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Madison Parish, Louisiana

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Madison Parish (French: Paroisse de Madison) is a parish located on the northeastern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana, in the delta lowlands along the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,017.[1] Its parish seat is Tallulah.[2] The parish was formed in 1839.[3] With a history of cotton plantations and pecan farms, the parish economy continues to be primarily agricultural. It has a majority African-American population. For years a ferry connected Delta, Louisiana (and traffic from the parish) to Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Vicksburg Bridge now carries U.S. Route 80 and Interstate 20 across the river into Madison Parish.

Madison Parish
Parish
Madison Parish Courthouse in Tallulah
Madison Parish Courthouse in Tallulah
Map of Louisiana highlighting Madison Parish
Location within the U.S. state of Louisiana
Map of the United States highlighting Louisiana
Louisiana's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 32°22′N 91°14′W / 32.37°N 91.24°W / 32.37; -91.24
Country United States
State Louisiana
Founded1838
Named forJames Madison
SeatTallulah
Largest cityTallulah
Area
 • Total
651 sq mi (1,690 km2)
 • Land624 sq mi (1,620 km2)
 • Water26 sq mi (70 km2)  4.1%
Population
 (2020)
 • Total
10,017 Decrease
 • Density15/sq mi (6/km2)
Time zoneUTC−6 (Central)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district5th
Websitemadisonparish.org
Confederate soldier statue on Madison Parish Courthouse lawn
Christian crosses off U.S. Highway 65 in south Madison Parish

History

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Prehistory

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Main article: History of Louisiana § Prehistory

Madison Parish was the home to many succeeding Native American groups in the thousands of years before European settlement. Peoples of the Marksville culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture and Plaquemine culture built villages and earthwork mound complexes throughout the area. Notable examples include the Fitzhugh Mounds and the Raffman site.

Historic tribes which were encountered by European colonists include the Taensa and Natchez peoples, who both spoke the Natchez language.

European settlement to present

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James Madison, namesake of Madison Parish, Louisiana

The parish is named for former U.S. President James Madison.[4] As was typical of northern areas of Louisiana, and especially along the Mississippi River, it was developed for cotton agriculture on large plantations worked by large groups of enslaved African Americans. In 1932 a local news writer stated, "Madison still has plantations. They have not vanished entirely. Good roads dot the parish and some owners live in Tallulah, using automobiles to supervise their extensive holdings. When extra help is needed, trucks are used to carry the negroes back and forth."[5]

Following the Reconstruction era and during the Jim Crow era, white Democrats across the state violently suppressed black voting, which was for Republican candidates, and civil rights. Twelve blacks were lynched in Madison Parish from 1877 to 1950, most near the turn of the 20th century when social and economic tensions were the highest.[6] In addition, in July 1899 five immigrant Sicilian grocers were lynched by whites in Tallulah, the parish seat, for failing to observe Jim Crow customs of serving whites before blacks and because they were competing with locals with their stores.[7]

Civil rights legislation in 1965 enabled more African Americans to exercise their constitutional rights to register and vote in Madison Parish, and they began to elect candidates of their choice to local offices. In 1969 Zelma Wyche was elected as Police Chief of Tallulah. In 1974 Adell Williams was elected as mayor, the first African American to fill this position.

Geography

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 651 square miles (1,690 km2), of which 624 square miles (1,620 km2) is land and 26 square miles (67 km2) (4.1%) is water.[8]

Major highways

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Adjacent counties and parishes

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National protected areas

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Communities

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Cities

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  • Tallulah (parish seat and largest municipality)

Villages

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Extinct settlements

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Demographics

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Because of limited job opportunities as agriculture has mechanized and the Chicago Lumber Mill closed, the parish population has declined overall by about one-third since its peak in 1980. Numerous African Americans left during the first half of the 20th century in the Great Migration to escape the violence and oppression of Jim Crow; they moved to the North and West.

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
18405,142—
18508,77370.6%
186014,13361.1%
18708,600−39.1%
188013,90661.7%
189014,1351.6%
190012,322−12.8%
191010,676−13.4%
192010,8291.4%
193014,82936.9%
194018,44324.4%
195017,451−5.4%
196016,444−5.8%
197015,065−8.4%
198015,9756.0%
199012,463−22.0%
200013,72810.2%
201012,093−11.9%
202010,017−17.2%
U.S. Decennial Census[9]
1790-1960[10] 1900-1990[11]
1990-2000[12] 2010[13]

2020 census

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Madison Parish, Louisiana – Racial and ethnic composition
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic) Pop 2000[14] Pop 2010[15] Pop 2020[16] % 2000 % 2010 % 2020
White alone (NH) 5,087 4,396 3,414 37.06% 36.35% 34.08%
Black or African American alone (NH) 8,259 7,357 6,173 60.16% 60.84% 61.63%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 18 23 27 0.13% 0.19% 0.27%
Asian alone (NH) 21 26 6 0.15% 0.22% 0.06%
Pacific Islander alone (NH) 2 0 5 0.01% 0.00% 0.05%
Other race alone (NH) 2 8 4 0.01% 0.07% 0.04%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) 51 95 184 0.37% 0.79% 1.84%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 288 188 204 2.10% 1.55% 2.04%
Total 13,728 12,093 10,017 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 10,017 people, 3,832 households, and 2,443 families residing in the parish.

Politics

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With its majority-black population, Madison Parish in the 21st century has become a stronghold of support for the Democratic Party. Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, when the state unconstitutionally prevented blacks from voting, the white Madison Parish voters in 1962 supported the Republican nominee Taylor W. O'Hearn for the US Senate; he lost to powerful Democratic incumbent Russell B. Long. O'Hearn polled 58.7 percent among whites in Madison Parish.[17] He later was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives from Caddo Parish, also in the northern part of the state.

During the 1970s and 1980s, conservative white voters in Louisiana and other southern states began to shift to supporting Republican presidential candidates, creating a more competitive system than the Solid South. Since the civil rights era, most African Americans in the South have supported Democratic candidates, as the national party supported their drive to exercise constitutional rights as citizens, even though most Southern Democrats remained vehemently opposed to civil rights. In 1988, Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts won in Madison Parish, with 2,416 votes (49.2 percent) compared to Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush, who finished in the presidential contest with 2,334 ballots (47.5 percent).[18]

In 2008, the Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois received 3,100 votes (58.5 percent) in Madison Parish to 2,152 (40.6 percent) for the Republican U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona.[19] In 2012, Madison Parish gave President Obama 3,154 votes (60.8 percent) to Mitt Romney's 2,000 ballots (38.6 percent), 152 fewer votes than McCain had received four years earlier.[20]

United States presidential election results for Madison Parish, Louisiana[21]
Year Republican Democratic Third party(ies)
No.  % No.  % No.  %
2024 1,846 46.24% 2,094 52.45% 52 1.30%
2020 1,930 41.33% 2,654 56.83% 86 1.84%
2016 1,927 40.72% 2,744 57.99% 61 1.29%
2012 2,000 38.56% 3,154 60.81% 33 0.64%
2008 2,152 40.60% 3,100 58.49% 48 0.91%
2004 2,291 49.03% 2,334 49.95% 48 1.03%
2000 2,127 44.85% 2,489 52.48% 127 2.68%
1996 1,591 31.41% 3,085 60.91% 389 7.68%
1992 1,702 33.33% 2,773 54.31% 631 12.36%
1988 2,334 47.53% 2,416 49.20% 161 3.28%
1984 2,849 48.58% 2,906 49.56% 109 1.86%
1980 2,531 42.70% 3,264 55.06% 133 2.24%
1976 2,096 29.41% 4,933 69.21% 99 1.39%
1972 2,420 49.22% 2,249 45.74% 248 5.04%
1968 649 11.41% 2,659 46.75% 2,380 41.84%
1964 2,061 83.17% 417 16.83% 0 0.00%
1960 629 33.32% 235 12.45% 1,024 54.24%
1956 461 27.25% 276 16.31% 955 56.44%
1952 1,253 64.32% 695 35.68% 0 0.00%
1948 127 9.30% 197 14.42% 1,042 76.28%
1944 338 30.67% 764 69.33% 0 0.00%
1940 182 15.18% 1,017 84.82% 0 0.00%
1936 71 6.14% 1,085 93.86% 0 0.00%
1932 67 10.89% 548 89.11% 0 0.00%
1928 151 32.20% 318 67.80% 0 0.00%
1924 13 4.53% 274 95.47% 0 0.00%
1920 4 1.19% 331 98.81% 0 0.00%
1916 1 0.53% 187 99.47% 0 0.00%
1912 0 0.00% 146 95.42% 7 4.58%

Education

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Public schools in Madison Parish are operated by the Madison Parish School Board.

Corrections

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The private Lasalle Management firm operates the Madison Parish Correctional Center and Louisiana Correction Transitional Center for Women (CTCW), both located in Tallulah.

Notable people

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References

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  1. ^ "Census - Geography Profile: Madison Parish, Louisiana". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  2. ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on May 31, 2011. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  3. ^ "Madison Parish". Center for Cultural and Eco-Tourism. Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
  4. ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 196. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  5. ^ "Old Record Book Tells Story of Adventure, Romance, Tragedy". The Madison Journal. December 23, 1932. p. 2. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  6. ^ Lynching in America, Third Edition: Supplement by County Archived October 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, p. 6, Equal Justice Initiative, Mobile, AL, 2017
  7. ^ Ken Scambray, " 'Corda e Sapone' (Rope and Soap): how the Italians were lynched in the USA" Archived May 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, L'Italo-Americano, December 13, 2012; accessed May 14, 2018
  8. ^ "2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  9. ^ "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  10. ^ "Historical Census Browser". University of Virginia Library. Archived from the original on August 11, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  11. ^ "Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on September 15, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  12. ^ "Census 2000 PHC-T-4. Ranking Tables for Counties: 1990 and 2000" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  13. ^ "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  14. ^ "P004: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2000: DEC Summary File 1 – Madison Parish, Louisiana". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  15. ^ "P2: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2010: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Madison Parish, Louisiana". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  16. ^ "P2: Hispanic or Latino, and Not Hispanic or Latino by Race – 2020: DEC Redistricting Data (PL 94-171) – Madison Parish, Louisiana". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  17. ^ Louisiana Secretary of State, General election returns, November 6, 1962
  18. ^ "Madison Parish presidential election returns, November 8, 1988". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  19. ^ "Madison Parish presidential election returns, November 4, 2008". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  20. ^ "Madison Parish presidential election returns, November 6, 2012". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  21. ^ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Archived from the original on March 23, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
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32°22′N 91°14′W / 32.37°N 91.24°W / 32.37; -91.24

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