Bossier Parish, Louisiana

Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Bossier Parish, Louisiana.

History

Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, an ethnic French, 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.

Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War. In July 1861, at the start of the war, the Bossier Parish Police Jury appropriated $35,000 for the benefit of Confederate volunteers and their family members left behind, an amount then considered generous.

After the war, whites used violence and intimidation to maintain dominance over the newly emancipated freedmen. From the end of Reconstruction into the 20th century, violence increased as conservative white Democrats struggled to maintain power over the state. In this period, Bossier Parish had 26 lynchings of blacks by whites. This was the fifth-highest total of any parish in Louisiana, tied with the total in Iberia Parish in the South of the state. Overall, parishes in northwest Louisiana had the highest rates of lynchings.

Adjacent Counties & Parishes

• Miller County, Ark.
• Lafayette County, Ark.
• Webster Parish
• Bienville Parish
• Red River Parish
• Caddo Parish

Cities, Towns & Communities

• Benton (Parish Seat)
• Bossier City
• Eastwood
• Fillmore
• Haughton
• Midway
• Plain Dealing
• Princeton
• Red Chute
• Shreveport (part)
• Taylortown

Links

Wikipedia

Barksdale AFB