 to 1969. From 1973 to 1975, he was one of the directors of what became the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, formerly known as Confederate Memorial Medical Center or "Charity Hospital." From 1975 to 1978, he held the District 5 seat on the former Caddo Parish Police Jury, subsequently the Caddo Parish Commission, the parish governing board. Tarver was named in 1978 among the "Outstanding Young Men of America." In 1983, he was designated "Black Leader of the Year" in Shreveport. He is a member of the Masonic lodge and the Baptist denomination.

Tarver is married to Velma J. Kirksey-Tarver, the owner of Quality Office Supply and the chairman of VRC Educational Scholarship Foundation. Mrs. Tarver is also the founder of the Institute for Global Outreach, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase awareness of global suffering and to provide humanitarian services to impoverished children and families in Ethiopia.

Legislative matters

Tarver served on the Shreveport City Council when the body was first switched to a mayor-council]government from the previous city commission system.

Tarver won his Senate seat in 1983, when he unseated fellow Democrat Bill Keith. Tarver received 9,264 votes (51.4 percent) to Keith's 8,769 (48.6 percent). Keith, an author, wrote the 1981 Louisiana law which had it been implemented would have required balanced treatment in the presentation of creation science and evolution in public schools. The measure was struck down in 1987 by the United States Supreme Court. Keith, who since relocated to Texas, is the last white person to hold this particular Senate seat.

Senator Tarver was chairman of the Insurance Committee and served on the Environmental Quality and Finance committees as well. He did not seek a sixth term in the nonpartisan blanket primary held in October 2003.

Tarver was unopposed in the senatorial elections of 1987, 1991, and 1999. In 1995, he polled 18,687 votes (56 percent) in the primary against two other Democrats, the Shreveport dentist C.O. Simpkins and Michael R. Ward.

In the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 19, 2011, Tarver beat incumbent Lydia Jackson for the State Senate District 39 seat.

In his latest bid for re-election in 2015, Tarver was to have faced a No Party" candidate, Jim Slagle of Vivian, but he withdrew from ther ace. No Republican contested the seat.

In 2021, Tarver was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.

Mayoral candidate

In 2022, Tarver entered a crowded field for the office of Shreveport mayor. In first place in the November 8 primary was the sole Republican candidate, Tom Arceneaux, who received 14,637 votes (28 percent). Tarver trailed with 12,180 votes (24 percent), and No Party Mario C. Chavez, ran third with 9,397 votes (18 percent). Mayor Adrian Perkins, an African-American Democrat liberal, finished fourth with 9,054 votes (18 percent). In a major surprise, Arceneaux defeated Tarver in the December 10 runoff election, 20,724 votes (56 percent) to 16,040 (56 percent. Turnout was only 30.3 percent of the number of registered voters.Until Arceneaux, no Republican had been elected mayor of Shreveport since 1994. Tarver carried the backing of Republican state Senator Barrow Peacock of Shreveport and the Senate President Page Cortez of Lafayette, a Moderate Republican. Peacock and Cortez must now reconcile their Democrat support for mayor of Shreveport in light of Republican Arceneaux's victory.