Madison Parish, Louisiana

Madison Parish
Parish
Madison Parish Courthouse in Tallulah
Location within the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 32°22′N91°14′W / 32.37°N 91.24°W / 32.37; -91.24
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Founded	1838
Named for	James Madison
Seat	Tallulah
Largest city	Tallulah
Area
• Total	651 sq mi (1,690 km2)
• Land	624 sq mi (1,620 km2)
• Water	26 sq mi (70 km2)  4.1%
Population  (2020)
• Total	10,017
• Density	15/sq mi (5.9/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	5th
Website	madisonparish.org

Confederate soldier statue on Madison Parish Courthouse lawn

Christian crosses off U.S. Highway 65 in south Madison Parish

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.

History

Prehistory

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

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.

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. ^[5] 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. ^[6]

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

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. ^[7]

Major highways

• Interstate 20
• U.S. Highway 65
• U.S. Highway 80

Adjacent counties and parishes

• East Carroll Parish (north)
• Warren County, Mississippi (east)
• Tensas Parish (south)
• Franklin Parish (southwest)
• Richland Parish (northwest)

National protected areas

• Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge (part)
• Vicksburg National Military Park (part)

Communities

Cities

• Tallulah (parish seat and largest municipality)

Villages

• Delta
• Mound
• Richmond

Demographics

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

Census	Pop.	Note	%±
1840	5,142		—
1850	8,773		70.6%
1860	14,133		61.1%
1870	8,600		−39.1%
1880	13,906		61.7%
1890	14,135		1.6%
1900	12,322		−12.8%
1910	10,676		−13.4%
1920	10,829		1.4%
1930	14,829		36.9%
1940	18,443		24.4%
1950	17,451		−5.4%
1960	16,444		−5.8%
1970	15,065		−8.4%
1980	15,975		6.0%
1990	12,463		−22.0%
2000	13,728		10.2%
2010	12,093		−11.9%
2020	10,017		−17.2%
U.S. Decennial Census [8] 1790-1960 [9] 1900-1990 [10] 1990-2000 [11] 2010 [12]

2020 census

Madison Parish, Louisiana – Racial and ethnic composition
(NH = Non-Hispanic)
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	Pop 2000 [13]	Pop 2010 [14]	Pop 2020 [15]	% 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

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. ^[16] 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). ^[17]

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. ^[18] 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. ^[19]

United States presidential election results for Madison Parish, Louisiana ^[20]

Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
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

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

Corrections

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

• Buddy Caldwell
• Zelma Wyche

• United States portal

References

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. Lynching in America, Third Edition: Supplement by County Archived 2017-10-23 at the Wayback Machine , p. 6, Equal Justice Initiative, Mobile, AL, 2017
6. Ken Scambray, " 'Corda e Sapone' (Rope and Soap): how the Italians were lynched in the USA" Archived 2018-05-15 at the Wayback Machine , L'Italo-Americano, 13 December 2012; accessed 14 May 2018
7. "2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
8. "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
9. "Historical Census Browser". University of Virginia Library. Archived from the original on August 11, 2012. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
10. "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.
11. "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.
12. "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
13. "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.
14. "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.
15. "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.
16. Louisiana Secretary of State, General election returns, 6 November 1962
17. "Madison Parish presidential election returns, November 8, 1988". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
18. "Madison Parish presidential election returns, November 4, 2008". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
19. "Madison Parish presidential election returns, November 6, 2012". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
20. 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.

External links

• Madison Parish Sheriff's Office
• Official website of Madison Parish
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Madison Parish, Louisiana

32°22′N91°14′W / 32.37°N 91.24°W / 32.37; -91.24