Red River Parish, Louisiana

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Red River Parish, Louisiana
Map
Location in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Statistics
Founded	1871
Seat	Coushatta
Largest city	Coushatta
Area - Total - Land - Water	402 sq mi (1,041 km²) 389 sq mi (1,008 km²) 13 sq mi (39 km²), 3.18%
Population - (2000) - Density	9,622 25/sq mi (10/km²)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Named for: Red River

Red River Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its seat is Coushatta. It was one of the newer parishes created in 1871 by the state legislature under Reconstruction. The plantation economy was based on cotton cultivation, highly dependent on enslaved labor before the American Civil War. The parish had a population with more than twice as many freedmen as whites in the 19th century.^[1] After major changes in agriculture decreasing the need for farm labor, by 2000, the parish population was 9,622 and the majority was white.

The parish and rural Red River Valley were areas of white insurgency following the Civil War, marked by violence surrounding elections from 1868 through 1876. In 1874 the White League was established out of white militias. It was a paramilitary group that served as "the military arm of the Democratic Party" to overturn Republican| rule in the state and reestablish white supremacy.^[2] The Democratic Party and planter class regained power in the late 1870s, consolidating it through statute and constitutional changes.

Red River Parish has been a Democratic Party stronghold since the late 19th century. After regaining political control, the Democratic Party consolidated its power by a new constitution in 1898 that effectively disfranchised most African Americans and many poor whites by creating barriers in voter registration and election rules.^[3] The state legislature followed disfranchisement with the imposition of racial segregation through Jim Crow laws, a combination that contributed to thousands of African Americans' leaving the parish for better jobs in California during the Great Migration of the mid-20th century.^[4]

As in other southern states, recent decades have brought a realignment in politics in Presidential elections, with the conservative white majority of the parish voting for Republican U.S. President George W. Bush in his 2004 reelection. The majority of the parish has continued to support Democratic candidates at the state and local level. Red River was one of only three parishes that did not vote for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal in the October 20, 2007, jungle primary.^{[citation needed]} The others were nearby Bienville and St. Bernard, located southeast of New Orleans. Jindal went on to win the statewide election by a large margin.

1 History
2 The Fowlers of Coushatta
3 Geography
- 3.1 Major highways
- 3.2 Adjacent parishes
4 Demographics
5 Cities, towns, and villages
6 National Guard
7 See also
8 References

[edit] History

As in many other rural areas, Red River Parish and the Red River Valley were areas of white vigilante and paramilitary violence after the Civil War, as insurgents tried to regain power after the South's defeat. Created only in 1871, the parish was established by the state legislature during Reconstruction to try to develop Republican Party strength in the state.

Marshall H. Twitchell, a Union veteran who moved to the parish from Vermont, married a local woman. With the help of her family, he became a successful cotton planter and local leader. He was elected in 1870 to the state legislature as a Republican and filled four local offices with his brother and three brothers-in-law, the latter native to the parish. He won support from freedmen by appointing some to local offices and promoting education for them.^[5] ^[6]

The 1870s of Reconstruction continued with regular outbreaks of violence in Louisiana, despite the presence of 2,000 federal troops stationed there.^[7] The extended agricultural depression and poor economy of the late 19th century aggravated social tensions, as both freedmen and whites struggled to survive and to manage new labor arrangements.

The disputed gubernatorial election of 1872 increased political tensions in the state, especially as the outcome was unsettled for months and both the Democratic and Republican candidates certified their own slates of local officers. Established in May 1874 from white militias, the White League was formed first in the Red River Valley in nearby Grant Parish. It grew increasingly well-organized in rural areas like Red River Parish. Soon White League chapters rose across the state. Few people in rural areas could resist their enforcement.^[8]

Unlike secret vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan, White League members operated openly and often sought newspaper coverage of their acts. They were dedicated to "the violent restoration of white supremacy" and worked to turn out the Republican Party, as well as to suppress freedmen's voting and civil rights.^[9] They used violence against officeholders, running some out of town and killing others, and acted at elections to suppress black and white Republican voting.^[10]

In August 1874 the White League forced six white Republicans out of office in Coushatta, the parish seat of Red River Parish, then assassinated them before they left Louisiana. Four of the men murdered were the brother and three brothers-in-law of Marshall H. Twitchell, the Republican state legislator representing the area.^[11] The White League also killed five to twenty freedmen who were witnesses to their acts.^[12] ^[13]

The events became known by historians as the Coushatta Massacre and contributed to Republican Governor Kellogg's request for more Federal troops from President Grant to help control the state. Ordinary Southerners wrote to President Grant at the White House describing the terrible conditions of violence and fear they lived under during these times.^[14]

With increased voter fraud, violence against blacks and whites, and intimidation, white Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876. The population of the parish in 1880 was 8,573, of whom 2,506 were whites and 6,007 were blacks.^[15] In 1898 the state achieved disfranchisement of most blacks and many poor whites through a new constitution that created numerous barriers to voter registration. Most African Americans in the state would not be able to vote again until after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gained by the Civil Rights Movement to protect rights of all citizens.

In the latter part of the 19th century, whites and blacks continued to create separate social institutions, such as churches and lodges. Lack of representation in the formal political process meant the African Americans' interests were consistently overlooked and underfunded. Disfranchisement also meant that African Americans could not sit on juries or hold office.

To seek better opportunities and escape the oppression of segregation, underfunded education, and disfranchisement, tens of thousands of African Americans left rural parishes in the Great Migration north and west in the first half of the 20th century. Agricultural problems contributed to outmigration, especially after increasing mechanization in the 1930s reduced the need for laborers.

Most African Americans left Red River Parish in the Second Great Migration, from the 1940s through the 1960s, as may be seen from steep population decreases from 1950 to 1970 for the parish in the census table below. Many African Americans went to California for skilled jobs in the burgeoning defense industry, leaving behind an agricultural economy with few opportunities for laborers. Additional outmigration from the parish occurred in the 1980s, when African Americans from Louisiana also migrated within the South, to jobs in metropolitan areas of New South states.^[16] ^[17]

[edit] The Fowlers of Coushatta

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The Fowler family was the dominant Democratic political force in Red River Parish in most of the second half of the 20th century and exerted considerable power at the state level .

Douglas Fowler (1906-1980), Democratic Red River Parish clerk of court (1940-1952) and Coushatta mayor (1952-1954), was appointed the third Louisiana "Custodian of Voting Machines" after the first two appointees of Governor Earl Kemp Long stepped down following brief tenures. Fowler was nominated to the post in the 1960 Democratic runoff primary and was thereafter a runaway victor in the general election. The office was renamed "Commissioner of Elections" under the 1974 Constitution. Fowler was elected five times statewide as head of the elections division.

Fowler was succeeded in the post in 1980 by his son, Jerry M. Fowler (born 1940), of nearby Natchitoches. Jerry Fowler, like his father, was also elected five times. Therefore, a member of the Fowler family had controlled the Louisiana elections office for a full four decades.

Jerry Fowler pleaded guilty in 2000 to state and federal charges of malfeasance in office and conspiracy to launder kickbacks from overcharges to state voting machine vendors. He had been denied a general election ballot spot in 1999 by some 9,000 votes, was convicted of the charges, and imprisoned in Texas. The election commissioner's position went to Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, who returned the duties of the division to the Secretary of State, effective in 2004.

Douglas Fowler's brother, Hendrix Marion "Mutt" Fowler, Sr., was the mayor of Coushatta and later a Democratic state representative from 1972-1986. He resigned his House seat to become executive director of the Sabine River Authority in Many. He was removed from the position amid a scandal involving the circumvention of state bid laws and spending limited funds on low-priority projects. He ultimately served 45 days in the Sabine Parish jail.

[edit] Geography

The parish has a total area of 402 square miles (1,041 km²), of which, 389 square miles (1,008 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (33 km²) of it (3.18%) is water.

[edit] Major highways

[edit] Adjacent parishes

Caddo Parish (northwest)
Bossier Parish (north)
Bienville Parish (northeast)
Natchitoches Parish (southeast)
De Soto Parish (west)

[edit] Demographics


Census	Pop.		%±
1900	11,548		—
1910	11,402		−1.3%
1920	15,301		34.2%
1930	16,078		5.1%
1940	15,881		−1.2%
1950	12,113		−23.7%
1960	9,978		−17.6%
1970	9,226		−7.5%
1980	10,433		13.1%
1990	9,387		−10%
2000	9,622		2.5%
Est. 2006	9,438	^[18]	−1.9%
Red River Parish Census Data^[19]

As of the census^[20] of 2000, there were 9,622 people, 3,414 households, and 2,526 families residing in the parish. The population density was 25 people per square mile (10/km²). There were 3,988 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile (4/km²). The racial makeup of the parish was 57.87% White, 40.91% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.22% from other races, and 0.61% from two or more races. 1.01% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 3,414 households out of which 35.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.50% were married couples living together, 18.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.00% were non-families. Individuals made up 23.10% of all households, and 11.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.23.

In the parish the population was spread out with 30.10% under the age of 18, 9.30% from 18 to 24, 24.80% from 25 to 44, 21.50% from 45 to 64, and 14.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 90.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.40 males.

The median income for a household in the parish was $23,153, and the median income for a family was $27,870. Males had a median income of $27,132 versus $17,760 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $12,119. About 26.00% of families and 29.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.10% of those under age 18 and 18.90% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Cities, towns, and villages

Map of Red River Parish, Louisiana With Municipal Labels

[edit] National Guard

Coushatta is home to F Troop of the 2-108th Cavalry Squadron (headquartered in Shreveport). This unit deployed as part of the 256th Infantry Brigade to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004-5.