Louisiana Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Post–Civil War to mid–20th century === [[File:State of Louisiana 1892.jpg|thumb|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 and [[African-American officeholders during and following the Reconstruction era|holding political office]]. Louisiana saw the United States' first and second black governors with [[Oscar Dunn]] and [[P. B. S. Pinchback|P.B.S. Pinchback]], with 125 black members of the state legislature being elected during this time, while [[Charles E. Nash]] was elected to represent the state's [[Louisiana's 6th congressional district|6th Congressional District]] in the U.S. House of Representatives. Eventually former Confederates came to dominate the state legislature after the end of [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] and federal occupation in the late 1870s, and black codes were implemented to regulate [[freedmen]] 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 the [[Memphis riots of 1866]] and the [[New Orleans riot]] the same year, the Fourteenth Amendment was passed that provided suffrage and full citizenship for freedmen. Congress passed the [[Reconstruction Acts|Reconstruction Act]], establishing military districts for those states where conditions were considered the worst, including Louisiana. It was grouped with [[Texas]] in what was administered as the [[Fifth Military District]].<ref>{{cite web|title=U.S. Army. 5th Military District.|url=http://archives.nolalibrary.org/~nopl/mss/orders1867and1868.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-20|website=NOLA Library|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624210547/http://archives.nolalibrary.org/~nopl/mss/orders1867and1868.htm}}</ref> 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. White [[insurgents]] mobilized to enforce [[white supremacy]], first in [[Ku 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 the [[White 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 effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchised]] people of color by raising barriers to voter registration, such as [[poll tax (United States)|poll taxes]], residency requirements and [[literacy 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|ssrn=224731 |title=Richard H. Pildes, Democracy, Anti-Democracy, and the Canon, Constitutional Commentary, Vol.17, 2000, p.12-13, Accessed 10 Mar 2008 |journal=SSRN Electronic Journal |doi=10.2139/ssrn.224731 |year=2000 |last1=Pildes |first1=Richard H |hdl=11299/168068 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> [[File:Negro boy sitting on sugarcane truck, Morganza, Louisiana.jpg|thumb|A young African American man in [[Morganza, Louisiana|Morganza]], 1938]] 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.<ref>[http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php Historical Census Browser, 1900 US Census, University of Virginia], accessed March 15, 2008 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823030234/http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/php/state.php |date=August 23, 2007 }}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731 Richard H. Pildes, "Democracy, Anti-Democracy and the Canon", ''Constitutional Commentary'', Vol. 17, p.12] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121211213/https://ssrn.com/abstract=224731 |date=November 21, 2018 }}, accessed March 10, 2008</ref> 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 1965 [[Voting Rights Act]] provided federal oversight and enforcement of the constitutional right to vote. [[File:CrowleyConcertBand1938RussellLee.jpg|thumb|National Rice Festival, [[Crowley, Louisiana]], 1938]] In the early decades of the 20th century, thousands of African Americans left Louisiana in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] north to industrial cities for jobs and education, and to escape Jim Crow society and [[lynchings]]. The [[boll 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.<ref>[http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/landing.cfm?migration=9 "African American Migration Experience: The Great Migration", ''In Motion'', New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104202248/http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/landing.cfm?migration=9 |date=November 4, 2013 }}, accessed April 24, 2008</ref> In 1920 the state had no continuous paved roads running east to west or north to south which traversed the entire state.<ref>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. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26864715 JSTOR website] Retrieved 17 June 2023.</ref> During some of the [[Great Depression]], Louisiana was led by Governor [[Huey 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 was [[Assassination of Huey Long|assassinated]] in the state capitol in 1935.<ref>{{cite news |last=Glass|first=Andrew|date=September 8, 2017|title=Huey Long assassinated, Sept. 8, 1935|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/08/huey-long-assassinated-sept-8-1935-242325|work=Politico|access-date=June 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513093913/https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/08/huey-long-assassinated-sept-8-1935-242325|archive-date=May 13, 2020}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page