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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′N 91°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 km)
• Land	624 sq mi (1,620 km)
• Water	26 sq mi (70 km)  4.1%
Population
• Total	10,017
• Density	15/sq mi (6/km)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional district	5th
Website	madisonparish.org

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. Its parish seat is Tallulah. The parish was formed in 1839. 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

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

The parish is named for former U.S. President James Madison. 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."

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. 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.

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 km), of which 624 square miles (1,620 km) is land and 26 square miles (67 km) (4.1%) is water.

Major highways

• Interstate 20
• U.S. Highway 65
• U.S. Highway 80
• Louisiana Highway 603

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

Extinct settlements

• Duckport

• Milliken's Bend

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.

2020 census

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. 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).

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. 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.

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

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. "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.

External links

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

v t e Places adjacent to Madison Parish, Louisiana
Richland Parish East Carroll Parish Madison Parish, Louisiana Warren County, Mississippi Franklin Parish Tensas Parish

v t e Municipalities and communities of Madison Parish, Louisiana, United States
Parish seat: Tallulah
Cities	Tallulah
Villages	Delta Mound Richmond
Unincorporated communities	Afton Waverly
Extinct settlements	Duckport Milliken's Bend
Louisiana portal United States portal

v t e Parishes of Louisiana
Current	Acadia Allen Ascension Assumption Avoyelles Beauregard Bienville Bossier Caddo Calcasieu Caldwell Cameron Catahoula Claiborne Concordia DeSoto East Baton Rouge East Carroll East Feliciana Evangeline Franklin Grant Iberia Iberville Jackson Jefferson Jefferson Davis LaSalle Lafayette Lafourche Lincoln Livingston Madison Morehouse Natchitoches Orleans Ouachita Plaquemines Pointe Coupee Rapides Red River Richland Sabine St. Bernard St. Charles St. Helena St. James St. John the Baptist St. Landry St. Martin St. Mary St. Tammany Tangipahoa Tensas Terrebonne Union Vermilion Vernon Washington Webster West Baton Rouge West Carroll West Feliciana Winn
Former	Counties Acadia Attakapas Biloxi Concordia German Coast Iberville LaFourche Natchitoches Opelousas Orleans Ouachita Pascagoula Pointe Coupée Rapides Warren Split Carroll Feliciana

32°22′N 91°14′W / 32.37°N 91.24°W / 32.37; -91.24

• Louisiana parishes
• Madison Parish, Louisiana
• Louisiana parishes on the Mississippi River
• 1839 establishments in Louisiana
• Populated places established in 1839
• Black Belt (U.S. region)
• Majority-minority parishes in Louisiana
• Exclaves in the United States