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106-629: Grant Parish is a parish located in the North Central portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana . As of the 2020 census , the population was 22,169. The parish seat is Colfax . The parish was founded in 1869 during the Reconstruction era . Grant Parish is part of the Alexandria , LA Metropolitan Statistical Area and Red River Valley. From 1940 to 1960, the parish had a dramatic population loss, as many African Americans from

212-700: A property requirement . The literacy test was administered by the voting registrar; in practice, they were white Democrats. Provisions in the constitution also included a grandfather clause , which provided a loophole to enable illiterate whites to register to vote. It said that "Any citizen who was a voter on January 1, 1867, or his son or grandson, or any person naturalized prior to January 1, 1898, if applying for registration before September 1, 1898, might vote, notwithstanding illiteracy or poverty." Separate registration lists were kept for whites and blacks, making it easy for white registrars to discriminate against blacks in literacy tests. The constitution of 1898 also required

318-496: A Republican president as few as three times in that interval. Kentucky did usually vote for the Democratic Party in presidential elections from 1877 to 1964, but was still a competitive state at both the state and federal levels. The Democratic Party in the state was heavily divided over free silver and the role of corporations in the middle 1890s, and lost the governorship for the first time in forty years in 1895. In

424-464: A century in former Confederate states, were complicated. For varying reasons African Americans remained enfranchised in the border states despite movements for disfranchisement during the 1900s. The percentages of African Americans of the populations of the Border States was generally significantly lower than the percentages in the former Confederate states from 1870 to 1960. Less than 10% of

530-425: A class that covered most adult men who could have fought in the war, the paramilitary groups worked for political aims: to turn Republicans out of office, disrupt their organizing, and use force to intimidate and terrorize freedmen to keep them away from the polls. Such groups have been described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party". They were instrumental in many Southern states in driving blacks away from

636-549: A constitutional convention was held to prepare for Louisiana's admission into the Union . This organized the state into seven judicial districts, each consisting of groups of parishes. In 1816, the first official map of the state used the term parish , as did the 1845 constitution. Since then, the official term for Louisiana's primary civil divisions has been parishes . The 19 original parishes were joined by Catahoula Parish in 1808. In 1810 four additional parishes were created from

742-492: A council called a police jury . The remaining 26 have various other forms of government, including: council-president, council-manager , parish commission, and consolidated parish/city . Louisiana was formed from French and Spanish colonies, which were both officially Roman Catholic . Local colonial government was based upon parishes , as the local ecclesiastical division. Following the Louisiana Purchase ,

848-505: A decade of disfranchisement, the white supremacy campaign had erased the image of the black middle class from the minds of white North Carolinians." In Virginia, Democrats sought disfranchisement in the late 19th century after a coalition of white and black Republicans with populist Democrats had come to power; the coalition had been formalized as the Readjuster Party . The Readjuster Party held control from 1881 to 1883, electing

954-713: A discriminatory way. They succeeded in disenfranchising most of the black citizens, as well as many poor whites in the South, and voter rolls dropped dramatically in each state. The Republican Party was nearly eliminated in the region for decades, and the Southern Democrats established one-party control throughout the Southern United States. In 1912, the Republican Party was split when Theodore Roosevelt ran against William Howard Taft ,

1060-719: A federal crime. Despite white Southerners' complaints about Reconstruction, several Southern states kept most provisions of their Reconstruction constitutions for more than two decades, until late in the 19th century. In some states, the number of blacks elected to local offices reached a peak in the 1880s although Reconstruction had ended. They influenced the local level, where much of government took place, although they did not win many statewide or national seats. Subsequently, state legislatures passed restrictive laws or constitutions that made voter registration and election rules more complicated. As literacy tests and other restrictions could be applied subjectively, these changes sharply limited

1166-479: A female householder with no husband present, and 25.40% were non-families. 22.60% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.06. In the parish the population was spread out, with 28.30% under the age of 18, 7.90% from 18 to 24, 28.10% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, and 12.70% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

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1272-478: A free vote and a fair count, how are you going to beat 135,000 by 95,000? How are you going to do it? You had set us an impossible task. We did not disfranchise the negroes until 1895. Then we had a constitutional convention convened which took the matter up calmly, deliberately, and avowedly with the purpose of disfranchising as many of them as we could under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We adopted

1378-606: A full count of the population, but they disfranchised several million black and white citizens. Southern white Democrats comprised the " Solid South ", a powerful voting bloc in Congress until the mid-20th century. Their representatives, re-elected repeatedly by one-party states, exercised the power of seniority, controlling numerous chairmanships of important committees in both houses. Their power allowed them to have control over rules, budgets and important patronage projects, among other issues, as well as to defeat bills to make lynching

1484-573: A governor and controlling the legislature, which also elected a US Senator from the state. As in North Carolina, state Democrats were able to divide Readjuster supporters through appeals to White Supremacy. After regaining power, Democrats changed state laws and the constitution in 1902 to disenfranchise blacks. They ratified the new constitution in the legislature and did not submit it to the popular vote. Voting in Virginia fell by nearly half as

1590-587: A large and increasingly educated black community concentrated in Baltimore. This city had many free blacks before the Civil War and they had established both economic and political power. The state legislature passed a poll tax in 1904, but incurred vigorous opposition and repealed it in 1911. Despite support among conservative whites in the conservative Eastern Shore , referendums for bills to disenfranchise blacks failed three times in 1905, 1908, and 1910, with

1696-528: A new constitution, which contained provisions for voter registration that required voters to pay poll taxes and pass a literacy test . The literacy test was subjectively applied by white administrators, and the two provisions effectively disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites. The constitutional provisions survived a Supreme Court challenge in Williams v. Mississippi (1898). Other southern states quickly adopted new constitutions and what they called

1802-678: A new state legislative effort to disenfranchise blacks failed because of the strong organization of the Republican Party in pro-Union regions of the state. Republicans won Kentucky in the 1924 and 1928 presidential elections, the former of which was the only state that Warren G. Harding lost in the 1920 presidential election , but Coolidge won in the 1924 United States presidential election . Kentucky also elected some Republican governors during this period, such as William O'Connell Bradley (1895-1899), Augustus E. Willson (1907-1911), Edwin P. Morrow (1919-1923), Flem D. Sampson (1927-1931), and Simeon Willis (1943-1947). Maryland voted for

1908-457: A person to satisfy a longer residency requirement in the state, county, parish, and precinct before voting than did the constitution of 1879. This worked against the lower classes, who were more likely to move frequently for work, especially in agricultural areas where there were many migrant workers and sharecroppers. The effect of these changes on the population of black voters in Louisiana

2014-540: A result of the disfranchisement of blacks. The eighty years of white Democratic control ended only in the late 1960s after passage and enforcement of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the collapse of the Byrd Organization machine. Oklahoma was unique, as it only became a state in 1907 . During the American Civil War , most of what is now the U.S. state of Oklahoma was designated as

2120-471: Is divided into 64 parishes ( French : paroisses , Spanish : parroquias ), making it the only state besides Alaska to call its subdivisions something other than "counties." Louisiana's usage of the term "parish" for a geographic region or local government dates back to the French colonial and Spanish colonial periods and is connected to ecclesiastical parishes . Thirty-eight parishes are governed by

2226-665: Is water. The most famous fossil sites within Louisiana are Creola Bluff at Montgomery Landing Site in the parish. The Montgomery Landing Site was a 500 meters (1,600 ft) long and 14 meters (46 ft) high bluff that was the cutbank on the east side of the Red River . It exposed the top of the Cockfield Formation, the Moodys Branch Formation, and Tullos Member of the Yazoo Clay. In 1979, it

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2332-451: The 1896 presidential election , the state was exceedingly close, with McKinley becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Kentucky, by a mere 277 votes, or 0.06352%. McKinley's victory was, by percentage margin, the seventh-closest popular results for presidential electors on record. In Kentucky, Lexington's city government had passed a poll tax in 1901, but it was declared invalid in state circuit courts. Six years later,

2438-672: The Carolinas in late 1871. United States marshals supervised state voter registrations and elections and could summon the help of military or naval forces if needed. These measures led to the demise of the first Klan by the early 1870s. New paramilitary groups quickly sprang up, as tens of thousands of veterans belonged to gun clubs and similar groups. A second wave of violence began, resulting in over 1,000 deaths, usually black or Republican. The Supreme Court ruled in 1876 in United States v. Cruikshank , arising from trials related to

2544-639: The Colfax Massacre , that protections of the Fourteenth Amendment, which the Enforcement Acts were intended to support, did not apply to the actions of individuals, but only to the actions of state governments. They recommended that persons seek relief from state courts, which had not been supportive of freedmen's rights. The paramilitary organizations that arose in the mid to late 1870s were part of continuing insurgency in

2650-551: The Georgia poll tax in 1877. Other measures followed, particularly near the end of the century, after a Republican-Populist alliance caused the Democrats to temporarily lose some Congressional seats and control of some gubernatorial positions. To secure their power, the Democrats worked to exclude blacks (and most Republicans) from politics. The results could be seen across the South. After Reconstruction, Tennessee initially had

2756-854: The Indian Territory . Most tribal leaders in Indian Territory aligned with the Confederacy. Oklahoma disenfranchised its black population, which comprised less than 10% of the state's population from 1910 to 1960. In Guinn v. United States (1915), the Supreme Court invalidated the Oklahoma Constitution 's "old soldier" and "grandfather clause" exemptions from literacy tests. In practice, these had disenfranchised blacks, as had occurred in numerous Southern states. This decision affected similar provisions in

2862-621: The Knights of the White Camellia . Compared to the Klan, they were open societies, better organized, and devoted to the political goal of regaining control of the state legislatures and suppressing Republicans, including most blacks. They often solicited newspaper coverage for publicity to increase their threat. The scale of operations was such that in 1876, North Carolina had 20,000 men in rifle clubs. Made up of well-armed Confederate veterans,

2968-760: The New Orleans chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union . In a letter to the Grant Parish Police Jury, the ACLU said that officials must include secular symbols of the Christmas holiday if a nativity scene is placed alone on public property. District Attorney Jay Lemoine objected to the ACLU challenge in a statement to Alexandria Town Talk : "There have been various holiday displays presented both inside and outside

3074-722: The Redeemers . In the South, the process of white Democrats regaining control of state governments has been called "the Redemption". African-American historians sometimes call the Compromise of 1877 "The Great Betrayal". Following continuing violence around elections as insurgents worked to suppress black voting, the Democratic-dominated Southern states passed legislation to create barriers to voter registrations by blacks and poor whites , starting with

3180-662: The Reform Party , polled 1,174 (14.9 percent). In 1996, Republican Robert J. Dole narrowly won in Grant Parish over U.S. President Bill Clinton , a son of the South, with 3,117 votes (42.8 percent) to 2,980 (40.9 percent). Ross Perot polled another 1,055 (14.5 percent). The last Democrat to win in Grant Parish at the presidential level was former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia in his 1976 defeat of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. , who had Bob Dole as his vice-presidential partner. Republican nominee Donald Trump

3286-527: The Republican Party in the state. Founded in 1869, it had a slight majority of freedmen , many of whom had worked on cotton plantations in the area. It was named for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant . The parish seat of Colfax was named for Grant's first vice president, Schuyler M. Colfax (whose name is pronounced COAL-facks) of Indiana . However, the town of Colfax is pronounced CAHL-facks. The parish came into existence on March 4, 1869, which also

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3392-645: The United States Congress , where the Democratic Solid South enjoyed "about 25 extra seats in Congress for each decade between 1903 and 1953". Also, the Democratic dominance in the South meant that southern senators and representatives became entrenched in Congress. They favored seniority privileges in Congress, which became the standard by 1920, and Southerners controlled chairmanships of important committees , as well as

3498-547: The freedmen 's exercise of political power. In 1867, black men voted for the first time. By the 1868 presidential election , Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia had still not been re-admitted to the Union. General Ulysses S. Grant was elected as president thanks in part to 700,000 black voters. In February 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified; it was designed to protect blacks' right to vote from infringement by

3604-581: The poverty line , including 27.30% of those under age 18 and 16.20% of those age 65 or over. The Federal Bureau of Prisons U.S. Penitentiary, Pollock is located in an unincorporated area in the parish, near Pollock . Today Grant Parish is majority white and votes strongly Republican . Mitt Romney polled 7,082 votes (81.7 percent) in his 2012 race against the Democrat U.S. President Barack H. Obama , who trailed with 1,422 votes (16.4 percent). In 2008, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona swept

3710-485: The "Mississippi Plan". By 1908, all states of the former Confederacy had passed new constitutions or suffrage amendments, sometimes bypassing general elections to achieve this. Legislators created a variety of barriers, including longer residency requirements, rule variations, and literacy and understanding tests, which were subjectively applied against minorities, or were particularly hard for the poor to fulfill. Such constitutional provisions were unsuccessfully challenged at

3816-451: The "Solid South" inhibited the national party from fulfilling center-left initiatives desired since the days of William Jennings Bryan . Woodrow Wilson , one of two Democrats elected to the presidency between Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt , was the first Southerner elected after 1856. He benefited from the disfranchisement of blacks and the crippling of the Republican Party in the South. Soon after taking office, Wilson directed

3922-743: The 1870s, white racists had used violence by domestic terrorism groups (such as the Ku Klux Klan ), as well as fraud, to suppress black voters. After regaining control of the state legislatures, Southern Democrats were alarmed by a late 19th-century alliance between Republicans and Populists that cost them some elections. After achieving control of state legislatures, white conservatives added to previous efforts and achieved widespread disfranchisement by law: from 1890 to 1908, Southern state legislatures passed new constitutions, constitutional amendments, and laws that made voter registration and voting more difficult, especially when administered by white staff in

4028-426: The Civil War, and some had accumulated property. Literacy was high among African Americans and, as Democrats crafted means to exclude them, suffrage campaigns helped reach blacks and teach them how to resist. In 1896, a biracial Republican coalition enabled the election of Lloyd Lowndes, Jr. as governor. During the 1900s Maryland was vigorously divided between supporters and opponents of disfranchisement, but it had

4134-518: The Confederate slave states from the Civil War. The border states, all slave states, also established laws requiring racial segregation between the 1880s and 1900s; however, disfranchisement of blacks was never attained to any significant degree. Most Border States did attempt such disfranchisement during the 1900s. The causes of the failure to disenfranchise blacks and poor whites in the Border States, as compared to their success for well over half

4240-456: The Democratic Party included widespread intimidation of black voters. The League was integral to white Democrats' regaining power in the state by 1876. Soon after, they effectively disfranchised most blacks, a situation that persisted until after federal enforcement of Civil Rights -era legislation of the mid-1960s. In December 2016, a courthouse nativity scene in Colfax drew a complaint from

4346-468: The Democratic Party presidential candidate from 1868 to 1892, but the 1896 presidential election was a realignment in the state, similar to West Virginia. Maryland voted for the Republican Party presidential candidate from 1896 to 1928, except for Democrat Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. In contrast to the former Confederate states, nearly half the African American population was free before

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4452-474: The Democratic legislatures passed Jim Crow laws to assert white supremacy, establish racial segregation in public facilities, and treat blacks as second-class citizens. The landmark court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) held that "separate but equal" facilities, as on railroad cars, were constitutional. The new constitutions passed numerous Supreme Court challenges. In cases where a particular restriction

4558-529: The Democrats adopted a constitutional suffrage amendment which lengthened the residence period required before registration and enacted both an educational qualification (to be assessed by a registrar, which meant that it could be subjectively applied) and prepayment of a poll tax . A grandfather clause exempted from the poll tax those entitled to vote on January 1, 1867. The legislature also passed Jim Crow laws establishing racial segregation in public facilities and transportation. The effect in North Carolina

4664-474: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. While their voter registration requirements applied to all citizens, in practice they disenfranchised most blacks. As in Alabama, they also "would remove [from voter registration rolls] the less educated, less organized, more impoverished whites as well – and that would ensure one-party Democratic rules through most of the 20th century in the South". The new provisions of

4770-571: The Jim Crow era. However, Oklahoma was still politically competitive at the federal level during the Jim Crow era. It voted for Warren G. Harding in 1920 and Herbert Hoover in 1928 . Oklahoma did not enact a poll tax found in the former Confederate states, and had a Republican presence in Northwestern Oklahoma with close ties to neighboring Kansas , a Republican stronghold. Oklahoma also elected three Republican senators in

4876-569: The Jim Crow era: John W. Harreld (1921-1927), William B. Pine (1925-1931), and Edward H. Moore (1943-1949). Starting in 1952 , well before the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Oklahoma has consistently voted Republican in presidential elections, except in Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 landslide. Oklahoma is the only Southern state to have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate after 1964. The five border states of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, had legacies similar to

4982-479: The North Carolina 1898 election and the following 1900 election. Simmons was elected as the state's US senator in 1900, holding office until 1931 through multiple re-elections by the state legislature and by popular vote after 1920. The Democrats used their power in the state legislature to disenfranchise minorities, primarily blacks, and ensure that Democratic Party and white power would not be threatened again. They passed laws restricting voter registration. In 1900

5088-589: The North to teach freedmen were sometimes attacked or intimidated as well. In 1870, the attempt of North Carolina's Republican Governor William W. Holden to suppress the Klan, known as the Kirk-Holden War , led to a backlash by whites, the election of a Democratic General Assembly in August 1870, and his impeachment and removal from office. The toll of Klan murders and attacks led Congress to pass laws to end

5194-459: The Republican party allowed them to gain control of Delaware's governorship throughout most of the twentieth century. The Republican Party ensured Black people could vote because of their general support for Republicans and thus undid restrictions on Black suffrage. For West Virginia , " reconstruction , in a sense, began in 1861". Unlike the other border states , West Virginia did not send

5300-719: The South after the Civil War, as armed veterans in the South resisted social changes, and worked to prevent black Americans and other Republicans from voting and running for office. Such groups included the White League , formed in Louisiana in 1874 from white militias , with chapters forming in other Southern states; the Red Shirts , formed in 1875 in Mississippi but also active in North Carolina and South Carolina; and other "White Liners," such as rifle clubs and

5406-525: The South to seek better opportunities in the North, during the first phase, and in the West, especially California 's defense industry, in the second phase. Tens of thousands of migrants left Louisiana during times of agricultural difficulties and the collapse of agricultural labor after mechanization. In 2000, there were 7,073 households, out of which 36.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.20% were married couples living together, 12.90% had

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5512-578: The South. Political disfranchisement did not end until after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , which authorized the federal government to monitor voter registration practices and elections where populations were historically underrepresented and to enforce constitutional voting rights. The challenge to voting rights has continued into the 21st century, as shown by numerous court cases in 2016 alone, though attempts to restrict voting rights for political advantage have not been confined to

5618-652: The Southern United States. The American Civil War ended in 1865, marking the start of the Reconstruction era in the eleven former Confederate states. Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts , starting in 1867, establishing military districts to oversee the affairs of these states pending reconstruction. During the Reconstruction era, blacks constituted absolute majorities of the populations in Mississippi and South Carolina , were equal to

5724-505: The Supreme Court in Giles v. Harris (1903). In practice, these provisions, including white primaries , created a maze that blocked most blacks and many poor whites from voting in Southern states until after the passage of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. Voter registration and turnout dropped sharply across the South, as most blacks and many poor whites were excluded from

5830-489: The ability to elect two US Senators) and were successful in electing several US Representatives elected through electoral fusion . The fusion coalition made impressive gains in the 1896 election when their legislative majority expanded. Republican Daniel Lindsay Russell won the gubernatorial race in 1897, the first Republican governor of the state since the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The election also resulted in more than 1,000 elected or appointed black officials, including

5936-543: The best-educated of these men continued to "fail" the literacy tests administered by white registrars. The historian J. Morgan Kousser noted, "Within the Democratic party, the chief impetus for restriction came from the black belt members," whom he identified as "always socioeconomically privileged." In addition to wanting to affirm white supremacy, the planter and business elite were concerned about voting by lower-class and uneducated whites. Kousser found, "They disfranchised these whites as willingly as they deprived blacks of

6042-414: The constitutions of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia election rules. Oklahoma and other states quickly reacted by passing laws that created other rules for voter registration that worked against blacks and minorities. Oklahoma did not have a Republican governor until Henry Bellmon was elected in 1962 , though Republicans were still able to draw over 40% of the vote statewide during

6148-549: The courthouse on Easter Sunday, 1873. In the ensuing violence, three whites and 120-150 blacks were killed, including 50 that night who were held as prisoners. Leading late 20th-century historians renamed the Colfax Riot, the original state designation, as the Colfax Massacre . The total number of freedmen deaths were never established because some of the bodies were thrown into the river and woods. The white militia

6254-423: The courthouse over many years. This year, as in years past, they include both secular and non-secular symbols. It is unfortunate that some are offended by these displays during this holiday season, as that was not the intent." According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the parish has a total area of 665 square miles (1,720 km), of which 643 square miles (1,670 km) is land and 22 square miles (57 km) (3.3%)

6360-527: The educational qualification as the only means left to us, and the negro is as contented and as prosperous and as well protected in South Carolina to-day as in any State of the Union south of the Potomac. He is not meddling with politics, for he found that the more he meddled with them the worse off he got. As to his “rights”—I will not discuss them now. We of the South have never recognized the right of

6466-464: The election in 1897 of George Henry White to Congress, as a member of the House of Representatives. At the 1898 election, the Democrats ran on White Supremacy and disfranchisement in a bitter race-baiting campaign led by Furnifold McLendel Simmons and Josephus Daniels , editor and publisher of The Raleigh News & Observer . The Republican/Populist coalition disintegrated, and the Democrats won

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6572-406: The fifth Reconstruction parish, Cameron, was created, which was followed by the sixth, seventh, and eighth parishes (Red River, Vernon, and Webster, respectively) in 1871. The ninth parish to be formed under Radical Republican rule was Lincoln, named after the late president and formed in 1873. In 1877, the old parish of Carroll divided into East and West Carroll parishes, which are unofficially called

6678-514: The first being Iberia and Richland parishes. Plans for creating a parish like Iberia from St. Martin and St. Mary parishes had dated from the 1840s. (A surveying error in Iberia's creation broke St. Martin Parish into two non-contiguous parts, making it and Norfolk County, Massachusetts as the only county-level units with their own exclaves .) Tangipahoa and Grant parishes followed in 1869. In 1870,

6784-428: The former Confederate States, Delaware voted for the Republican Party in a majority of presidential elections from 1876 to 1964 (12 out of 23). Delaware voted for the Democratic Party presidential candidate from 1876 to 1892, but then consistently voted for the Republican Party presidential candidate from 1896 to 1932, except in 1912 for Woodrow Wilson when the Republican Party split. The allegiance of industries with

6890-519: The formerly Spanish West Florida territory—these are part of what is now referred to as the Florida Parishes . By April 1812, Attakapas Parish became St. Martin Parish and St. Mary Parish. On April 30, the state was admitted to the Union with 25 parishes. By 1820, Washington Parish was added, and Feliciana Parish split into West and East in 1824. The next year, Jefferson Parish was carved from Orleans Parish. By 1830, Claiborne Parish

6996-494: The governorship for eight of the next nine terms, and electing 82 of 106 U.S. Representatives until 1932. West Virginia had a relatively low percentage of African Americans from 1870 to 1960, comprising between 4% to 7% of the state's population. In 1932, as the nation swung to the Democrats, West Virginia again became solidly Democratic. It was perhaps the most reliably Democratic state in the nation between 1932 and 1996, being one of just two states (along with Minnesota) to vote for

7102-424: The last vote being the most decisive. The existence of substantial Italian immigration completely absent from the former Confederate states meant that these immigrants were exposed to the possibility of disfranchisement, but much more critically allowed for much stronger resistance amongst the white population. The Democrat-dominated state legislature tried to pass disfranchising bills in 1905, 1907, and 1911, but

7208-524: The leadership of the national Democratic Party. During the Great Depression , legislation establishing numerous national social programs were passed without the representation of African Americans , leading to gaps in program coverage and discrimination against them in operations. In addition, because black Southerners were not listed on local voter rolls, they were automatically excluded from serving in local courts . Juries were all white across

7314-555: The legislature proposed the Digges Amendment to the state constitution. It would have used property requirements to effectively disenfranchise many African American men as well as many poor white men (including new immigrants). The Maryland General Assembly passed the bill, which Governor Austin Lane Crothers supported. Before the measure went to popular vote, a bill was proposed that would have effectively passed

7420-485: The majority of its soldiers to the Union. The prospect of those returning ex-Confederates prompted the Wheeling state government to implement laws that restricted their right of suffrage, practicing law and teaching, access to the legal system, and subjected them to "war trespass" lawsuits. The lifting of these restrictions in 1871 resulted in the election of John J. Jacob , a Democrat, to the governorship. It also led to

7526-503: The mid-1870s. The insurgent Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was formed in 1865 in Tennessee (as a backlash to defeat in the war) and it quickly became a powerful secret vigilante group, with chapters across the South. The Klan initiated a campaign of intimidation directed against blacks and sympathetic whites. Their violence included vandalism and destruction of property, physical attacks and assassinations, and lynchings . Teachers who came from

7632-462: The most "consistently competitive political system in the South". A bitter election battle in 1888, marked by unmatched corruption and violence, resulted in white Democrats taking over the state legislature. To consolidate their power, they worked to suppress the black vote and sharply reduced it through changes in voter registration, requiring poll taxes , as well as changing election procedures to make voting more complex. In 1890, Mississippi adopted

7738-477: The most substantial being the division of Lake Pontchartrain among Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Orleans, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist, and St. Charles Parishes in 1979. Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era (United States) Beginning in

7844-463: The negro to govern white men, and we never will.... I would to God the last one of them was in Africa and that none of them had ever been brought to our shores. The disfranchisement of a large proportion of voters attracted the attention of Congress, and as early as 1900 some members proposed stripping the South of seats, related to the number of people who were barred from voting. Apportionment of seats

7950-519: The parish was 85.43% White , 11.88% Black or African American , 0.89% Native American , 0.14% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 0.36% from other races , and 1.28% from two or more races. 1.14% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. The decreases in population from 1910 to 1920, and from 1940 to 1960, were chiefly caused by different phases of the Great Migration , as African Americans left segregation and oppression of

8056-403: The parish, with 6,907 votes (80.7 percent) to Obama's 1,474 (17.2 percent). In 1992, George Herbert Walker Bush carried Grant Parish but was unsuccessful in his bid for reelection. He polled 3,214 votes (40.8 percent) to Democratic Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas's 3,122 (39.6 percent). This son of the South carried numerous other Republican-leaning jurisdictions. Ross Perot, who later founded

8162-694: The party nominee. In the South by this time, the Republican Party had been hollowed out by the disfranchisement of African Americans, who were mostly excluded from voting. Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected as the first southern President since 1848. He was re-elected in 1916, in a much closer presidential contest. During his first term, Wilson satisfied the request of Southerners in his cabinet and instituted overt racial segregation throughout federal government workplaces, as well as racial discrimination in hiring. During World War I , American military forces were segregated, with black soldiers poorly trained and equipped. Disfranchisement had far-reaching effects in

8268-415: The plantation areas left in the Great Migration to seek better opportunities in the North and West. Such migration continued until about 1970. One of the eleven parishes organized during Reconstruction, Grant was created from parts of Winn and Rapides parishes. Grant Parish is the site of United States Penitentiary, Pollock . Grant Parish was originally a part of the more populous Rapides Parish to

8374-628: The political system. The disenfranchisement of poor whites was not merely an unintentional byproduct of laws intended to prevent blacks from voting, because many supporters of disenfranchisement explicitly stated a desire to also prevent poor whites from voting. Senator and former South Carolina Governor Benjamin Tillman defended this on the floor of the Senate: In my State there were 135,000 negro voters, or negroes of voting age, and some 90,000 or 95,000 white voters... Now, I want to ask you, with

8480-575: The polls and ensuring a white Democratic takeover of legislatures and governorships in most Southern states in the 1870s, most notoriously during the controversial 1876 elections . As a result of a national Compromise of 1877 arising from the 1876 presidential election, the federal government withdrew its military forces from the South, formally ending the Reconstruction era. By that time, Southern Democrats had effectively regained control in Louisiana , South Carolina , and Florida – they identified as

8586-477: The populations of Missouri and West Virginia were African American. In Kentucky, 5-20% of the state's population was African American. In Delaware, 10-20% of the state's population was African American. In Maryland, 15-25% of the state's population was African American. Despite Delaware not abolishing slavery until the ratification of the 13th amendment, due its proximity to the Northeast and not bordering any of

8692-449: The rate of white illiteracy in the South at that time was 31 percent. Some states used grandfather clauses to exempt white voters from literacy tests altogether. Other states required otherwise eligible black voters to meet literacy and knowledge requirements to the satisfaction of white registrars, who applied subjective judgment and, in the process, rejected most black voters. By 1900, the majority of blacks were literate, but even many of

8798-509: The rejection of the war-time constitution by public vote and a new constitution written under the leadership of ex-Confederates such as Samuel Price , Allen T. Caperton and Charles James Faulkner . In 1876 the state Democratic ticket of eight candidates were all elected, seven of whom were Confederate veterans. For nearly a generation West Virginia was part of the Solid South. However, Republicans returned to power in 1896, controlling

8904-637: The segregation of federal facilities in the District of Columbia, which had been integrated during Reconstruction. With a population evenly divided between races, in 1896 there were 130,334 black voters on the Louisiana registration rolls and about the same number of whites. Louisiana State legislators passed a new constitution in 1898 that included requirements for applicants to pass a literacy test in English or his native language in order to register to vote or to certify owning $ 300 worth of property, known as

9010-447: The south. Prior to the American Civil War , the center of activity focused upon "Calhoun's Landing," named for the cotton and sugar planter Meredith Calhoun , a native of South Carolina . Calhoun also published the former National Democrat newspaper in what became Colfax, designated as the seat of government of the new parish. Grant was one of several new parishes created by the Reconstruction legislature in an attempt to build

9116-537: The state constitutions almost eliminated black voting. Although nothing approaching precise data exists, it is estimated that in the late 1930s, less than one percent of blacks in the Deep South and around five percent in the Rim South were registered to vote, and that the proportion voting even in general elections, which were of no consequence due to complete Democratic dominance, was much smaller still. Secondly,

9222-571: The states. At the same time, by 1870 all Southern states had dropped enforcement of disfranchisement of ex-Confederates except Arkansas, where disfranchisement of ex-Confederates was dropped in the aftermath of the Brooks-Baxter War in 1874. White supremacist paramilitary organizations, allied with Southern Democrats, used intimidation, violence, and even committed assassinations to repress blacks and prevent them from exercising their civil and political rights in elections from 1868 until

9328-547: The tenth and eleventh Reconstruction parishes, as the project ended that year. No new parishes were formed until 1886, when Acadia Parish was formed from St. Landry. Again, no new parishes were formed, this time until 1908, when the western half of Catahoula parish became LaSalle parish. In 1910, the parish count rose to 61 with the creation of Evangeline Parish, and the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th parishes (Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis) were created from areas of Calcasieu Parish. There were several minor boundary changes afterward,

9434-532: The territorial legislative council in April 1805 divided the Territory of Orleans (the predecessor of Louisiana state) into 12 counties . The borders of these counties were poorly defined, but largely coincided with the colonial ecclesiastical parishes. On March 31, 1807, the territorial legislature created 19 parishes without abolishing any of the old counties (which term continued to exist until 1845). In 1811,

9540-787: The violence. In 1870, the strongly Republican Congress passed the Enforcement Acts , imposing penalties for conspiracy to deny black suffrage. The Acts empowered the President to deploy the armed forces to suppress organizations that deprived people of rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment . Organizations whose members appeared in arms were considered in rebellion against the United States. The President could suspend habeas corpus under those circumstances. President Grant used these provisions in parts of

9646-663: The vote by most blacks and, often, many poor whites; voter rolls dropped across the South into the new century. Florida approved a new constitution in 1885 that included provisions for poll taxes as a prerequisite for voter registration and voting. From 1890 to 1908, ten of the eleven Southern states rewrote their constitutions. All included provisions that effectively restricted voter registration and suffrage, including requirements for poll taxes, increased residency, and subjective literacy tests . With educational improvements, blacks had markedly increased their rate of literacy. By 1891, their illiteracy had declined to 58 percent, while

9752-607: The vote." Perman noted the goals of disfranchisement resulted from several factors. Competition between white elites and white lower classes, for example, and a desire to prevent alliances between lower-class white and black Americans, as had been seen in Populist-Republican alliances, led white Democratic legislators to restrict voter rolls. With the passage of new constitutions, Southern states adopted provisions that caused disfranchisement of large portions of their populations by skirting US constitutional protections of

9858-478: The white population in Louisiana, and represented more than 40 percent of the population in four other former Confederate states. In addition, the Reconstruction Acts and state Reconstruction constitutions and laws barred many ex-Confederate Southern whites from holding office and, in some states, disenfranchised them unless they took a loyalty oath . Southern whites, fearing black domination, resisted

9964-415: Was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 96.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.00 males. The median income for a household in the parish was $ 29,622, and the median income for a family was $ 34,878. Males had a median income of $ 31,235 versus $ 20,470 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $ 14,410. About 16.90% of families and 21.50% of the population were below

10070-712: Was a runaway winner in Grant Parish in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton : 7,408 (84 percent) to 1,181 (13 percent). Public schools in Grant Parish are operated by the Grant Parish School Board . A Company 199TH FSB (Forward Support Battalion) resides in Colfax, Louisiana . This unit deployed twice to Iraq as part of the 256TH IBCT in 2004-5 and 2010. 31°35′N 92°34′W  /  31.59°N 92.56°W  / 31.59; -92.56 List of parishes in Louisiana [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The U.S. state of Louisiana

10176-566: Was created, and the old Warren Parish was mostly absorbed into Ouachita Parish, only to return as Carroll Parish a few years later. In 1838, Caddo Parish was created from Natchitoches, as were Madison and Caldwell parishes in the east. In 1839, Union Parish was formed from Ouachita, and Calcasieu was formed from St. Landry in 1840. Five parishes were created in 1843: Bossier, DeSoto, Franklin, Sabine, and Tensas. Morehouse Parish and Vermilion Parish were formed from Ouachita and Lafayette parishes, respectively, in 1844. The next year, Jackson Parish

10282-501: Was devastating; by 1900 black voters were reduced from 130,334 to 5,320 on the rolls. By 1910, only 730 blacks were registered, less than 0.5% of eligible black men. "In 27 of the state's sixty parishes, not a single black voter was registered any longer; in nine more parishes, only one black voter was." In 1894, a coalition of Republicans and the Populist Party won control of the North Carolina state legislature (and with it,

10388-401: Was finally settled in favor of the Republican candidates, but the decision was disputed in certain areas. As social tensions rose, Republican officials took their places at the courthouse in Colfax. They were defended by freedmen and state militia (mostly made up of freedmen), who feared a Democratic Party takeover of the parish. Amid widespread rumors, whites organized a militia and advanced on

10494-399: Was formed, the old county units were abandoned, and the units were officially referred to as "parishes". In 1848, Bienville Parish was formed from Claiborne Parish. In 1852, Winn Parish was formed, while parishes further south added and lost land. In 1853, Lafourche Interior Parish was renamed to Lafourche Parish. During Reconstruction , state government created a number of new parishes, with

10600-467: Was led by Christopher Columbus Nash , a Confederate officer who had been a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio . It consisted of veterans from Grant and neighboring parishes. The following year, Nash gathered many of the white militia members as the basis of the first chapter of the White League . Other chapters quickly grew up across the state. The White League's organized violence in support of

10706-455: Was overruled by the Supreme Court in the early 20th century, states quickly devised new methods of excluding most blacks from voting, such as the white primary . Democratic Party primaries became the only competitive contests in southern states. For the national Democratic Party, the alignment after Reconstruction resulted in a powerful Southern region that was useful for congressional clout. Nevertheless, before President Franklin D. Roosevelt ,

10812-430: Was rebuffed on each occasion, in large part because of black opposition and strength. Black men comprised 20% of the electorate and had established themselves in several cities, where they had comparative security. In addition, immigrant men comprised 15% of the voting population and opposed these measures. The legislature had difficulty devising requirements against blacks that did not also disadvantage immigrants. In 1910,

10918-455: Was still based on total population (with the assumption of the usual number of voting males in relation to the residents); as a result, white Southerners commanded many seats far out of proportion to the voters they represented. In the end, Congress did not act on this issue, as the Southern bloc of Democrats had sufficient power to reject or stall such action. For decades, white Southern Democrats exercised Congressional representation derived from

11024-420: Was the complete elimination of black voters from voter rolls by 1904. Contemporary accounts estimated that seventy-five thousand black male citizens lost the vote. In 1900 blacks numbered 630,207 citizens, about 33% of the state's total population. The growth of the thriving black middle class was slowed. In North Carolina and other Southern states, there were also the insidious effects of invisibility: "[w]ithin

11130-504: Was the day of President Grant's first inauguration. The parish encompassed both cotton plantations and pinewoods. It was one of several areas along the Red River that had considerable violence during Reconstruction, as whites tried to maintain social control. The gubernatorial election of 1872 was disputed in the state, and both the Democrats and Republicans certified their slates of local officers. Two inaugurations were held. The election

11236-467: Was the site of a large whale skeleton discovery. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 22,169 people, 6,989 households, and 4,651 families residing in the parish. As of the census of 2000, there were 18,698 people, 7,073 households, and 5,276 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 inhabitants per square mile (11/km). There were 8,531 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile (5.0/km). The racial makeup of

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