Louisiana
state of the United States of America From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Louisiana (pronounced /lōō-ē'zē-ăn'ə/)[8] is a state in the Southern United States of America. It had a population of 4,657,757 people in 2020. The state has a total area of about 51,885 sq mi (134,382 km2). Louisiana is the 25th largest state by population and the 31st largest state by area. It is bordered by Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Louisiana is also known by its nickname, The Pelican State. The land that would become Louisiana was bought in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Louisiana became a state on April 30, 1812. It was the 18th state to become part of the United States. The people who live in the state are known as Louisianans.[9] The state's capital is Baton Rouge, and its largest city is New Orleans.
Louisiana has coastal plains, marshs, and low ridges. All of the state is in the Sun Belt. Louisiana is in a subtropical region, and has a diverse ecosystem. Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfa). It has long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters.
Louisiana was settled by France and the influence of French culture is still a big part of Louisiana today. The French Quarter in New Orleans is one of the best known attractions in the state. It is known today for its special culture, unique food, as well as the holiday Mardi Gras which is most famous in New Orleans.
Louisiana was very badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Much of the New Orleans area lies below sea level making flooding a serious problem.
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History
Louisiana was first settled by Native Americans. Louisiana has a large Louisiana Creole population. Louisiana Creole people are a mixture of French, Native American and African American.
In Baton Rouge, the Robert E. Lee High School was renamed Lee High School in 2016, Lee Magnet High School in 2018, and in 2020, Liberty Magnet High School. Sports teams, formerly called the Rebels, are now called Patriots.[10]
In New Orleans there have been a lot of monuments removed or renamed. The first Confederate monuments removed in 2017 were those of New Orleans, even though it was in 2015 that the City Council ordered their removal. Court challenges were unsuccessful. The workers who moved the monuments were dressed in bullet-proof vests, helmets, and masks to conceal their identities because of concerns about their safety.[11][12] According to Mayor Landrieu, "The original firm we'd hired to remove the monuments backed out after receiving death threats and having one of his cars set ablaze."[13] "Opponents at one point found their way to one of our machines and poured sand in the gas tank. Other protesters flew drones at the contractors to thwart their work."[14] The city said it was weighing where to display the monuments so they could be "placed in their proper historical context from a dark period of American history".[15] On May 19, 2017, the Monumental Task Committee,[16] an organization that maintains monuments and plaques across the city, commented on the removal of the statues: "Mayor Landrieu and the City Council have stripped New Orleans of nationally recognized historic landmarks. With the removal of four of our century-plus aged landmarks, at 299 years old, New Orleans now heads into our Tricentennial more divided and less historic." Landrieu replied on the same day: "These statues are not just stone and metal. They are not just innocent remembrances of a benign history. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for."[17]
A seven-person Monument Relocation Committee was set up by Mayor LaToya Cantrell to advise on what to do with the removed monuments. The statue of Jefferson Davis, if their recommendation is implemented, will be moved to Beauvoir, his former estate in Biloxi, Mississippi, that is now a presidential library and museum.[18] The Committee recommended that the statues of Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard be placed in Greenwood Cemetery, near City Park Avenue and Interstate 10 (where three other Confederate generals are entombed). However, this conflicts with a policy of former mayor Mitch Landrieu, who had directed that they never again be on public display in Orleans Parish. The Battle of Liberty Place Monument will remain in storage.[19]
- Battle of Liberty Place Monument – Erected 1891 to commemorate the Reconstruction Era Battle of Liberty Place (1874) and celebrate Louisiana's White League. Removed April 24, 2017. The workers were dressed in flak jackets, helmets and scarves to conceal their identities because of concerns about their safety. Police officers watched from a nearby hotel.[20]
- Jefferson Davis Monument – Cost $35,000 and was unveiled February 22, 1911, the 50th anniversary of his inauguration as President of the Confederacy, by the Jefferson Davis Monument Association, which was formed in 1898. "The unveiling...was preceded by 'an impressive military parade' led by Major Allison Owen. Veterans of the Army of Tennessee, Washington Artillery, Camp Henry St. Paul, Army of Northern Virginia, veterans from the Soldiers Home, National Guard and the Boy Scouts all attended. A group of 500 schoolgirls formed a living Confederate flag."[21] Removed May 11, 2017.[22]
- General Beauregard Equestrian Statue – Erected in 1913. Removed May 17, 2017.
- Robert E. Lee monument – Erected in 1884. Statue atop a 60-foot (18 m) column with 12-foot (3.7 m) on an earthen mound. Statue removed May 19, 2017.
- Edward Douglass White Jr. statue – On December 23, the statue of Edward Douglass White Jr. was moved from outside the Louisiana Supreme Court building to the interior near the court museum.[23][24]
- Renaming of public schools. In 1992, the School Board announced plans to rename schools named after owners of slaves, if the parents, teachers, and children of each school approved. Other public schools renamed, not directly relevant to the war, were originally named for Marie Couvent (a black slave owner), George Washington, William C. C. Claiborne, Samuel J. Peters, Étienne de Boré, William O. Rogers ("a general school superintendent who didn't believe blacks should be educated after the 5th grade"), and Edward Douglass White, Jr., a Supreme Court chief justice who voted to uphold the "separate but equal" doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson.[25]
- Jefferson Davis Elementary School renamed in 1993 for Ernest "Dutch" Morial, New Orleans' first African-American mayor.
- P.G.T. Beauregard Junior High School was renamed Thurgood Marshall Middle School, after the first black Supreme Court justice.
- Robert E. Lee Elementary School renamed for Ronald McNair, the black astronaut killed in the 1986 Challenger explosion.
- J. P. Benjamin School, named for Jefferson Davis's secretary of war, was renamed for African-American educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune.
- Charles Gayarre Elementary School, named for Charles Gayarré, a financial supporter of the Confederacy, was renamed after New Orleans civil rights leader Oretha Castle Haley.
- Francis T. Nicholls High School, named for the Confederate general and Governor of Louisiana, was renamed Frederick Douglass High School after the abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.
- Adolph Meyer School, named for a Confederate officer and later a congressman, was renamed for the abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
- Benjamin Palmer School, named for a pro-slavery pastor influential in Louisiana's decision to secede and join the Confederacy, was renamed Lorraine V. Hansberry Elementary School, after the African-American playwright who wrote A Raisin in the Sun.
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Cities
Louisiana contains 308 incorporated municipalities, consisting of four consolidated city-parishes, and 304 cities, towns, and villages. Louisiana's municipalities cover only 7.9% of the state's land mass but are home to 45.3% of its population.[26] The majority of urban Louisianans live along the coast or in northern Louisiana. The oldest permanent settlement in the state is Nachitoches.[27] Baton Rouge, the state capital, is the second-largest city in the state. The most populous city is New Orleans. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Louisiana contains nine metropolitan statistical areas. Major areas include Greater New Orleans, Greater Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Shreveport–Bossier City.
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Related pages
References
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