Much of Louisiana's lands were formed fromsediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas ofcoastal marsh andswamp.[13] These contain a rich southernbiota, including birds such asibises andegrets, many species oftree frogs—such as the state-recognizedAmerican green tree frog—and fish such assturgeon andpaddlefish. More elevated areas, particularly in the north, contain a wide variety of ecosystems such astallgrass prairie,longleaf pine forest and wetsavannas; these support an exceptionally large number of plant species, including many species of terrestrialorchids andcarnivorous plants. Over half the state is forested.
Louisiana is situated at the confluence of theMississippi river system and the Gulf of Mexico. Its location and biodiversity attracted various indigenous groups thousands of years before Europeans arrived in the 17th century. Louisiana has eighteen Native American tribes—the most of any southern state—of which four are federally recognized and ten are state-recognized.[14] The French claimed the territory in 1682, and it became the political, commercial, and population center of the larger colony ofNew France. From 1762 to 1801Louisiana was under Spanish rule, briefly returning to French rule before beingsold byNapoleon to the U.S. in 1803. It wasadmitted to the Union in 1812 as the 18th state. Following statehood, Louisiana saw an influx of settlers from the eastern U.S. as well as immigrants from the West Indies, Germany, and Ireland. It experienced an agricultural boom, particularly in cotton and sugarcane, which were cultivated primarily by slaves from Africa. As a slave state, Louisiana was one of the original seven members of theConfederate States of America during theAmerican Civil War.
Louisiana's unique French heritage is reflected in its toponyms, dialects, culture, demographics, and legal system. Relative to the rest of the southern U.S., Louisiana ismultilingual and multicultural, reflecting an admixture ofLouisiana French (Cajun,Creole),Spanish,French Canadian,Acadian,Saint-Domingue Creole,Native American, andWest African cultures (generally the descendants ofslaves stolen in the 18th century); more recent migrants includeFilipinos and Vietnamese. In thepost–Civil War environment,Anglo-Americans increased the pressure forAnglicization, and in 1921, English was shortly made the sole language of instruction in Louisiana schools before a policy of multilingualism was revived in 1974.[15][16] Louisiana has never had an official language, and the state constitution enumerates "the right of the people to preserve, foster, and promote their respective historic, linguistic, and cultural origins."[15]
Based on national averages, Louisiana frequently ranks low among U.S. states in terms of health,[17] education,[18][19][20][21] and development, with high rates of poverty[22][23][24] andhomicide. In 2018, Louisiana was ranked as the least healthy state in the country, with high levels ofdrug-related deaths. It also has had the highest homicide rate in the United States since at least the 1990s.[25][26][27]
Watson Brake, the oldest mound complex in North America
The area of Louisiana is the place of origin of theMound Builders culture during the MiddleArchaic period, in the4th millennium BC. The sites of Caney and Frenchman's Bend have been securely dated to 5600–5000BP (about 3700–3100 BC), demonstrating that seasonal hunter-gatherers from around this time organized to build complex earthwork constructions in what is now northern Louisiana. TheWatson Brake site near present-dayMonroe has an eleven-mound complex; it was built about 5400 BP (3500 BC).[29] These discoveries overturned previous assumptions in archaeology that such complex mounds were built only by cultures of more settled peoples who were dependent on maize cultivation. The Hedgepeth Site inLincoln Parish is more recent, dated to 5200–4500 BP (3300–2600 BC).[30]
Nearly 2,000 years later,Poverty Point was built; it is the largest and best-known Late Archaic site in the state. The city of modern–dayEpps developed near it. ThePoverty Point culture may have reached its peak around 1500 BC, making it the first complex culture, and possibly the first tribal culture in North America.[31] It lasted until approximately 700 BC.
The Poverty Point culture was followed by theTchefuncte and Lake Cormorant cultures of theTchula period, local manifestations of EarlyWoodland period. The Tchefuncte culture were the first people in the area of Louisiana to make large amounts of pottery.[32] These cultures lasted until 200 AD. The Middle Woodland period started in Louisiana with theMarksville culture in the southern and eastern part of the state, reaching across the Mississippi River to the east around Natchez,[33] and theFourche Maline culture in the northwestern part of the state. The Marksville culture was named after theMarksville Prehistoric Indian Site inAvoyelles Parish.
These cultures were contemporaneous with theHopewell cultures of present-dayOhio andIllinois, and participated in the Hopewell Exchange Network. Trade with peoples to the southwest brought thebow andarrow.[34] The firstburial mounds were built at this time.[35] Political power began to be consolidated, as the firstplatform mounds at ritual centers were constructed for the developing hereditary political and religious leadership.[35]
By 400 theLate Woodland period had begun with theBaytown culture,Troyville culture, and Coastal Troyville during the Baytown period and were succeeded by theColes Creek cultures. Where the Baytown peoples built dispersed settlements, the Troyville people instead continued building major earthwork centers.[36][37][38] Population increased dramatically and there is strong evidence of a growing cultural and political complexity. Many Coles Creek sites were erected over earlier Woodland periodmortuary mounds. Scholars have speculated that emerging elites were symbolically and physically appropriating dead ancestors to emphasize and project their own authority.[39]
TheMississippian period in Louisiana was when thePlaquemine and theCaddoan Mississippian cultures developed, and the peoples adopted extensive maize agriculture, cultivating different strains of the plant by saving seeds, selecting for certain characteristics, etc. The Plaquemine culture in the lowerMississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana began in 1200 and continued to about 1600. Examples in Louisiana include theMedora site, the archaeologicaltype site for the culture in West Baton Rouge Parish whose characteristics helped define the culture,[40] theAtchafalaya Basin Mounds in St. Mary Parish,[41] theFitzhugh Mounds in Madison Parish,[42] theScott Place Mounds in Union Parish,[43] and theSims site in St. Charles Parish.[44]
Plaquemine culture was contemporaneous with the Middle Mississippian culture that is represented by its largest settlement, theCahokia site in Illinois east ofSt. Louis, Missouri. At its peak Cahokia is estimated to have had a population of more than 20,000. The Plaquemine culture is considered ancestral to the historicNatchez andTaensa peoples, whose descendants encountered Europeans in the colonial era.[45]
By 1000 in the northwestern part of the state, the Fourche Maline culture had evolved into the Caddoan Mississippian culture. The Caddoan Mississippians occupied a large territory, including what is now eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeastTexas, and northwest Louisiana. Archaeological evidence has demonstrated that the cultural continuity is unbroken from prehistory to the present. TheCaddo and relatedCaddo-language speakers in prehistoric times and at first European contact were the direct ancestors of the modernCaddo Nation of Oklahoma of today.[46] Significant Caddoan Mississippian archaeological sites in Louisiana includeBelcher Mound Site inCaddo Parish andGahagan Mounds Site in Red River Parish.[47]
Many current place names in Louisiana, includingAtchafalaya, Natchitouches (now spelledNatchitoches), Caddo,Houma,Tangipahoa, andAvoyel (asAvoyelles), are transliterations of those used in various Native American languages.
The first European explorers to visit Louisiana came in 1528 when a Spanish expedition led byPánfilo de Narváez located the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1542,Hernando de Soto's expedition skirted to the north and west of the state (encountering Caddo and Tunica groups) and then followed the Mississippi River down to theGulf of Mexico in 1543. Spanish interest in Louisiana faded away for a century and a half.[48]
In the late 17th century, French andFrench Canadian expeditions, which included sovereign, religious and commercial aims, established a foothold on the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. With its first settlements, France laid claim to a vast region of North America and set out to establish a commercial empire and French nation stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.
The settlement ofNatchitoches (along the Red River in present-day northwest Louisiana) was established in 1714 byLouis Juchereau de St. Denis,[51] making it the oldest permanent European settlement in the modern state of Louisiana. The French settlement had two purposes: to establish trade with the Spanish inTexas via the Old San Antonio Road, and to deter Spanish advances into Louisiana. The settlement soon became a flourishing river port and crossroads, giving rise to vast cotton kingdoms along the river that were worked by imported African slaves. Over time, planters developed large plantations and built fine homes in a growing town. This became a pattern repeated in New Orleans and other places, although the commodity crop in the south was primarily sugar cane.
French Acadians, who came to be known asCajuns, settled in southern Louisiana, especially along the banks of its major bayous.
Louisiana's French settlements contributed to further exploration and outposts, concentrated along the banks of the Mississippi and its major tributaries, from Louisiana to as far north as the region called theIllinois Country, around present-daySt. Louis, Missouri. The latter was settled by French colonists from Illinois.
Initially,Mobile and thenBiloxi served as the capital of La Louisiane.[52][53] Recognizing the importance of the Mississippi River to trade and military interests, and wanting to protect the capital from severe coastal storms, France developed New Orleans from 1722 as the seat of civilian and military authority south of the Great Lakes. From then until the United States acquired the territory in theLouisiana Purchase of 1803, France and Spain jockeyed for control of New Orleans and the lands west of the Mississippi.
In the 1720s, German immigrants settled along the Mississippi River, in a region referred to as theGerman Coast.
France ceded most of its territory east of the Mississippi toGreat Britain in 1763, in the aftermath ofBritain's victory in the Seven Years' War (generally referred to in North America as theFrench and Indian War). This included the lands along the Gulf Coast and north of Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River, which became known as British West Florida. The rest of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, as well as the "isle of New Orleans", had become a colony of Spain by theTreaty of Fontainebleau (1762). The transfer of power on either side of the river would be delayed until later in the decade.
In 1765, during Spanish rule, several thousandAcadians from the French colony ofAcadia (nowNova Scotia, New Brunswick, andPrince Edward Island) made their way to Louisiana after having beenexpelled from Acadia by the British government after the French and Indian War. They settled chiefly in the southwestern Louisiana region now calledAcadiana. The governorLuis de Unzaga y Amézaga,[54] eager to gain more settlers, welcomed the Acadians, who became the ancestors of Louisiana'sCajuns.
Spanish Canary Islanders, calledIsleños, emigrated from theCanary Islands of Spain to Louisiana under the Spanish crown between 1778 and 1783.[55] In 1800, France'sNapoleon Bonaparte reacquired Louisiana from Spain in theTreaty of San Ildefonso, an arrangement kept secret for two years.
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville brought the first two African slaves to Louisiana in 1708, transporting them from a French colony in the West Indies. In 1709, French financierAntoine Crozat obtained a monopoly of commerce inLa Louisiane, which extended from theGulf of Mexico to what is nowIllinois. According to historianHugh Thomas, "that concession allowed him to bring in a cargo of blacks from Africa every year".[56]Starting in 1719, traders began to import slaves in higher numbers; two French ships, theDu Maine and theAurore, arrived in New Orleans carrying more than 500 black slaves coming from Africa. Previous slaves in Louisiana had been transported from French colonies in the West Indies. By the end of 1721, New Orleans counted 1,256 inhabitants, of whom about half were slaves.[citation needed]
In 1724, the French government issued a law called theCode Noir ("Black Code" in English) which regulated the interaction of whites (blancs) and blacks (noirs) in its colony of Louisiana (which was much larger than the current state of Louisiana). After theSale of Louisiana, French Law survived in the Louisiana, such as the prohibition and outlaw of any cruel punishment.[57][58]
Fugitive slaves, calledmaroons, could easily hide in the backcountry of the bayous and survive in small settlements.[59] The word "maroon" comes from the Spanish "cimarron", meaning which means "fierce" or "unruly."[60]
In the late 18th century, the last Spanish governor of the Louisiana territory wrote:
Truly, it is impossible for lower Louisiana to get along without slaves and with the use of slaves, the colony had been making great strides toward prosperity and wealth.[61]
When the United Statespurchased Louisiana in 1803, it was soon accepted that slaves could be brought to Louisiana as easily as they were brought to neighboringMississippi, though it violated U.S. law to do so.[61] Despite demands by United States Rep.James Hillhouse and by the pamphleteerThomas Paine to enforce existing federal law against slavery in the newly acquired territory,[61] slavery prevailed because it was the source of great profits and the lowest-cost labor.
At the start of the 19th century, Louisiana was a small producer of sugar with a relatively small number of slaves, compared toSaint-Domingue and the West Indies. It soon thereafter became a major sugar producer as new settlers arrived to develop plantations.William C. C. Claiborne, Louisiana's first United States governor, said African slave labor was needed because white laborers "cannot be had in this unhealthy climate."[62] Hugh Thomas wrote that Claiborne was unable to enforce the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, which the U.S. and Great Britain enacted in 1807. The United States continued to protect the domestic slave trade, including the coastwise trade—the transport of slaves by ship along the Atlantic Coast and to New Orleans and other Gulf ports.
By 1840, New Orleans had the biggest slave market in the United States, which contributed greatly to the economy of the city and of the state. New Orleans had become one of the wealthiest cities, and the third largest city, in the nation.[63] The ban on the African slave trade and importation of slaves had increased demand in the domestic market. During the decades after the American Revolutionary War, more than one million enslaved African Americans underwent forced migration from the Upper South to the Deep South, two thirds of them in the slave trade. Others were transported by their owners as slaveholders moved west for new lands.[64][65]
With changing agriculture in the Upper South as planters shifted from tobacco to less labor-intensive mixed agriculture, planters had excess laborers. Many sold slaves to traders to take to the Deep South. Slaves were driven by traders overland from the Upper South or transported to New Orleans and other coastal markets by ship in thecoastwise slave trade. After sales in New Orleans, steamboats operating on the Mississippi transported slaves upstream to markets or plantation destinations at Natchez and Memphis.
Unusually for a slave-state, Louisiana harbored escaped Filipino slaves from theManila Galleons.[66][67][68][69] The members of the Filipino community were then commonly referred to asManila men, orManilamen, and laterTagalas,[70] as they were free when they created the oldest settlement of Asians in the United States in the village ofSaint Malo, Louisiana,[70][71][72][73] the inhabitants of which, even joined the United States in theWar of 1812 against the British Empire while they were being led by the French-AmericanJean Lafitte.[72]
Asylum and influence of Creoles from Saint-Domingue
Spanish occupation of Louisiana lasted from 1769 to 1800.[74] Beginning in the 1790s, waves of immigration took place fromSaint-Domingue as refugees poured over following aslave rebellion that started during theFrench Revolution ofSaint-Domingue in 1791. Over the next decade, thousands of refugees landed in Louisiana from the island, including Europeans, Creoles, and Africans, some of the latter brought in by each free group. They greatly increased the French-speaking population in New Orleans and Louisiana, as well as the number of Africans, and the slaves reinforcedAfrican culture in the city.[75]
Anglo-American officials initially made attempts to keep out the additionalCreoles of color, but theLouisiana Creoles wanted to increase the Creole population: more than half of the refugees eventually settled in Louisiana, and the majority remained inNew Orleans.[76]
Pierre Clément de Laussat (Governor, 1803) said: "Saint-Domingue was, of all our colonies in the Antilles, the one whose mentality and customs influenced Louisiana the most."[77]
When the United States won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, one of its major concerns was having a European power on its western boundary, and the need for unrestricted access to the Mississippi River. As American settlers pushed west, they found that theAppalachian Mountains provided a barrier to shipping goods eastward. The easiest way to ship produce was to use aflatboat to float it down theOhio and Mississippi rivers to the port of New Orleans, where goods could be put on ocean-going vessels. The problem with this route was that the Spanish owned both sides of the Mississippi belowNatchez.
Napoleon's ambitions in Louisiana involved the creation of a new empire centered on theCaribbeansugar trade. By the terms of theTreaty of Amiens of 1802, Great Britain returned control of the islands ofMartinique andGuadeloupe to the French. Napoleon looked upon Louisiana as a depot for these sugar islands, and as a buffer to U.S. settlement. In October 1801 he sent a large military force to take back Saint-Domingue, then under control of Toussaint Louverture after theHaitian Revolution. When the army led by Napoleon's brother-in-law Leclerc was defeated, Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana.[79]
Map of Louisiana in 1800
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, was disturbed by Napoleon's plans to re-establish French colonies in North America. With the possession of New Orleans, Napoleon could close the Mississippi to U.S. commerce at any time. Jefferson authorizedRobert R. Livingston, U.S. minister to France, to negotiate for the purchase of the city of New Orleans, portions of the east bank of the Mississippi,[80] and free navigation of the river for U.S. commerce. Livingston was authorized to pay up to $2million.
An official transfer of Louisiana to French ownership had not yet taken place, and Napoleon's deal with the Spanish was a poorly kept secret on the frontier. On October 18, 1802, however, Juan Ventura Morales, acting intendant of Louisiana, made public the intention of Spain to revoke the right of deposit at New Orleans for all cargo from the United States. The closure of this vital port to the United States caused anger and consternation. Commerce in the west was virtually blockaded. Historians believe the revocation of the right of deposit was prompted by abuses by the Americans, particularly smuggling, and not by French intrigues as was believed at the time. President Jefferson ignored public pressure for war with France, and appointedJames Monroe a special envoy to Napoleon, to assist in obtaining New Orleans for the United States. Jefferson also raised the authorized expenditure to $10million.[81]
However, on April 11, 1803, French foreign ministerTalleyrand surprised Livingston by asking how much the United States was prepared to pay for the entirety of Louisiana, not just New Orleans and the surrounding area (as Livingston's instructions covered). Monroe agreed with Livingston that Napoleon might withdraw this offer at any time (leaving them with no ability to obtain the desired New Orleans area), and that approval from President Jefferson might take months, so Livingston and Monroe decided to open negotiations immediately. By April 30, they closed a deal for the purchase of the entire Louisiana territory of 828,000 square miles (2,100,000 km2) for sixty millionFrancs (approximately $15million).[81]
Part of this sum, $3.5million, was used to forgive debts owed by France to the United States.[82] The payment was made in United Statesbonds, which Napoleon sold at face value to the Dutch firm ofHope and Company, and theBritish banking house of Baring, at a discount of87+1⁄2 per each $100 unit. As a result, France received only $8,831,250 in cash for Louisiana. English bankerAlexander Baring conferred with Marbois in Paris, shuttled to the United States to pick up the bonds, took them to Britain, and returned to France with the money—which Napoleon used to wage war against Baring's own country.
Louisiana Purchase, 1803
When news of the purchase reached the United States, Jefferson was surprised. He had authorized the expenditure of $10million for a port city, and instead received treaties committing the government to spend $15million on a land package which would double the size of the country. Jefferson's political opponents in theFederalist Party argued the Louisiana purchase was a worthless desert,[83] and that the U.S. constitution did not provide for the acquisition of new land or negotiating treaties without the consent of the federal legislature. What really worried the opposition was the new states which would inevitably be carved from the Louisiana territory, strengthening western and southern interests inU.S. Congress, and further reducing the influence of New England Federalists in national affairs. President Jefferson was an enthusiastic supporter of westward expansion, and held firm in his support for the treaty. Despite Federalist objections, theU.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana treaty on October 20, 1803.
By statute enacted on October 31, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson was authorized to take possession of the territories ceded by France and provide for initial governance.[84] A transfer ceremony was held in New Orleans on November 29, 1803. Since the Louisiana territory had never officially been turned over to the French, the Spanish took down their flag, and the French raised theirs. The following day,General James Wilkinson accepted possession of New Orleans for the United States. The Louisiana Territory, purchased for less than three cents an acre, doubled the size of the United States overnight, without a war or the loss of a single American life, and set a precedent for the purchase of territory. It opened the way for the eventual expansion of the United States across the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
Louisiana became the eighteenth U.S. state on April 30, 1812; the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana and the Louisiana Territory was simultaneously renamed theMissouri Territory.[86]
At its creation, the state of Louisiana did not include the area north and east of the Mississippi River known as theFlorida Parishes. On April 14, 1812, Congress had authorized Louisiana to expand its borders to include the Florida Parishes,[87][88] but the border change required approval of the state legislature, which it did not give until August 4.[89] For the roughly three months in between, the northern border of eastern Louisiana was the course ofBayou Manchac and the middle ofLake Maurepas andLake Pontchartrain.[90]
From 1824 to 1861, Louisiana moved from a political system based on personality and ethnicity to a distinct two-party system, with Democrats competing first againstWhigs, thenKnow Nothings, and finally only otherDemocrats.[91]
'Signing the Ordinance of Secession of Louisiana, January 26, 1861', oil on canvas painting, 1861Capture of New Orleans, April 1862, colored lithograph of engraving
According to the 1860 census, 331,726 people were enslaved, nearly 47% of the state's total population of 708,002.[92] The strong economic interest of elite whites in maintaining the slave society contributed to Louisiana's decision to secede from the Union on January 26, 1861.[93] It followed other U.S. states in seceding after the election ofAbraham Lincoln as president of the United States. Louisiana's secession was announced on January 26, 1861, and it became part of theConfederate States of America.
The state was quickly defeated in theCivil War, a result of Union strategy to cut the Confederacy in two by controlling theMississippi River. Federal troops captured New Orleans on April 25, 1862. Because a large part of the population had Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the federal government took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana under federal control as a state within the Union, with its own elected representatives to the U.S. Congress.[94][95]
Post–Civil War to mid–20th century
Consolidated Bond of the State of Louisiana, issued 6. July 1892
Following the American Civil War and emancipation of slaves, violence rose in the southern U.S. as the war was carried on by insurgent private and paramilitary groups. During the initial period after the war, there was a massive rise in black participation in terms of voting andholding political office. Louisiana saw the United States' first and second black governors withOscar Dunn andP.B.S. Pinchback, with 125 black members of the state legislature being elected during this time, whileCharles E. Nash was elected to represent the state's6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Eventually former Confederates came to dominate the state legislature after the end ofReconstruction and federal occupation in the late 1870s, and black codes were implemented to regulatefreedmen and increasingly restricted the right to vote. They refused to extend voting rights to African Americans who had been free before the war and had sometimes obtained education and property (as in New Orleans).
Following theMemphis riots of 1866 and theNew Orleans riot the same year, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed that provided suffrage and full citizenship for freedmen. Congress passed theReconstruction Act, establishing military districts for those states where conditions were considered the worst, including Louisiana. It was grouped withTexas in what was administered as theFifth Military District.[96]
African Americans began to live as citizens with some measure of equality before the law. Both freedmen and people of color who had been free before the war began to make more advances in education, family stability and jobs. At the same time, there was tremendous social volatility in the aftermath of war, with many whites actively resisting defeat and the free labor market. Whiteinsurgents mobilized to enforcewhite supremacy, first inKu Klux Klan chapters.
By 1877, when federal forces were withdrawn, white Democrats in Louisiana and other states had regained control of state legislatures, often by paramilitary groups such as theWhite League, which suppressed black voting through intimidation and violence. Following Mississippi's example in 1890, in 1898, the white Democratic, planter-dominated legislature passed a new constitution that effectivelydisfranchised people of color by raising barriers to voter registration, such aspoll taxes, residency requirements andliteracy tests. The effect was immediate and long lasting. In 1896, there were 130,334 black voters on the rolls and about the same number of white voters, in proportion to the state population, which was evenly divided.[97]
The state population in 1900 was 47% African American: a total of 652,013 citizens. Many in New Orleans were descendants of Creoles of color, the sizeable population of free people of color before the Civil War.[98] By 1900, two years after the new constitution, only 5,320 black voters were registered in the state. Because of disfranchisement, by 1910 there were only 730 black voters (less than 0.5 percent of eligible African-American men), despite advances in education and literacy among blacks and people of color.[99] Blacks were excluded from the political system and also unable to serve on juries. White Democrats had established one-party Democratic rule, which they maintained in the state for decades deep into the 20th century until after congressional passage of the 1965Voting Rights Act provided federal oversight and enforcement of the constitutional right to vote.
In the early decades of the 20th century, thousands of African Americans left Louisiana in theGreat Migration north to industrial cities for jobs and education, and to escape Jim Crow society andlynchings. Theboll weevil infestation and agricultural problems cost many sharecroppers and farmers their jobs. The mechanization of agriculture also reduced the need for laborers. Beginning in the 1940s, blacks went west to California for jobs in its expanding defense industries.[100]
In 1920 the state had no continuous paved roads running east to west or north to south which traversed the entire state.[101]
During some of theGreat Depression, Louisiana was led by GovernorHuey Long. He was elected to office on populist appeal. His public works projects provided thousands of jobs to people in need, and he supported education and increased suffrage for poor whites, but Long was criticized for his allegedly demagogic and autocratic style. He extended patronage control through every branch of Louisiana's state government. Especially controversial were his plans for wealth redistribution in the state. Long's rule ended abruptly when he wasassassinated in the state capitol in 1935.[102]
Mid–20th century to present
Mobilization forWorld War II created jobs in the state. But thousands of other workers, black and white alike, migrated to California for better jobs in its burgeoning defense industry. Many African Americans left the state in theSecond Great Migration, from the 1940s through the 1960s to escape social oppression and seek better jobs. The mechanization of agriculture in the 1930s had sharply cut the need for laborers. They sought skilled jobs in the defense industry in California, better education for their children, and living in communities where they could vote.[103]
On November 26, 1958, atChennault Air Force Base, a USAF B-47 bomber with anuclear weapon on board developed a fire while on the ground. The aircraft wreckage and the site of the accident were contaminated after a limited explosion of non-nuclear material.[104]
In the 1950s the state created new requirements for a citizenship test for voter registration. Despite opposition by theStates' Rights Party (Dixiecrats), downstate black voters had begun to increase their rate of registration, which also reflected the growth of their middle classes. In 1960 the state established the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission, to investigate civil rights activists and maintain segregation.[105]
Despite this, gradually black voter registration and turnout increased to 20% and more, and it was 32% by 1964, when the first national civil rights legislation of the era was passed.[106] The percentage of black voters ranged widely in the state during these years, from 93.8% inEvangeline Parish to 1.7% inTensas Parish, for instance, where there were intense white efforts to suppress the vote in the black-majority parish.[107]
Violent attacks on civil rights activists in two mill towns were catalysts to the founding of the first two chapters of theDeacons for Defense and Justice in late 1964 and early 1965, inJonesboro andBogalusa, respectively. Made up of veterans of World War II and theKorean War, they were armed self-defense groups established to protect activists and their families. Continued violent white resistance in Bogalusa to blacks trying to use public facilities in 1965, following passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1964, caused the federal government to order local police to protect the activists.[108] Other chapters were formed in Mississippi and Alabama.
By 1960 the proportion of African Americans in Louisiana had dropped to 32%. The 1,039,207 black citizens were still suppressed by segregation and disfranchisement.[109] African Americans continued to suffer disproportionate discriminatory application of the state's voter registration rules. Because of better opportunities elsewhere, from 1965 to 1970, blacks continued to migrate out of Louisiana, for a net loss of more than 37,000 people. Based on official census figures, the African American population in 1970 stood at 1,085,109, a net gain of more than 46,000 people compared to 1960. During the latter period, some people began to migrate to cities of theNew South for opportunities.[110] Since that period, blacks entered the political system and began to be elected to office, as well as having other opportunities.
On May 21, 1919, theNineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women full rights to vote, was passed at a national level, and was made the law throughout the United States on August 18, 1920. Louisiana finally ratified the amendment on June 11, 1970.[111]
Due to its location on the Gulf Coast, Louisiana has regularly suffered the effects of tropical storms and damaging hurricanes. On August 29, 2005, New Orleans and many other low-lying parts of the state along theGulf of Mexico were hit by the catastrophicHurricane Katrina.[112] It caused widespread damage due to breaching of levees and large-scale flooding of more than 80% of the city. Officials had issued warnings to evacuate the city and nearby areas, but tens of thousands of people, mostly African Americans, stayed behind, many of them stranded. Many people died and survivors suffered through the damage of the widespread floodwaters.
The first case ofCOVID-19 in Louisiana was announced on March 9, 2020.[121] As of October 27, 2020, there had been 180,069 confirmed cases; 5,854 people have died of COVID-19.[122][needs update]
Louisiana is bordered to the west byTexas; to the north byArkansas; to the east byMississippi; and to the south by theGulf of Mexico. The state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north (the region ofNorth Louisiana), and thealluvial along the coast (theCentral Louisiana,Acadiana,Florida Parishes, andGreater New Orleans regions). The alluvial region includes low swamp lands, coastal marshlands and beaches, andbarrier islands that cover about 12,350 square miles (32,000 km2). This area lies principally along the Gulf of Mexico and theMississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 mi (970 km) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; also in the state are theRed River; theOuachita River and its branches; and other minor streams (some of which are calledbayous).
The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is 10–60 miles (16–97 km), and along the other rivers, the alluvial region averages about 10 miles (16 km) across. The Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its natural deposits (known as alevee), from which the lands decline toward a river beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile (3m/km). The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features.
The higher and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles (65,000 km2). They consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet (3m) at the coast and swamp lands to 50–60 feet (15–18m) at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills, the elevations rise toDriskill Mountain, the highest point in the state only 535 feet (163m) above sea level. From 1932 to 2010 the state lost 1,800 square miles due to rises in sea level anderosion. TheLouisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) spends around $1billion per year to help shore up and protect Louisianashoreline and land in both federal and state funding.[123][124]
The state also has political jurisdiction over the approximately 3-mile (4.8 km)-wide portion ofsubsea land of theinner continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Through a peculiarity of thepolitical geography of the United States, this is substantially less than the 9-mile (14 km)-wide jurisdiction of nearby states Texas and Florida, which, like Louisiana, have extensive Gulf coastlines.[125]
The southern coast of Louisiana in the United States is among the fastest-disappearing areas in the world. This has largely resulted from human mismanagement of the coast (seeWetlands of Louisiana). At one time, the land was added to when spring floods from the Mississippi River added sediment and stimulated marsh growth; the land is now shrinking. There are multiple causes.[126][127]
Artificial levees block spring flood water that would bring fresh water and sediment to marshes. Swamps have been extensively logged, leaving canals and ditches that allow salt water to move inland. Canals dug for the oil and gas industry also allow storms to move sea water inland, where it damages swamps and marshes. Rising sea waters have exacerbated the problem. Some researchers estimate that the state is losing a landmass equivalent to 30 football fields every day. There are many proposals to save coastal areas by reducing human damage, including restoring natural floods from the Mississippi. Without such restoration, coastal communities will continue to disappear.[128] And as the communities disappear, more and more people are leaving the region.[129] Since the coastalwetlands support an economically important coastalfishery, the loss of wetlands is adversely affecting this industry.
TheGulf of Mexico 'dead zone' off the coast of Louisiana is the largest recurringhypoxic zone in the United States. It was 8,776 square miles (22,730 km2) in 2017, the largest ever recorded.[130]
The oldest rocks in Louisiana are exposed in the north, in areas such as theKisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the earlyCenozoic Era, some 60 million years ago.[131] The youngest parts of the state were formed during the last 12,000 years as successive deltas of the Mississippi River: theMaringouin,Teche,St. Bernard,Lafourche, the modern Mississippi, and now theAtchafalaya.[132] The sediments were carried from north to south by the Mississippi River.
Between the tertiary rocks of the north, and the relatively new sediments along the coast, is a vast belt known as thePleistocene Terraces. Their age and distribution can be largely related to the rise and fall of sea levels during past ice ages. The northern terraces have had sufficient time for rivers to cut deep channels, while the newer terraces tend to be much flatter.[133]
Salt domes are also found in Louisiana. Their origin can be traced back to the earlyGulf of Mexico when the shallow ocean had high rates of evaporation. There are several hundred salt domes in the state; one of the most familiar isAvery Island, Louisiana.[134] Salt domes are important not only as a source of salt; they also serve as underground traps for oil and gas.[135]
Louisiana has ahumid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classificationCfa), with long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due to its low latitude, low lying topography, and the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which at its farthest point is no more than 200 mi (320 km) away.
Rain is frequent throughout the year, although from April to September is slightly wetter than the rest of the year, which is the state'swet season. There is a dip in precipitation in October. In summer, thunderstorms build during the heat of the day and bring intense but brief, tropical downpours. In winter, rainfall is more frontal and less intense.
Summers in southern Louisiana have high temperatures from June through September averaging 90 °F (32 °C) or more, and overnight lows averaging above 70 °F (21 °C). At times, temperatures in the 90s°F(32–37 °C), combined withdew points in the upper 70s°F(24–26 °C), create sensible temperatures over 120 °F (49 °C). The humid, thick, jungle-like heat in southern Louisiana is a famous subject of countless stories and movies.
Temperatures are generally warm in the winter in the southern part of the state, with highs around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the rest of southern Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico averaging 66 °F (19 °C). The northern part of the state is mildly cool in the winter, with highs averaging 59 °F (15 °C). The overnight lows in the winter average well above freezing throughout the state, with 46 °F (8 °C) the average near the Gulf and an average low of 37 °F (3 °C) in the winter in the northern part of the state.
On occasion, cold fronts from low-pressure centers to the north, reach Louisiana in winter. Low temperatures near 20 °F (−7 °C) occur on occasion in the northern part of the state but rarely do so in the southern part of the state.Snow is rare near the Gulf of Mexico, although residents in the northern parts of the state might receive a dusting of snow a few times each decade.[136][137][138][139] Louisiana's highest recorded temperature is 114 °F (46 °C) inPlain Dealing on August 10, 1936, while the coldest recorded temperature is −16 °F (−27 °C) atMinden on February 13, 1899.
Louisiana is often affected bytropical cyclones and is very vulnerable to strikes by majorhurricanes, particularly thelowlands around and in the New Orleans area. The unique geography of the region, with the many bayous, marshes and inlets, can result in water damage across a wide area from major hurricanes. The area is also prone to frequent thunderstorms, especially in the summer.[140]
The entire state averages over 60 days of thunderstorms a year, more than any other state except Florida. Louisiana averages 27tornadoes annually. The entire state is vulnerable to a tornado strike, with the extreme southern portion of the state slightly less so than the rest of the state. Tornadoes are more common from January to March in the southern part of the state, and from February through March in the northern part of the state.[140] Louisiana is partially within the area of tornado activity calledDixie Alley, and the state has tornadoes which tend to be unpredictable but localized.[141]
Population density and low elevation coastal zones in the Mississippi River Delta. The Mississippi River Delta is especially vulnerable tosea level rise.
Owing to its location and geology, the state has high biological diversity. Some vital areas, such as southwestern prairie, have experienced a loss in excess of 98 percent. The pine flatwoods are also at great risk, mostly fromfire suppression andurban sprawl. There is not yet a properly organized system of natural areas to represent and protect Louisiana's biological diversity. Such a system would consist of a protected system of core areas linked by biological corridors, such as Florida is planning.[144]
One of Louisiana's largest government-owned areas isKisatchie National Forest. It is some 600,000 acres in area, more than half of which isflatwoods vegetation, which supports many rare plant and animal species.[146] These include theLouisiana pinesnake andred-cockaded woodpecker. The system of government-ownedcypress swamps aroundLake Pontchartrain is another large area, with southernwetland species including egrets, alligators, and sturgeon. At least 12 core areas would be needed to build a "protected areas system" for the state; these would range from southwestern prairies, to the Pearl River Floodplain in the east, to the Mississippi River alluvial swamps in the north. Additionally, the state operates a system of 22 state parks, 17 state historic sites and one state preservation area; in these lands, Louisiana maintains adiversity of fauna and flora.
National Park Service
Historic or scenic areas managed, protected, or recognized by the National Park Service include:
Kisatchie National Forest is Louisiana's only national forest. It includes more than 600,000 acres in central and northern Louisiana with large areas of flatwoods and longleaf pine forest.[147][148]
Louisiana contains 308 incorporated municipalities, consisting of fourconsolidated city-parishes, and 304 cities, towns, and villages. Louisiana's municipalities cover only 7.9% of the state's land mass but are home to 45.3% of its population.[149] The majority of urban Louisianians live along the coast or in northern Louisiana. The oldest permanent settlement in the state isNachitoches.[150] Baton Rouge, the state capital, is the second-largest city in the state. The most populous city is New Orleans. As defined by theU.S. Census Bureau, Louisiana contains 10 metropolitan statistical areas. Major areas includeGreater New Orleans,Greater Baton Rouge,Lafayette,Shreveport–Bossier City, andSlidell.
Despite historically positive trends of population growth leading up to the 2020 census, Louisiana began to experience population decline and stagnation since 2021, withSouthwest Louisiana's Calcasieu and Cameron parishes losing more than 5% of their populations individually.[161] Experiencing decline due to deaths and emigration to other states outpacing births and in-migration,[162][163][164][165] Louisiana's 2022 census-estimated population was 4,590,241.[166]
According toimmigration statistics in 2019, approximately 4.2% of Louisianians were immigrants, while 2% were native-born U.S. citizens with at least one immigrant parent. The majority of Louisianian immigrants came from Honduras (18.8%), Mexico (13.6%), Vietnam (11.3%), Cuba (5.8%), and India (4.4%); an estimated 29.4% were undocumented immigrants.[167] Its documented and undocumented population collectively paid $1.2 billion in taxes.[167] New Orleans has been defined as asanctuary city.[168][169][170]
By the 19th and 20th centuries, the state's most-populous racial and ethnic group fluctuated between white and black Americans; 47% of the population was black or African American in 1900.[187] Theblack Louisianian population declined following migration to states including New York and California in efforts to flee Jim Crow regulations.[188]
At the end of the 20th century, Louisiana's population has experienced diversification again, and itsnon-Hispanic or non-Latino American white population has been declining.[154] Since 2020, the black or African American population have made up the largest non-white share of youths.[189]Hispanic and Latino Americans have also increased as the second-largest racial and ethnic composition in the state, making up nearly 7% of Louisiana's population at the 2020 census.[154] As of 2018,[190] the largest single Hispanic and Latino American ethnicity wereMexican Americans (2.0%), followed byPuerto Ricans (0.3%) andCuban Americans (0.2%). Other Hispanic and Latino Americans altogether made up 2.6% of Louisiana's Hispanic or Latino American population. TheAsian American andmultiracial communities have also experienced rapid growth,[154] with many of Louisiana's multiracial population identifying asCajun orLouisiana Creole.[191]
At the 2019American Community Survey, the largest ancestry groups of Louisiana were African American (31.4%),French (9.6%), German (6.2%),English (4.6%),Italian (4.2%), andScottish (0.9%).[192] African American and French heritage have been dominant since colonial Louisiana. As of 2011, 49.0% of Louisiana's population younger than age1 were minorities.[193]
As an ethnically and culturally diverse state, pre-colonial, colonial and present-day Louisianians have adhered to a variety of religions and spiritual traditions; pre-colonial and colonial Louisianian peoples practiced variousNative American religions alongsideChristianity through the establishment ofSpanish andFrench missions;[195] and other faiths includingHaitian Vodou andLouisiana Voodoo were introduced to the state and are practiced to the present day.[196] In the colonial and present-dayU.S. state of Louisiana, Christianity grew to become its predominant religion, representing 84% of the adult population in 2014 and 76.5% in 2020,[197][194] during two separate studies by thePew Research Center andPublic Religion Research Institute.
Among its Christian population—and in common with other southern U.S. states—the majority, particularly in the north of the state, belong to various Protestant denominations.Protestantism was introduced to the state in the 1800s, with Baptists establishing two churches in 1812, followed by Methodists; Episcopalians first entered the state by 1805.[198] Protestant Christians made up 57% of the state's adult population at the 2014 Pew Research Center study, and 53% at the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute's study. Protestants are concentrated in North Louisiana, Central Louisiana, and the northern tier of the Florida Parishes.
Because of French and Spanish heritage, and their descendants the Creoles, and later Irish, Italian, Portuguese and German immigrants, southern Louisiana and Greater New Orleans are predominantly Catholic in contrast; according to the 2020 Public Religion Research Institute study, 22% of the adult population were Catholic.[194] Since Creoles were the first settlers, planters and leaders of the territory, they have traditionally been well represented in politics; for instance, most of the early governors were Creole Catholics, instead of Protestants.[195] As Catholics continue to constitute a significant fraction of Louisiana's population, they have continued to be influential in state politics. The high proportion and influence of the Catholic population makes Louisiana distinct among southern states.[d] TheRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans,Diocese of Baton Rouge, andDiocese of Lafayette in Louisiana are the largest Catholic jurisdictions in the state, located within the Greater New Orleans, Greater Baton Rouge, and Lafayette metropolitan statistical areas.
Louisiana was among the southern states with a significant Jewish population before the 20th century; Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia also had influential Jewish populations in some of their major cities from the 18th and 19th centuries. The earliest Jewish colonists wereSephardic Jews who immigrated to theThirteen Colonies. Later in the 19th century, German Jews began to immigrate, followed by those from eastern Europe and the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jewish communities have been established in the state's larger cities, notably New Orleans and Baton Rouge.[199][200] The most significant of these is the Jewish community of the New Orleans area. In 2000, before the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, its population was about 12,000. Dominant Jewish movements in the state includeOrthodox andReform Judaism; Reform Judaism was the largest Jewish tradition in the state according to the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020, representing some 5,891 Jews.[201]Prominent Jews in Louisiana's political leadership have included Whig (later Democrat)Judah P. Benjamin, who represented Louisiana in theU.S. Senate before theAmerican Civil War and then became theConfederate secretary of state; Democrat-turned-RepublicanMichael Hahn who was elected as governor, serving 1864–1865 when Louisiana was occupied by the Union Army, and later elected in 1884 as a U.S. congressman;[202] DemocratAdolph Meyer,Confederate Army officer who represented the state in theU.S. House of Representatives from 1891 until his death in 1908;Republicansecretary of stateJay Dardenne, and Republican (Democrat before 2011)attorney generalBuddy Caldwell.
Among Louisiana's irreligious community, 2% affiliated withatheism and 13% claimed no religion as of 2014; an estimated 10% of the state's population practiced nothing in particular at the 2014 study. According to the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020, 19% were religiously unaffiliated.[194]
Louisiana's population,agricultural products, abundance ofoil and natural gas, and southern Louisiana's medical and technology corridors have contributed to its growing and diversifying economy.[205] In 2014, Louisiana was ranked as one of the most small business friendly states, based on a study drawing upon data from more than 12,000 small business owners.[206] The state's principal agricultural products include seafood (it is the biggest producer ofcrawfish in the world, supplying approximately 90%), cotton,soybeans, cattle,sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, and rice. Among its energy and other industries, chemical products, petroleum and coal products, processed foods, transportation equipment, and paper products have contributed to a significant portion of the state's GSP. Tourism and gaming are also important elements in the economy, especially in Greater New Orleans.[207]
ThePort of South Louisiana, located on theMississippi River between New Orleans andBaton Rouge, was the largest volume shipping port in theWestern Hemisphere and 4th largest in the world, as well as the largestbulk cargo port in the U.S. in 2004.[208] The Port of South Louisiana continued to be the busiest port by tonnage in the U.S. through 2018.[209] South Louisiana was number 15 among world ports in 2016.[210]
Tabasco varieties produced in Louisiana
New Orleans,Shreveport, andBaton Rouge are home to a thriving film industry.[211] State financial incentives since 2002 and aggressive promotion have given Louisiana the nickname "Hollywood South". Because of its distinctive culture within the United States, onlyAlaska is Louisiana's rival in popularity as a setting for reality television programs.[212] In late 2007 and early 2008, a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2) film studio was scheduled to open inTremé, with state-of-the-art production facilities, and a film training institute.[213]Tabasco sauce, which is marketed by one of the United States' biggest producers of hot sauce, theMcIlhenny Company, originated onAvery Island.[214]
Louisiana has three personalincome tax brackets, ranging from 2% to 6%. The statesales tax rate is 4.45%, andparishes can levy additional sales tax on top of this. The state also has ause tax, which includes 4% to be distributed to local governments. Property taxes are assessed and collected at the local level. Louisiana is a subsidized state, and Louisiana taxpayers receive more federal funding per dollar of federal taxes paid compared to the average state.[223] Per dollar of federal tax collected in 2005, Louisiana citizens received approximately $1.78 in the way of federal spending. This ranks the state fourth highest nationally and represents a rise from 1995 when Louisiana received $1.35 per dollar of taxes in federal spending (ranked seventh nationally). Neighboring states and the amount of federal spending received per dollar of federal tax collected were: Texas ($0.94), Arkansas ($1.41), and Mississippi ($2.02). Federal spending in 2005 and subsequent years since has been exceptionally high due to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
Louisiana is home to many cultures; especially notable are the distinct cultures of theLouisiana Creoles andCajuns, descendants of French and Spanish settlers in colonial Louisiana.
African culture
The French colony ofLa Louisiane struggled for decades to survive. Conditions were harsh, the climate and soil were unsuitable for certain crops the colonists knew, and they suffered from regional tropical diseases. Both colonists and the slaves they imported had high mortality rates. The settlers kept importing slaves, which resulted in a high proportion of native Africans from West Africa, who continued to practice their culture in new surroundings. As described by historianGwendolyn Midlo Hall, they developed a marked Afro-Creole culture in the colonial era.[224][225]
At the turn of the 18th century and in the early 1800s, New Orleans received a major influx of White and mixed-race refugees fleeing the violence of theHaitian Revolution, many of whom brought their slaves with them.[226] This added another infusion of African culture to the city, as more slaves inSaint-Domingue were from Africa than in the United States. They strongly influenced the African-American culture of the city in terms of dance, music and religious practices.
Creole culture is an amalgamation of French, African, Spanish (and other European), and Native American cultures.[227] Creole comes from the Portuguese wordcrioulo; originally it referred to a colonist of European (specifically French) descent who was born in the New World, in comparison to immigrants from France.[228] The oldest Louisiana manuscript to use the word "Creole", from 1782, applied it to a slave born in the French colony.[229] But originally it referred more generally to the French colonists born in Louisiana.
Over time, there developed in the French colony a relatively large group ofCreoles of Color (gens de couleur libres), who were primarily descended from African slave women and French men (later other Europeans became part of the mix, as well as some Native Americans). Often the French would free their concubines andmixed-race children, and pass on social capital to them.[230] They might educate sons in France, for instance, and help them enter the French Army. They also settled capital or property on their mistresses and children. The free people of color gained more rights in the colony and sometimes education; they generally spoke French and were Roman Catholic. Many became artisans and property owners. Over time, the term "Creole" became associated with this class of Creoles of color, many of whom achieved freedom long before the American Civil War.
Wealthy French Creoles generally maintained town houses inNew Orleans as well as houses on their large sugar plantations outside town along the Mississippi River. New Orleans had the largest population of free people of color in the region; they could find work there and created their own culture, marrying among themselves for decades.
Acadian culture
The ancestors ofCajuns immigrated mostly from west central France to New France, where they settled in the Atlantic provinces ofNew Brunswick, Nova Scotia andPrince Edward Island, known originally as the French colony ofAcadia. After the British defeated France in theFrench and Indian War (Seven Years' War) in 1763, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. After the Acadians refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the British Crown, they wereexpelled from Acadia, and made their way to places such as France, Britain, and New England.[231]
Other Acadians covertly remained inBritish North America or moved toNew Spain. Many Acadians settled in southern Louisiana in the region aroundLafayette and the LaFourche Bayou country. They developed a distinct rural culture there, different from the French Creole colonists of New Orleans. Intermarrying with others in the area, they developed what was called Cajun music, cuisine and culture.
El Museo de los Isleños (Isleño Museum) inSaint Bernard
A third distinct culture in Louisiana is that of the Isleños. Its members are descendants of colonists from theCanary Islands who settled inSpanish Louisiana between 1778 and 1783 and intermarried with other communities such asFrenchmen,Acadians,Creoles,Spaniards, and other groups, mainly through the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In Louisiana, the Isleños originally settled in four communities which included Galveztown, Valenzuela, Barataria, and San Bernardo. The large migration ofAcadian refugees toBayou Lafourche led to the rapid gallicization of the Valenzuela community while the community of San Bernardo (Saint Bernard) was able to preserve much of its unique culture and language into the 21st century. The transmission of Spanish and other customs has completely halted in St. Bernard with those having competency in Spanish being octogenarians.[232]
Through the centuries, the various Isleño communities of Louisiana have kept alive different elements of their Canary Islander heritage while also adopting and building upon the customs and traditions of the communities that surround them. Today two heritage associates exist for the communities: Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society of St. Bernard as well as the Canary Islanders Heritage Society of Louisiana. TheFiesta de los Isleños is celebrated annually in St. Bernard Parish which features heritage performances from local groups and the Canary Islands.[233]
Aerial view of Louisiana State University's flagship campus
Despite ranking as the third-least educated state as of 2023, preceded by Mississippi andWest Virginia,[21] Louisiana is home to over 40 public and privatecolleges and universities including:Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge;Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, theUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette; andTulane University in New Orleans. Louisiana State University is the largest and most comprehensive university in Louisiana;[234] Louisiana Tech University is one the most well regarded universities in Louisiana;[235][236][237] the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is the second largest by enrollment. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette became an R1 university in December 2021.[238] Tulane University is a major private research university and the wealthiest university in Louisiana with an endowment over $1.1billion.[239] Tulane is also highly regarded for its academics nationwide, consistently ranked in the top 50 onU.S. News & World Report'slist of best national universities.[240]
Of note among the education system, theLouisiana Science Education Act was a controversial law passed by theLouisiana Legislature on June 11, 2008, and signed into law by GovernorBobby Jindal on June 25.[242] The act allowed public school teachers to use supplemental materials in the science classroom which are critical of established science on such topics as the theory of evolution and global warming.[243][244]
In 2000, of all of the states, Louisiana had the highest percentage of students in private schools. Danielle Dreilinger ofThe Times Picayune wrote in 2014 that "Louisiana parents have a national reputation for favoring private schools."[245] The number of students in enrolled in private schools in Louisiana declined by 9% fromc. 2000–2005 until 2014, due to the proliferation ofcharter schools, the2008 recession andHurricane Katrina. Ten parishes in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans area had a combined 17% decline in private school enrollment in that period. This prompted private schools to lobby forschool vouchers.[245]
Louisiana's school voucher program is known as the Louisiana Scholarship Program. It was available in the New Orleans area beginning in 2008 and in the rest of the state beginning in 2012.[246] In 2013, the number of students usingschool vouchers to attend private schools was 6,751, and for 2014 it was projected to exceed 8,800.[247][needs update] As per a ruling fromIvan Lemelle, a U.S. district judge, the federal government has the right to review the charter school placements to ensure they do not further racial segregation.[248]
The Louisiana Transportation Authority (under theLouisiana Department of Transportation and Development) was created in 2001 to "promote, plan, finance, develop, construct, control, regulate, operate and maintain any tollway or transitway to be constructed within its jurisdiction. Development, construction, improvement, expansion, and maintenance of an efficient, safe, and well-maintainedintermodal transportation system is essential to promote Louisiana's economic growth and the ability of Louisiana's business and industry to compete in regional, national, and global markets and to provide a high quality of life for the people of Louisiana."[250]
TheGulf Intracoastal Waterway is an important means of transporting commercial goods such as petroleum and petroleum products, agricultural produce, building materials and manufactured goods. In 2018, the state sued the federal government to repair erosion along the waterway.[252]
In a 2020 study, Louisiana was ranked as the 24th hardest state for citizens to vote in.[254] Louisiana has one of the most restrictiveabortion laws in the United States.[255]
Most parishes have an elected government known as the Police Jury,[258] dating from the colonial days. It is the legislative and executive government of the parish, and is elected by the voters. Its members are called Jurors, and together they elect a president as their chairman.
A more limited number of parishes operate underhome rule charters, electing various forms of government. This include mayor–council, council–manager (in which the council hires a professional operating manager for the parish), and others.
Civil law
The Louisiana political and legal structure has maintained several elements from the times of French and Spanish governance. One is the use of the term "parish" (from the French:paroisse) in place of "county" for administrative subdivision.[259] Another is the legal system ofcivil law based on French, German, and Spanishlegal codes and ultimatelyRoman law, as opposed to Englishcommon law.
Louisiana's civil law system is what the majority ofsovereign states in the world use, especially in Europe and its former colonies, excluding those that derive their legal systems from theBritish Empire. However, it is incorrect to equate theLouisiana Civil Code with theNapoleonic Code. Although the Napoleonic Code and Louisiana law draw from common legal roots, the Napoleonic Code was never in force in Louisiana, as it was enacted in 1804, after the United States hadpurchased and annexed Louisiana in 1803.[260]
The Louisiana Civil Code is the controlling authority on civil matters in the state and has been continuously revised and updated since its enactment in 1808. While some of the differences between the legal systems have been bridged due to the strong influence of common law tradition,[261] the civil law tradition is still deeply rooted in most aspects of Louisiana private law.[citation needed] Thus property, contractual, business entities structure, much of civil procedure, and family law, as well as some aspects of criminal law, are based mostly on traditional Roman legal thinking.[citation needed]
Marriage
In 1997, Louisiana became the first state to offer the option of a traditional marriage or acovenant marriage.[262] In a covenant marriage, the couple waives their right to a "no-fault" divorce after six months of separation, which is available in a traditional marriage. To divorce under a covenant marriage, a couple must demonstrate cause. Marriages between ascendants and descendants, and marriages between collaterals within the fourth degree (i.e., siblings, aunt and nephew, uncle and niece, first cousins) are prohibited.[263]Same-sex marriages were prohibited by statute,[264][265] but theU.S. Supreme Court declared such bans unconstitutional in 2015 inObergefell v. Hodges.Same-sex marriages are now performed statewide. Louisiana is acommunity property state.[266]
From 1898 to 1965, a period when Louisiana had effectivelydisfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites by provisions of a new constitution,[268] this was essentially a one-party state dominated by white Democrats. Elites had control in the early 20th century, before populistHuey Long came to power as governor.[269] In multiple acts of resistance, blacks left behind the segregation, violence and oppression of the state and moved out to seek better opportunities in northern and western industrial cities during theGreat Migrations of 1910–1970, markedly reducing their proportion of population in Louisiana. The franchise for whites was expanded somewhat during these decades, but blacks remained essentially disfranchised until after thecivil rights movement of the mid-20th century, gaining enforcement of their constitutional rights through passage by Congress of theVoting Rights Act of 1965.
Since the 1960s, when civil rights legislation was passed under PresidentLyndon Johnson to protect voting and civil rights, most African Americans in the state have affiliated with the Democratic Party. In the same years, many white social conservatives have moved to support Republican Party candidates in national, gubernatorial and statewide elections. In 2004,David Vitter was the first Republican in Louisiana to be popularly elected as a U.S. senator.[270] The previous Republican senator,John S. Harris, who took office in 1868 during Reconstruction, was chosen by the state legislature under the rules of the 19th century.
Louisiana is unique among U.S. states in using a system for its state and local elections similar to that of modern France. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, run in anonpartisan blanket primary (or "jungle primary") onElection Day.[271] If no candidate has more than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the highest vote totals compete in a runoff election approximately one month later. This run-off method does not take into account party identification; therefore, it is not uncommon for a Democrat to be in a runoff with a fellow Democrat or a Republican to be in a runoff with a fellow Republican.
Congressional races have also been held under the jungle primary system. All other states (exceptWashington,California, andMaine) use single-party primaries followed by a general election between party candidates, each conducted by either aplurality voting system orrunoff voting, to elect senators, representatives, and statewide officials. Between 2008 and 2010, federalcongressional elections were run under a closed primary system—limited to registered party members. However, on the passage of House Bill 292, Louisiana again adopted a nonpartisan blanket primary for its federal congressional elections.
Louisiana has six seats in theU.S. House of Representatives, five of which are currently held by Republicans and one by a Democrat. Though the state historically flips between Republican and Democratic governors, Louisiana is not classified as aswing state in presidential elections, as it has consistently voted for the Republican candidate by solid margins since backing DemocratBill Clinton in 1996. The state's two U.S. senators areBill Cassidy (R) andJohn Neely Kennedy (R).
Louisiana's party registration as of March 1, 2024[272]
Louisiana's statewide police force is theLouisiana State Police. In 1988, the Criminal Investigation Bureau was reorganized.[273] Its troopers have statewide jurisdiction with power to enforce all laws of the state, including city and parish ordinances. Each year, they patrol over 12 million miles (19 million kilometres) of roadway and arrest about 10,000 impaired drivers. The State Police are primarily a traffic enforcement agency, with other sections that delve into trucking safety, narcotics enforcement, and gaming oversight.
Mardi Gras celebrations in the Spanish Town section of Baton Rouge
The elected sheriff in each parish is its chief law enforcement officer. They are the keepers of the local parish prisons, which house felony and misdemeanor prisoners. They are the primary criminal patrol and first responder agency in all matters criminal and civil. They are also the official tax collectors in each parish. The sheriffs are responsible for general law enforcement in their respective parishes, with the exception of Orleans Parish where this falls to the New Orleans Police Department. Before 2010, Orleans Parish was the only parish to have two sheriff's offices, with a different elected sheriff overseeing civil and criminal matters. In 2006, a bill was passed which eventually consolidated the two sheriff's departments into one parish sheriff responsible for both.[274]
In 2015, Louisiana had a higher murder rate (10.3 per 100,000) than any other state in the country for the 27th straight year. Louisiana is the only state with an annual average murder rate (13.6 per 100,000) at least twice as high as the U.S. annual average (6.6 per 100,000) during that period, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics from FBI Uniform Crime Reports. In a different kind of criminal activity, theChicago Tribune reports that Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the United States.[275]
According to a 2012 article inThe Times Picayune, Louisiana is the prison capital of the world. Manyfor-profit private prisons and sheriff-owned prisons have been built and operate here. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran's, 13 times China's and 20 times Germany's. Minorities are incarcerated at rates disproportionate to their share of the state's population.[276] There are more people serving life sentences without parole in Louisiana than in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi combined.[277]
On June 19, 2024,Jeff Landry signed a bill to officially require that theTen Commandments be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges, making it the only state to have that law.[279]
Louisiana has 12 collegiateNCAA Division I programs, a high number given its population. The state has no NCAA Division II teams and only two NCAA Division III teams. As of 2019, theLSU Tigers football team has won 12Southeastern Conference titles, sixSugar Bowls and four national championships.[284]
^Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry.
^Other Southern states have longstanding indigenous Catholic populations, and Florida's largely Catholic population of Cuban emigres has been influential since the 1960s. Yet, Louisiana is still unusual or exceptional in its extent of aboriginal Catholic settlement and influence. Among states in theDeep South (discountingFlorida's Panhandle and much of Texas) the historic role of Catholicism in Louisiana is unparalleled and unique. Among the states of the Union, Louisiana's unique use of the termparish (Frenchla parouche or "la paroisse") forcounty is rooted in the pre-statehood role of Catholic church parishes in the administration of government.
^Jessica Williams. (12 December 2021). "Census 2020: Who lives in the New Orleans metro now? Data show more diverse population".nola.com websiteArchived December 9, 2022, at theWayback Machine Retrieved 8 December 2022.
^Rees, Mark A. (2007). "Plaquemine Mounds of the western Atchafalaya Basin". In Rees, Mark A.; Livingood, Patrick C. (eds.).Plaquemine Archaeology. University of Alabama Press. pp. 84–93.
^Holt, Thomas Cleveland; Green, Laurie B.; Wilson, Charles Reagan (October 21, 2013)."Pacific Worlds and the South".The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Race.24: 120.ISBN978-1469607245.Archived from the original on February 18, 2023. RetrievedDecember 3, 2021.
^The Bourgeois Frontier : French Towns, French Traders and American Expansion, by Jay Gitlin (2009). Yale University Press.ISBN978-0-300-10118-8, pg 54
^Sacher, John M. (2003).A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824–1861. Louisiana State University Press.ISBN9780807128480.
^McKinney, Karen JS. "Getting Out of the Mud: Louisiana and Good Roads before 1928".Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, vol. 60, no. 3, 2019, p. 292.JSTOR websiteArchived June 7, 2024, at theWayback Machine Retrieved 17 June 2023.
^Keddy, Paul (2010).Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 497.ISBN978-0-521-51940-3.
^Ricardo A. Olea and James L Coleman., Jr. (2014), A synoptic examination of causes of land loss in southern Louisiana as they relate to the exploitation of subsurface geologic resources. Journal of Coastal Research, v. 30, no. 5, p. 1025–1044.
^Boesch, D. F., Josselyn, M. N., Mehta, A. J., Morris, J. T., Nuttle, W. K., Simenstad, C. A., and Swift, D. P. J. (1994). "Scientific assessment of coastal wetland loss, restoration and management in Louisiana",Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 20.
^Tidwell, Michael.Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast. Vintage Departures: New York, 2003ISBN978-0-375-42076-4.
^Florida Greenways Commission. 1994. Report to the Governor. Creating a statewide greenways system: For people... for wildlife... for Florida. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, FL.
^Lester, G. D., S.G. Sorensen, P. L. Faulkner, C. S. Reid and I. E. Maxit. 2005.Louisiana Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Baton Rouge, LA
^"Kisatchie National Forest".Natchitoches, Louisiana Travel & Tourism. October 29, 2013.Archived from the original on December 8, 2021. RetrievedDecember 8, 2021.
^Jones, Terry L. (July 1, 2019)."The Protestant Intrusion".Country Roads Magazine. RetrievedJanuary 30, 2023.
^Isaacs, Ronald H.The Jewish Information Source Book: A Dictionary and Almanac, Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1993. p. 202.
^"Sinai Scholars Seek Students". Tulane University. January 12, 2010. Archived fromthe original on July 12, 2015.Registration is open for the spring session of the Sinai Scholars Society, Tulane chapter. The national organization provides funding for a course on Judaism each semester at more than 50 campuses nationwide.
^Kein, Sybil.Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color, Louisiana State University Press, 2009, p. 73.
^"Creoles".64 Parishes.Archived from the original on July 1, 2021. RetrievedJanuary 24, 2022.By the 1720s, free mixed-race Louisianans made up such a substantial part of the population that the Code Noir (laws governing race relations in Louisiana) spelled out the group's special place in colonial society. These Creoles of color, as they were known (gens de couleur libres in French, "free persons of color"), occupied a middle ground between whites and enslaved blacks. They commonly owned property, including slaves, and received formal educations, sometimes in Europe.
^"Cajuns".64 Parishes.Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. RetrievedJanuary 24, 2022.
^Lipski, John (July 1, 1990).The Language of the Isleños: Vestigial Spanish in Louisiana. Louisiana State University Press. pp. i, 4.ISBN0807115347.
The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana's Cane World, 1820–1860 by Richard Follett, Louisiana State University Press, 2007.ISBN978-0-8071-3247-0
The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440–1870 by Hugh Thomas. 1997: Simon and Schuster. p. 548.
Yiannopoulos, A.N.,The Civil Codes of Louisiana (reprinted from Civil Law System: Louisiana and Comparative law, A Coursebook: Texts, Cases and Materials, 3d Edition; similar to version in preface to Louisiana Civil Code, ed. by Yiannopoulos)
Rodolfo Batiza, "The Louisiana Civil Code of 1808: Its Actual Sources and Present Relevance", 46TUL. L. REV. 4 (1971); Rodolfo Batiza, "Sources of the Civil Code of 1808, Facts and Speculation: A Rejoinder", 46TUL. L. REV. 628 (1972); Robert A. Pascal, Sources of the Digest of 1808: A Reply to Professor Batiza, 46 TUL. L. REV. 603 (1972); Joseph M. Sweeney, Tournament of Scholars Over the Sources of the Civil Code of 1808,46 TUL. L. REV. 585 (1972).
The standard history of the state, though only through the Civil War, isCharles Gayarré'sHistory of Louisiana (various editions, culminating in 1866, 4 vols., with a posthumous and further expanded edition in 1885).
A number of accounts by 17th- and 18th-century French explorers: Jean-Bernard Bossu, François-Marie Perrin du Lac, Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix, Dumont (as published by Fr. Mascrier), Fr.Louis Hennepin, Lahontan, Louis Narcisse Baudry des Lozières,Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, and Laval. In this group, the explorerAntoine Simon Le Page du Pratz may be the first historian of Louisiana with hisHistoire de la Louisiane (3 vols., Paris, 1758; 2 vols., London, 1763)
François Xavier Martin'sHistory of Louisiana (2 vols., New Orleans, 1827–1829, later ed. by J. F. Condon, continued to 1861, New Orleans, 1882) is the first scholarly treatment of the subject, along withFrançois Barbé-Marbois'Histoire de la Louisiane et de la cession de colonie par la France aux Etats-Unis (Paris, 1829; in English, Philadelphia, 1830).
Alcée Fortier'sA History of Louisiana (N.Y., 4 vols., 1904) is the most recent of the large-scale scholarly histories of the state.
The official works of Albert Phelps andGrace King, the publications of the Louisiana Historical Society and several works onthe history of New Orleans (q.v.), among them those by Henry Rightor and John Smith Kendall provide background.
.svg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
