OFFICIAL SEAL: In the center, a pelican and its young are as depicted on the flag; the state motto encircles the scene, and the words “State of Louisiana” surround the whole.

FLAG: On a blue field, fringed on three sides, a white pelican feeds her three young, symbolizing the state providing for its citizens; the state motto is inscribed on a white ribbon.

MOTTO: Union, Justice, and Confidence.

SONG: “Give Me Louisiana;” “You are My Sunshine;” “State March Song.”

COLORS: Gold, white, and blue.

FLOWER: Magnolia; Louisiana iris (wildflower).

TREE: Bald cypress.

BIRD: Eastern brown pelican.

CRUSTACEAN: Crawfish.

INSECT: Honeybee.

DOG: Catahoula leopard.

GEM: Agate.

FOSSIL: Petrified palmwood.

LEGAL HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day, 1 January; Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., 3rd Monday in January; Mardi Gras Day, Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, February; Good Friday, Friday before Easter, March or April; Independence Day, 4 July; Huey Long’s Birthday, 30 August, by proclamation of the governor; Labor Day, 1st Monday in September; Election Day, 1st Tuesday in November in even-numbered years; Veterans’ Day, 11 November; Thanksgiving Day, 4th Thursday in November; Christmas Day, 25 December. Legal holidays in Baton Rouge parish also include Inauguration Day, once every four years in January.

TIME: 6 AM CST = noon GMT.

1 Location and Size

Situated in the western south-central United States, Louisiana ranks 31st in size among the 50 states. The total area of Louisiana is 47,751 square miles (123,675 square kilometers), including 44,521 square miles (115,309 square kilometers) of land and 3,230 square miles (8,366 square kilometers) of inland water. The state extends 237 miles (381 kilometers) east-west and 236 miles (380 kilometers) north-south. Louisiana is shaped roughly like a boot, with the heel in the southwest corner and the toe at the extreme southeast. The state’s total boundary length is 1,486 miles (2,391 kilometers).

2 Topography

Louisiana lies wholly within the Gulf Coastal Plain. The alluvial plains of the Red and Mississippi rivers occupy the north-central third of the state. East and west of these plains are the upland districts, characterized by rolling hills sloping gently toward the coast. The coastal-delta section, in the southernmost portion of the state, consists of the Mississippi Delta and the coastal lowlands. The highest elevation in the state, at 535 feet (163 meters), is Driskill Mountain in Bienville Parish. The lowest point, at 8 feet (2 meters) below sea level, is in New Orleans.

Louisiana has the most wetlands of all the states, about 11,000 square miles (28,000 square kilometers) of floodplains and 7,800 square miles (20,200 square kilometers) of coastal swamps, marshes, and estuarine waters. The largest lake, actually a coastal lagoon, is Lake Pontchartrain, with an area of more than 620 square miles (1,600 square kilometers). Toledo Bend Reservoir, an artificial lake along the Louisiana-Texas border, has an area of 284 square miles (736 square kilometers). The most important rivers are the Mississippi, Red, Pearl, Atchafalaya, and Sabine. Louisiana has nearly 2,500 coastal islands.

3 Climate

Louisiana has a relatively constant semitropical climate. The temperature in New Orleans ranges from 53°f (11°c) in January to 82°f (27°c) in July. The all-time high temperature is 114°f (46°c), recorded at Plain Dealing on 10

Louisiana Population Profile

Total population estimate in 2006:	4,287,768
Population change, 2000–06:	-4.1%
Hispanic or Latino†:	2.8%
Population by race
One race:	98.9%
White:	63.7%
Black or African American:	32.5%
American Indian /Alaska Native:	0.6%
Asian:	1.3%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander:	0.0%
Some other race:	0.8%
Two or more races:	1.1%

Population by Age Group

Major Cities by Population
City	Population	% change 2000–05
Notes: †A person of Hispanic or Latino origin may be of any race. NA indicates that data are not available.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey and Population Estimates. www.census.gov/ (accessed March 2007).
New Orleans	454,863	-6.2
Baton Rouge	222,064	-2.5
Shreveport	198,874	-0.6
Lafayette	112,030	1.6
Lake Charles	70,555	-1.7
Kenner	69,911	-0.9
Bossier	60,505	7.2
Monroe	51,914	-2.2
Alexandria	45,693	-1.4
New Iberia	32,495	-0.4

August 1936. The all-time low, -16°f (-27°c), was set at Minden on 13 February 1899. New Orleans has an average annual rainfall of 61.6 inches (156 centimeters). Snow falls occasionally in the north, but rarely in the south. During the summer and fall, tropical storms and hurricanes frequently batter the state, especially along the coast.

The 2005 hurricane season devastated much of the Gulf region, primarily through Hurricane Katrina. Katrina made landfall at Buras on 29 August 2005 as a Category 4 storm. The combination of high winds and flooding led to levee damage around New Orleans, allowing flood waters to cover about 80% of the city, with depths as high as 20 feet (6.3 meters). One month later, Hurricane Rita made landfall near Johnson’s Bayou as a Category 3 storm. As of early 2006, over 1,300 deaths had been reported as a result of Hurricane Katrina, well over one million people were displaced, and the cost of rebuilding was estimated at over $150 billion.

4 Plants and Animals

Forests in Louisiana consist of four major types: shortleaf pine uplands, pine flats and hills, hardwood forests, and cypress and tupelo swamps. Important commercial trees also include beech, eastern red cedar, and black walnut. Among the state’s wildflowers are the ground orchid and several hyacinths. Spanish moss grows profusely in the southern regions but is rare in the north. Louisiana quillwort and American chaffseed were listed as endangered in 2006.

Louisiana Population by Race

Census 2000 was the first national census in which the instructions to respondents said, “Mark one or more races.” This table shows the number of people who are of one, two, or three or more races. For those claiming two races, the number of people belonging to the various categories is listed. The U.S. government conducts a census of the population every ten years.

	Number	Percent
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000: Redistricting Data. Press release issued by the Redistricting Data Office. Washington, D.C., March, 2001. A dash (—) indicates that the percent is less than 0.1.
Total population	4,468,976	100.0
One race	4,420,711	98.9
Two races	44,657	1.0
White and Black or African American	7,099	0.2
White and American Indian/Alaska Native	11,666	0.3
White and Asian	5,345	0.1
White and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	466	—
White and some other race	11,212	0.3
Black or African American and American Indian/Alaska Native	2,675	0.1
Black or African American and Asian	1,133	—
Black or African American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	270	—
Black or African American and some other race	2,504	0.1
American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian	335	—
American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	28	—
American Indian/Alaska Native and some other race	450	—
Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	349	—
Asian and some other race	974	—
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and some other race	151	—
Three or more races	3,608	0.1

Louisiana’s varied habitats—tidal marshes, swamps, woodlands, and prairies—offer a diversity of animals. Deer, squirrel, and bear are hunted as game, while muskrat, mink, and skunk are commercially valuable furbearers. Prized game birds include quail, turkey, and various waterfowl, of which the mottled duck and wood duck are native. Coastal beaches are inhabited by sea turtles. Whales may be seen offshore. Freshwater fish include bass, crappie, and bream. As of April 2006, 23 animal species were on the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s threatened and endangered species list, including the Louisiana black bear, bald eagle, Alabama heelsplitter, and red-cockaded woodpecker.

5 Environmental Protection

In 1984, Louisiana consolidated much of its environmental protection efforts into a new state agency—The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Among its responsibilities are maintenance of air and water quality, solid-waste management, hazardous waste disposal, and control of radioactive materials. According to the Louisiana Environmental Action Plan (LEAP to 2000 Project), toxic air pollution, industrial and municipal wastewater discharges, and coastal wetland loss head the list of state residents’ environmental concerns.

Louisiana’s problem in protecting its wetlands differs from that of most other states in that its wetlands are more than wildlife refuges—they are central to the state’s agriculture and fishing industries. Assessment of the environmental impact of various industries on the wetlands has been conducted under the Coastal Zone Management Plan of the Department of Natural Resources.

The two largest wildlife refuges in the state are the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, comprising 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) in Cameron and Vermilion parishes, and the Marsh Island Refuge, 82,000 acres (33,000 hectares) of marshland in Iberia Parish. Both are managed by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

With approximately 100 major chemical and petrochemical manufacturing and refining facilities located in Louisiana, many DEQ programs deal with the regulation of hazardous waste generation, management and disposal, and chemical releases to the air and water. In 2003, Louisiana had 155 hazardous waste sites, 11 of which were included on the National Priorities List in 2006, included in the Environmental Protection Agency’s database.

Among the most active citizen’s groups on environmental issues are the League of Women Voters, the Sierra Club (Delta Chapter), and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN). Curbside recycling programs exist in 28 parishes.

6 Population

In 2005, Louisiana ranked 25th in population in the United States with an estimated total of 4,287,768 residents. Louisiana’s population density in 2004 was 104.2 persons per square mile (40.2 persons per square kilometer). In 2004, the median age was 35.2. In 2005, about 26% of the population was 18 years of age and younger and 12% was 65 and older. New Orleans is the largest city, with a 2005 estimated population of 454,863 (down from 462,269 in 2004), followed by Baton Rouge, 222,064; and Shreveport, 198,874.

7 Ethnic Groups

According to the 2000 census, black Americans made up about 32.5% of the population (the second-highest percentage among the 50 states), with a total of 1,451,944 people. They include descendants of “free people of color,” some of whom were craftsmen and rural property owners before the Civil War. Many of these, of mixed blood, are referred to locally as “colored Creoles” and have constituted a black elite in both urban and rural Louisiana.

Two groups that have been highly identified with the culture of Louisiana are Creoles and Acadians (also called Cajuns). Both descend primarily from early French immigrants to the state. The Cajuns trace their origins from the rural people from Acadia (Nova Scotia). The first Creoles were city people from France, Nova Scotia, or Hispaniola. The term Creole also applies to the relatively few early Spanish settlers and their descendants. Although Acadians have intermingled with Spaniards and Germans, they still speak a French patois and retain a distinctive culture and cuisine. In 2000, 179,739 residents claimed Acadian ancestry.

Also in 2000, 107,738 residents were of Hispanic or Latino descent. There were 25,477 Native Americans and 54,758 Asians, including 24,358 Vietnamese. Pacific Islanders numbered 1,240.

A total of 115,885 Louisianians (2.6% of the population) were foreign born. The largest ancestry groups were from France, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

8 Languages

Louisiana English is predominantly Southern. Notable features of the state’s speech patterns are that the words pen and pin sound the same and, in New Orleans, the so-called Brooklyn pronunciation of bird is /boyd/. A pecan sugar candy is well known as a praline. Louisiana has a large French-speaking area. West of New Orleans the French dialect called Acadian (Cajun) is used as the first language. From it, and from early colonial French, English has taken such words as pirogue (dugout canoe), armoire (wardrobe), and lagniappe (extra gift).

In 2000, 3,771,003 Louisiana residents (90.8% of the population five years old and older) spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home (with number of speakers) included French or French Patois (194,314), Spanish or Spanish Creole (105,189), and Vietnamese (23,326).

9 Religions

Spanish missionaries brought Roman Catholicism to Louisiana in the early 16th century. Until the Louisiana Purchase, the public practice of any but the Catholic religion was prohibited, and Jews were entirely banned. Joseph Willis, a mulatto preacher, organized the first Baptist church west of the Mississippi, at Bayou Chicot in 1812. After the Civil War, blacks withdrew from white-dominated churches to form their own religious groups, mainly Baptist and Methodist.

As of 2004, the Roman Catholic Church was the largest Christian denomination, with 1,312,237 adherents. The leading Protestant denominations (with 2000 membership data) were the Southern Baptist Convention, 768,587; the Assemblies of God, 49,041; and the Episcopal Church, 33,653. The United Methodist Church had 127,059 members in 2004. There were about 16,500 Jews residing in Louisiana in 2000. The Muslim community had about 13,050 members. Voodoo, in some cases blended with Christian ritual, is more widespread in Louisiana than anywhere else in the United States, although the present number of practitioners is impossible to ascertain. Over 1.8 million people (about 41.2% of the population) did not claim any religious affiliation in the 2000 survey.

10 Transportation

New Orleans has long been a major center of domestic and international freight traffic. Several short-run railroads were built in Louisiana during the 1830s. The first of these, and the first rail line west of the Alleghenies, was the Pontchartrain Railroad, which opened, using horse-drawn vehicles, in 1831. By the late 1800s, New Orleans was connected with New York, Chicago, and California. Railroads soon rivaled the Mississippi River in the movement of goods to and from New Orleans. In 2003, there were six Class I line-haul railroads in Louisiana and total railroad mileage was 3,426 route miles (5,515 kilometers). As of 2006, Amtrak provides passenger links with Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York and carries passengers from seven stations through the state.

At the end of 2004, Louisiana had a total of 60,941 miles (98,115 kilometers) of public roads. Also in 2004, there were about 1,926,000 automobiles and 1,747,000 trucks registered in the state and 3,169,627 drivers’ licenses were in force.

Early in the nation’s history, the Mississippi River emerged as the principal route for north–south traffic and New Orleans soon became the South’s main port. The advent of the steamboat in 1812 solved the problem of upstream navigation, which previously had required three or four months for a distance that could be covered downstream in 15 days. An important breakthrough in international transportation was the deepening of the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi by means of jetties, the first of which were completed in 1879. The port of New Orleans is served by more than 100 steamship lines, 20 common carrier lines, and about 100 contract carrier barge lines. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the first deepwater oil port in the United States, was opened in 1981. Other large ports include Baton Rouge and the Port of Plaquemines.

In 2005, Louisiana had 242 private and public airfields. The busiest was the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. In 2004, the airport had 4,839,400 passengers. Louisiana also had 237 heliports and 16 seaplane bases.

11 History

When European exploration and settlement of North America began, Louisiana was inhabited by a number of different Native American groups, including various tribes of the Caddo people, small Tunican-speaking groups, the Atakapa group, and the Chitimacha. The Spaniard Hernando de Soto was probably the first to penetrate the state’s present boundaries, in 1541. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle reached the mouth of the Mississippi on 9 April 1682, named the land there Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV, and claimed it for France. In 1714, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis established Natchitoches, the first permanent European settlement in Louisiana; Iberville’s brother, the Sieur de Bienville, established New Orleans four years later.

Although Louisiana did not thrive economically under French rule, French culture was firmly implanted there and absorbed by non-French settlers, especially Germans from Switzerland and the Rhineland. In 1762, France ceded Louisiana to Spain. Governed by Spaniards, the colony was much more prosperous. New settlers—including Acadian refugees from Nova Scotia—added to the population. The territory grew to about 50,000 inhabitants by 1800, when Napoleon forced the Spanish government to return Louisiana to France. Three years later, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States to keep it from falling into the hands of Great Britain.

President Thomas Jefferson concluded what was probably the best real estate deal in history, purchasing 800,000 square miles (2,100,000 square kilometers) for $15,000,000 and thus more than doubling the size of the United States at a cost of about three cents per acre. The next year, that part of the purchase south of 33°n was separated from the remainder and designated the Territory of Orleans. When its population reached the level required for statehood in 1810, the people of the territory drew up a constitution,

and Louisiana entered the Union on 30 April 1812.

State Development American control of Louisiana was threatened soon afterward when British troops tried to take New Orleans in 1814 but were soundly defeated by a mixed contingent of forces under the command of Andrew Jackson. From 1815 to 1861, Louisiana was one of the most prosperous states in the South, producing sugar and cotton, and raising hogs and cattle. Wealthy planters, whose slaves made up almost half the population, dominated Louisiana politically and economically. When the secession crisis came in 1861, they led Louisiana into the Confederacy and, after four bloody years, to total defeat.

After the Civil War, Radical Republican governments elected by black voters ruled the state, but declining support from the North and fierce resistance from Louisiana whites brought the Reconstruction period to an end. Blacks and their few white allies lost control of state government and, in 1898, blacks were deprived almost entirely of their voting rights by a new state constitution drawn up primarily for that purpose. This constitution also significantly reduced the number of poorer whites who voted in Louisiana elections. Just as before the Civil War, large landowners—combined with New Orleans bankers,

businessmen, and politicians—dominated state government, effectively blocking political and social reform.

Not until 1928, with the election of Huey P. Long as governor, did the winds of major change strike Louisiana. The years from 1928 through 1960 could well be called the Long Era. Three Longs dominated state politics for most of the period: Huey, who became governor but was assassinated in 1935; his brother Earl, who served as governor three times; and his son Russell, who became a powerful US senator. From a backward agricultural state, Louisiana evolved into one of the world’s major petrochemical-manufacturing centers. What had been one of the most frugal states became one of the most liberal in welfare spending, care for the aged, highway building, and education. The state could afford these expanding programs because of ever-increasing revenues from oil and gas.

In the mid-1980s, the major problems confronting the state were racial and labor tensions, inadequate disposal sites for industrial waste, and (despite important new discoveries) the depletion of oil and gas resources. In 1989, racial tensions took a new turn when white supremacist David Duke, running as a Republican, narrowly won a seat in the Louisiana state legislature. He then ran for the US Senate—with a showing of 44 percent among voters—and, in 1991, for governor. (He was defeated by former governor Edwin Edwards.) In opposing affirmative action, Duke appealed to whites’ frustrations with the high unemployment brought on by the collapse of oil prices in the mid- and late-1980s, when the number of jobs in the state declined by 8%.

For most of the 1990s, in spite of an increase in service-sector and high-tech jobs, Louisiana had more people living in poverty than any other state. Louisiana had for decades been among the nation’s poorest; the percentage of residents living in poverty in 1998 was 19.1%, making it the second-poorest state in the nation. Other problems confronting the state at the turn of the century included racial tensions, disposing of toxic wastes from the petrochemical industry, depletion of oil and gas resources, and the ongoing struggle to institute good government.

On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina landed on the state, in what was one of the worst natural disasters in US history. New Orleans had been evacuated, but some 150,000 people were unable to leave before the storm hit. A day after the storm appeared to have bypassed the city’s center, levees were breached by the storm surge and water submerged the city. The costs of the hurricane and flooding were exceedingly high in terms of both loss of life and economic damage: more than 1,400 people died in Louisiana (80% of them in New Orleans) and damages were estimated to reach $150 billion. Race and class issues also came to the fore, as the majority of New Orleans residents unable to evacuate the city and affected by the catastrophe were poor and black.

12 State Government

Louisiana has had 11 constitutions (more than any other state), the most recent of which went

into force in 1974. By January 2005, it had been amended 129 times.

The state legislature consists of a 39-member senate and a 105-member house of representatives. All legislators are elected for four-year terms. Major elected executive officials include the governor and lieutenant governor (independently elected), secretary of state, attorney general, and treasurer, all elected for four-year terms.

To become law, a bill must receive majority votes in both the senate and the house and be

Louisiana Governors: 1812–2007

Democratic Republican – Dem-Rep
National Republican – Nat-Rep
1812–1816	William Charles Cole Claiborne	Dem-Rep
1816–1820	Jacques PhilippeVillere	Dem-Rep
1820–1824	Thomas Bolling Robertson	Dem-Rep
1824	Henry Schuyler Thibodeaux	Dem-Rep
1824–1828	Henry Johnson	Dem-Rep
1828–1829	Pierre Auguste Charles Derbigny	Nat-Rep
1829–1830	Armand Beauvais	Nat-Rep
1830–1831	Jacques Dupre	Nat-Rep
1831–1835	Andre Bienvenu Roman	Whig
1835–1839	Edward Douglass White, Sr.	Whig
1839–1843	Andre Bienvenu Roman	Whig
1843–1846	Alexandre Mouton	Democrat
1846–1850	Isaac Johnson	Democrat
1850–1853	Joseph Marshall Walker	Democrat
1853–1856	Paul Octave Herbert	Democrat
1856–1860	Robert Charles Wickliffe	Democrat
1860–1862	Thomas Overton Moore	Democrat
1862–1864	Gen. George Foster Shepley	Military
1864–1865	Henry Watkins Allen	Democrat
1864–1865	Michael Hahn	State Rights Free Trader
1865–1867	James Madison Wells	Democrat
1867–1868	Benjamin Franklin Flanders	Military-Rep
1868	Joshua Baker	Military-Dem
1868–1872	Henry Clay Warmouth	Republican
1872–1873	Pinkney Benton Pinchback John McEnery (elected but ruled out)	Republican
1873–1877	William Pitt Kellogg (de facto)	Republican
1877–1880	Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls	Democrat
1880–1881	Louis Alfred Wiltz	Democrat
1881–1888	Samuel Douglas McEnery	Democrat
1888–1892	Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls	Democrat
1892–1900	Murphy James Foster	Anti–Lottery-Dem
1900–1904	William Wright Heard	Democrat
1904–1908	Newton Crain Blanchard	Democrat
1908–1912	Jared Young Sanders	Democrat
1912–1916	Luther Egbert Hall	Democrat
1916–1920	Ruffin Golson Pleasant	Democrat
1920–1924	John Milliken Parker	Democrat
1924–1926	Henry Luce Fugua	Democrat
1926–1928	Oramel Hinckley Simpson	Democrat
1928–1932	Huey Pierce Long	Democrat
1932	Alvin Olin King	Democrat
1932–1936	Oscar Kelly Allen	Democrat
1936	James Albert Noe	Democrat
1936–1939	Richard Webster Leche	Democrat
1939–1940	Earl Kemp Long	Democrat
1940–1944	Sam Houston Jones	Democrat
1944–1948	James Houston Davis	Democrat
1948–1952	Earl Kemp Long	Democrat
1952–1956	Robert Floyd Kennon	Democrat
1956–1960	Earl Kemp Long	Democrat
1960–1964	James Houston Davis	Democrat
1964–1972	John Julian McKeithen	Democrat
1972–1980	Edwin Washington Edwards	Democrat
1980–1984	David Conner Treen	Republican
1984–1988	Edwin Washington Edwards	Democrat
1988–1992	Charles Elson Roemer III	Republican
1992–1996	Edwin Washington Edwards	Democrat
1996–2004	Michael J. Foster	Republican
2004–	Kathleen Blanco	Democrat

signed by the governor; or be left unsigned but not vetoed by the governor; or be passed again by two-thirds votes of both houses over the governor’s veto. Appropriation bills must originate in the house but may be amended by the senate. The governor has an item veto on appropriation bills. Constitutional amendments require approval by two-thirds of the elected members of each house and ratification by a majority of the people voting on it at the next general election.

The governor’s salary as of December 2004 was $94,532, and the legislative salary was $16,800.

13 Political Parties

The major political organizations are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, each affiliated with the national party. However, differences in culture and economic interests have made Louisiana’s politics extremely complex. After an extended period of Democratic dominance under the Long family, the 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence of the Republican Party and the election in 1979 of David C. Treen, the state’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction. However, Treen was succeeded

Louisiana Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2004

YEAR	LOUISIANA WINNER	DEMOCRAT	REPUBLICAN	STATES’ RIGHT DEMOCRAT	PROGRESSIVE	AMERICAN INDEPENDENT
* Won US presidential election.
1948	Thurmond (SRD)	136,344	72,657	204,290	3,035	—
1952	Stevenson (D)	345,027	306,925	—	—	—
				UNPLEDGED
1956	*Eisenhower (R)	243,977	329,047	44,520	—	—
				Nat’l. States’ Rights
1960	*Kennedy (D)	407,339	230,980	169,572	—	—
1964	Goldwater (R)	387,068	509,225	—	—	—
1968	Wallace (AI)	309,615	257,535	—	—	530,300
				AMERICAN	SOC. WORKERS
1972	*Nixon (R)	298,142	686,852	44,127	12,169	—
				LIBERTARIAN	COMMUNIST
1976	*Carter (D)	661,365	587,446	3,325	7,417	10,058
					CITIZENS
1980	*Reagan (R)	708,453	792,853	8,240	1,584	10,333
1984	*Reagan (R)	651,586	1,037,299	1,876	9,502	—
					POPULIST	NEW ALLIANCE
1988	*Bush (R)	717,460	883,702	4,115	18,612	2,355
					IND. (PEROT)	AMERICA FIRST
1992	*Clinton (D)	815,971	733,386	3,155	211,478	18,545
1996	*Clinton (D)	927,837	712,586	7,499	123,293	—
				REFORM		CONSTITUTIONAL
2000	*Bush, G. W. (R)	792,344	927,871	14,356	20,473	5,483
2004	*Bush, G. W. (R)	820,299	1,102,169	—	—	5,203

by Democrats Edwin Edwards in 1983 and Charles Roemer in 1987, and Edwards again in 1991. In November 2003, Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was elected Louisiana’s first female governor.

In 2004 there were 2,806,000 registered voters. In 1998, 62% of registered voters were Democratic, 21% Republican, and 16% unaffiliated or members of other parties. Louisiana’s US senators are Republican David Vitter and Democrat Mary Landrieu. Following the 2006 elections Louisiana’s delegation of US representatives consisted of two Democrats and five Republicans. Following those elections, 24 of the state senators were Democrats and 15 were Republicans; 63 of the state representatives were Democrats, 41 were Republicans, and 1 was an Independent. Twenty-five women were elected to the state legislature in the 2006 elections, or 17.4%. In the 2004 presidential election, Louisianans gave Republican George W. Bush 56% of the vote, while Democrat John Kerry received 42%.

14 Local Government

The church districts, called parishes, into which Louisiana was divided in the late 17th century remain the primary political divisions in the state, serving functions similar to those of counties in other states. In 2005 there were 64 parishes, many of them governed by police jury. Other parish officials are the sheriff, clerk of court, assessor, and coroner. As of 2005, Louisiana also had 302 municipal governments. Prominent local officials include the mayor, chief of police, and a council or board of aldermen. In 2005, there were 78 public school districts in the state.

15 Judicial System

The highest court in Louisiana is the supreme court, with appeals jurisdiction. There are five appeals circuits in the state, each divided into three districts. Each of the state’s district courts serves at least one parish and has at least one district judge, elected for a six-year term. District courts have original jurisdiction in criminal and civil cases. City courts are the principal courts of limited jurisdiction.

According to the FBI Crime Index in 2004, Louisiana had a violent crime rate (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) of 638.7 reported incidents per 100,000 people. Crimes against property (burglary, theft/larceny, and motor vehicle theft) in 2004 totaled 4,410.2 reported incidents per 100,000 people. As of 31 December 2004, 36,939 prisoners were in Louisiana’s state and federal prisons. Louisiana has a death penalty law—27 people were executed between 1976 and 5 May 2006. As of 1 January 2006, 85 persons were under sentence of death.

16 Migration

Louisiana was settled by an unusually diverse assortment of immigrants. The Company of the Indies, which administered Louisiana from 1717 until 1731, at first began importing French convicts, vagrants, and prostitutes because of the difficulty of finding willing colonists. Next the company turned to struggling farmers in Germany and Switzerland, who proved to be more suitable and productive settlers. The importation of slaves from Africa and the West Indies began early in the 18th century.

Attracted by generous land grants, perhaps 10,000 Acadians, or Cajuns (people of French descent who had been exiled from Nova Scotia, called Acadia, during the 1740s), migrated to Louisiana after the French and Indian War. They settled in the area of Lafayette and Breaux Bridge and along Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi River.

Beginning in World War II, large numbers of both black and white farm workers left Louisiana and migrated north and west. Between 1990 and 1998, the state had a net loss of 117,000 in domestic migration and a net gain of 25,000 in international migration. In 1998, 2,193 foreign immigrants arrived in Louisiana. In the period 2000–05, net international migration was 20,174 and net internal migration was -89,547, for a net loss of 69,373 people.

17 Economy

With the rise of the petrochemical industry, Louisiana’s economy has regained much of the vitality it enjoyed before the Civil War. Today, Louisiana ranks second only to Texas in the value of its mineral products.

Louisiana is primarily an industrial state, but its industries are to a large degree based on its natural resources, principally oil, natural gas, water, and timber. Industrial expansion suffered a severe blow in the early 1980s, when the price of oil dropped from $37 a barrel in 1981 to $15 a barrel in 1986. Energy-related industries, such as barge-building, machinery-manufacturing, and rig/platform production suffered.

In the early 1990s, the chemical industry expanded, but by the late 1990s, a high exchange value of the dollar reversed the chemical industry’s growth. In response, Louisiana built several riverboat casinos and a land-based casino which added many jobs to the economy.

Although the economy was negatively impacted by the 2001 national recession, the oil and natural gas industries grew. Offsetting a decline in manufacturing was growth in services. Of Louisiana’s gross state product (GSP) of $152.9 billion in 2004, mining (about 99% of which was oil and gas production) contributed 12.8%, followed by real estate (10% of GSP), and manufacturing (7.5% of GSP).

18 Income

In 2005, Louisiana had a gross state product (GSP) of $166 billion, which ranked the state 24th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in terms of highest GSP. In 2004, Louisiana’s per capita income was $27,297, 43rd in the United States, where the national average was $33,050. The three year average median household income for 2002–04 was $35,523 compared to the national average of $44,473. For the period 2002–04, 17% of the state’s residents lived below the federal poverty level, compared with 12.4% nationwide.

19 Industry

A huge and still-growing petrochemical industry has become a dominant force in the state’s economy. Other expanding industries are wood products and, especially since World War II, shipbuilding. In 2004, the total value of shipments of manufactured goods was $124.3 billion. Petroleum and coal products manufacturing accounted for the largest share at $53.36 billion, followed by chemical manufacturing at $39.91 billion. The state’s main industrial regions are along the Mississippi River from north of Baton Rouge to New Orleans, and also include the Monroe, Shreveport, Morgan City, and Lake Charles areas.

20 Labor

In April 2006, the civilian labor force in Louisiana numbered 1,872,700, with approximately 90,100 workers unemployed, yielding an unemployment rate of 4.8%, compared to the national average of 4.7% for the same period. Some 6% of the labor force was employed in construction; 8.1% in manufacturing; 20.5% in trade, transportation, and public utilities; 5.3% in financial activities; 9.6% in professional and business services; 11.9% in education and health services; 9.6% in leisure and hospitality services; and 21% in government.

During the antebellum period, Louisiana had both the largest slave market in the United States (in New Orleans) and the largest slave revolt in the nation’s history, in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes in January 1811. New Orleans also had a relatively large free black population and many of the slaves in the city were skilled workers, some of whom were able to earn their freedom by outside employment. Major efforts to organize Louisiana workers began after the Civil War. In the mid-1880s, the Knights of Labor began to organize the cane workers. The Brotherhood of Timber Workers began organizing in 1910 but had little to show for their efforts except the scars of violent conflict with the lumber-mill owners.

In 2005, 114,000 of Louisiana’s 1,778,000 employed wage and salary workers were members of unions. This represented 6.4% of those so employed. The national average was 12%.

21 Agriculture

With a farm income of over $2.1 billion in 2005, Louisiana ranked 34th among the 50 states. Nearly every crop grown in North America can be raised somewhere in Louisiana. In the south are strawberries, oranges, and sweet potatoes; in the southeast, sugarcane; and in the southwest, rice and soybeans. Soybeans are also raised in the cotton-growing area of the northeast. Oats, alfalfa, corn, potatoes, and peaches are among the other crops grown in the north.

As of 2004, there were an estimated 27,200 farms covering 7.85 million acres (3.18 million hectares) with an average farm size of 290 acres (117 hectares). In 2004, Louisiana ranked second in the United States in sugar cane production, third in the value of its rice production, and eighth for upland cotton.

22 Domesticated Animals

Cattle are raised mainly in the southeast (between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers), in the north-central region, and in the west. In 2005, there were an estimated 860,000 cattle and calves worth $670.8 million. In 2004, Louisiana had an estimated 16,000 hogs and pigs worth around $1.7 million. Dairy farmers had an estimated 43,000 milk cows, which produced 519 million pounds (236 million kilograms) of milk in 2003. Also during 2003, poultry farmers produced an estimated 7.5 million pounds (3.4 million kilograms) of chicken, which sold for $631,000, and an estimated 487 million eggs worth around $35.9 million.

23 Fishing

In 2004, Louisiana was second behind only Alaska in the size and value of its commercial landings, with nearly 1.1 billion pounds (500 million kilograms) valued at $274.4 million. Leading ports in volume were Empire-Venice (third in the nation), Intracoastal City (fifth in the nation), and Cameron (sixth in the nation). In value, Empire-Venice was sixth in the nation with $60.2 million and Dulac-Chauvin was 11th with $42.8 million.

The most important species caught in Louisiana are shrimp, hard blue crab, and oysters. In 2002, the state commercial fleet had 8,874 boats and 2,084 vessels. In 2003, there were 90 processing and 114 wholesale plants in the state.

Louisiana produces most of the US crawfish harvest. In 2004, 1,126 crawfish farms covered some 118,250 acres (47,856 hectares), producing 69.5 million pounds (28.1 million kilograms). Catfish are also cultivated in Louisiana, on 38 farms covering some 7,600 acres (3,075 hectares) in 2005.

The Natchitoches National Fish Hatchery focuses on paddlefish, striped bass, and pallid sturgeon, but also raises largemouth bass, blue-gill, and catfish in limited quantities.

Louisiana had 639,139 sport fishing license holders in 2004.

24 Forestry

As of 2004, there were 14,017,000 acres (5,673,000 hectares) of forestland in Louisiana, representing almost half the state’s land area and 2% of all US forests. The principal forest types are loblolly and shortleaf pine in the northwest, longleaf and slash pine in the south, and hardwood in a wide area along the Mississippi River. In 2004, more than 99% of Louisiana’s forests were commercial timberland, over 90% of it was privately owned. Lumber production totaled 1.52 billion board feet in 2004.

Louisiana has one national forest, Kisatchie, with a gross area of 1,022,373 acres (413,754 hectares) within its boundaries. Gross acreage of National Forest System lands in the state was 2,049,000 acres (829,000 hectares) in 2005. Near the boundaries of Kisatchie’s Evangeline Unit is the Alexander State Forest, established in 1923.

25 Mining

Louisiana’s nonfuel mineral value totaled an estimated $331 million in 2003. The leading mineral commodity, accounting for roughly half of all nonfuel mineral production in 2003, was salt, accounting for about 41% of all nonfuel mineral production (by value) that year. It was followed by construction sand and gravel, crushed stone, industrial sand and gravel, and lime. Louisiana is the leading state in salt and sulfur production. Salt brine is produced in Ascension, Assumption, Calcasieu, Iberville, and Lafourche parishes. Rock salt is produced in Iberia and St. Mary parishes. In 2003, the state ranked 34th in the nation in mineral value.

26 Energy and Power

In 2000, Louisiana’s total per capita energy consumption was 887 million Btu (223.5 million kilocalories), ranking it second among the 50 states. In 2003, power plants in Louisiana had a total installed capacity (utility and nonutility) of 25.7 million kilowatts. In the same year, total electrical generation was 94.8 billion kilowatt hours.

As of 2006, Louisiana had two nuclear power plants: Waterford 3 in St. Charles Parish and River Bend I in West Feliciana Parish. Louisiana produced 228,000 barrels per day of crude oil during 2004, the fourth-highest total among the 31 oil producing states and about 4% of the US total. As of 2004, remaining proven reserves of oil in Louisiana amounted to 427 million barrels, about 2% of the US total and seventh among the 31 oil producing states.

Marketed production of natural gas in 2004 was 1.357 trillion cubic feet (38.5 billion cubic meters), leaving proven reserves of 9.58 trillion cubic feet (272.2 billion cubic meters). There were 20,734 producing gas wells in 2004. Energy conservation plans in Louisiana call for development of untapped energy sources, such as the state’s lignite and geothermal reserves.

27 Commerce

In 2002, Louisiana had wholesale sales of $47.1 billion, and retail sales of $41.8 billion. In 2005, Louisiana exported $19.2 billion in merchandise abroad.

28 Public Finance

The budget is prepared by the state executive budget director and submitted annually by the governor to the legislature for amendment and approval. The fiscal year runs from 1 July through 30 June.

Revenues for fiscal year 2004 were $23.73 billion and expenditures were $20.47 billion. The largest general expenditures were for education ($6.43 billion), public welfare ($4.12 billion), and hospitals ($1.64 billion). Louisiana had a total debt of $10.18 billion, or about $2,259.36 per capita (per person).

29 Taxation

In 2005, Louisiana ranked 36th in the nation in terms of combined state and local tax burden, at $1,910 per person. (The national average was $2,192 per person). Louisiana’s individual income tax has three brackets ranging from 2% to 6%. The corporate income tax has five brackets ranging from 4% to 8%. Federal taxes paid are deductible from state taxes for both individual and corporate income taxes. The state’s sales and use tax is levied at 4% with exemptions for food for home consumption, electricity, natural gas and water, and prescription drugs. Parishes and municipalities may impose additional sales taxes up to combined rates of 6.25%. The state imposes a full range of selective sales taxes including excises on motor fuels, tobacco products, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, amusements, parimutuels, public utilities, insurance premiums, and other selected items.

Other state taxes include various license fees. The Louisiana Stadium and Exposition District and the New Orleans Exhibition Hall Authority impose a tax on hotel and motel room occupancy in the greater New Orleans area. In addition, local taxing authorities may impose a tax on hotel and motel room occupancy. Taxes on beer and chain stores contribute to local revenues, as does the property tax.

Total state tax collections in Louisiana in 2005 came $8.639 billion, of which 33.1% was generated by the state general sales and use tax, 20% by state excise taxes, 27.7% by the state income tax, 4% by the state corporate income tax, 0.5% by property taxes, and 14.6% by other taxes.

30 Health

In October 2005, Louisiana’s infant mortality rate was 9.5 per 1,000 live births. The overall death rate was 9.5 per 1,000 population in 2003. Leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer, accidents and adverse effects, and motor vehicle accidents. Of the population age 18 and older, 23.4% were smokers in 2004. In 2002, Louisiana had the second-highest diabetes death rate in the nation, following West Virginia. The state also had the second-highest homicide death rate, following the District of Columbia. The death rate from HIV infection was 8.1 per 100,000 people. In 2004, the reported AIDS case rate was at about 22.4 per 100,000 people, the fifth-highest in the nation.

Louisiana’s 127 community hospitals had about 17,800 beds in 2003. The average expense for community hospital care was $1,177 per inpatient day in 2003. In 2004, Louisiana had 262 doctors per 100,000 people, and 873 nurses per 100,000 people in 2005. In 2004, there were a total of 2,040 dentists in the state. In 2004, approximately 19% of the population was uninsured.

31 Housing

The Native Americans of Louisiana built huts with walls made of clay kneaded with Spanish moss and covered with cypress bark or palmetto leaves. The earliest European settlers used split cypress boards filled with clay and moss. A few early 18th-century houses with clay and moss walls remain in the Natchitoches area. Examples of later architectural styles also survive, including buildings constructed of bricks between heavy cypress posts, covered with plaster and plantation houses from the Greek Revival period of antebellum Louisiana.

In 2004, Louisiana had 1,919,859 housing units, of which 1,713,680 were occupied. About 66.2% were owner-occupied. An estimated 65.7% of all units were single-family, detached homes. Most units relied on utility gas or electricity for heating. It was estimated that 121,505 units lacked telephone service, 7,424 lacked complete plumbing facilities, and 8,581 lacked complete kitchen facilities. The average household size was 2.56 people.

In 2004, 23,000 privately owned units were authorized for construction. The median home value was $95,910. The median monthly cost for mortgage owners was $902. Renters paid a median of $540 per month.

32 Education

As of 2004, still only 78.7% of adult Louisianians had completed high school, well below the national average of 84%. Some 22.4% had completed four or more years of college, below the national average of 26%.

Total public school enrollment was estimated at 730,000 in fall 2002 but was expected to drop to 707,000 by fall 2014. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2003 was 140,492. Expenditures for public education in 2003/04 were estimated at $5.7 billion.

As of fall 2002, there were 232,140 students enrolled in college or graduate school. As of 2005, Louisiana had 90 degree-granting institutions. There are 16 public four-year schools, 46 public two-year institutions, and 10 private four-year nonprofit institutions. The center of the state university system is Louisiana State University (LSU), founded at Baton Rouge. LSU also has campuses at Alexandria, Eunice, and Shreveport, and includes the University of New Orleans. Tulane University, founded in New Orleans in 1834, is one of the most distinguished private universities in the South, as is Loyola University, also in New Orleans. Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical System at Baton Rouge (est. 1881) is one of the largest predominantly black universities in the country and has other campuses in New Orleans and Shreveport. Another mainly black institution is Grambling State University (est. 1901). The state Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) organizes student exchanges with Quebec, Belgium, and France and aids Louisianians studying French abroad.

33 Arts

The Louisiana Division of the Arts (est. 1977) is an agency of the state Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005, the LDOA worked with the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts to assess the impact these disasters had on the art communities. Arts projects are funded in every parish (county) in the state through the LDOA Decentralized Arts Funding Program. In 2005, Louisiana arts organizations received 24 grants totaling $1,150,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities was established in 1971. Ongoing programs include Relic: Readings in Literature and Culture and Prime Time Family Reading Time, an annual program presented through local libraries.

New Orleans has long been one of the most important centers of artistic activity in the South. The earliest theaters were French. The American Theater, which opened in 1824, attracted many of the finest actors in America. Showboats traveled the Mississippi and other waterways, bringing dramas, musicals, and minstrel shows to river towns and plantations as early as the 1840s, with their heyday being the 1870s and 1880s.

Principal theaters included the New Orleans Theater of the Performing Arts, the Saenger Theater in New Orleans, Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, and the Tulane Theater. Junebug Productions is a black touring company based in New Orleans. Louisiana State University (LSU) at Baton Rouge has theaters for both opera and drama. Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Monroe, Lake Charles, and Hammond are among the cities with little theaters and Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles have ballet companies. There are symphony orchestras in most of the larger cities, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) being the best known. Although Hurricane Katrina battered the state, devastating New Orleans in 2005, the LPO returned to the city with a spring concert season during March, April, and May 2006.

It is probably in music that Louisiana has made its most distinctive contributions to culture. Jazz was born in New Orleans around 1900. It was the music played by brass bands at carnivals and at black funerals and its immediate precursor was the highly syncopated music known as ragtime. Early jazz in the New Orleans style is called Dixieland. Louis Armstrong pioneered the transformation of jazz from the Dixieland ensemble style to a medium for solo improvisation. Traditional Dixieland may still be heard in New Orleans at Preservation Hall, Dixieland Hall, and the New Orleans Jazz Club. In 2005, many of the buildings that housed these organizations and clubs were either severely damaged or destroyed by the forces of Hurricane Katrina. Despite having to close buildings, groups like the Hall Jazz Band of the Preservation Hall continued touring; the Preservation hall celebrated its 45th anniversary on tour in 2006.

Equally distinctive is Cajun music, dominated by the sound of the fiddle and accordion. The French Acadian Music Festival, held in Abbeville, takes place in April.

Visual arts in the state flourish, especially in New Orleans, home to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Prompted by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the museum showcased several special exhibits including, Come Hell and High Water: Portraits of Hurricane Katrina Survivors, New Housing Prototypes for New Orleans, and Louisiana Story: A Photographic Journey.

34 Libraries and Museums

In 2001, Louisiana had 65 public library systems, with a total of 329 libraries, of which 264 were branches. That year, the public library system had about 10.8 million volumes and a circulation of 18.37 million. The New Orleans Public Library features a special collection on jazz and folk music. The libraries at Grambling State University, Xavier University of Louisiana at New Orleans, and the Amistad Collection at Tulane University have research materials on black American studies.

As of 2000, Louisiana had 89 museums, historic sites, and public gardens, as well as 27 art collections. Leading art museums are the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Lampe Gallery in New Orleans, and the R. W. Norton Art Gallery at Shreveport. The art museum of the Louisiana Arts and Science Center at Baton Rouge is located in the renovated Old Illinois Central Railroad Station. The Bayou Folk Museum at Cloutierville is in the restored home of author Kate Chopin. Among the state’s scientific museums are the Lafayette Natural History Museum, Planetarium, and Nature Station, and the Museum of Natural Science in Baton Rouge. Audubon Park and Zoological Gardens are in New Orleans.

35 Communications

As of 2004, 90.9% of Louisiana’s occupied housing units had telephones. By June of that year there were 2,547,153 mobile telephone subscribers. In 2003, 52.3% of Louisiana households had a computer, and 44.1% had Internet access. In 2005, the state had 77 major radio broadcasting stations (15 AM and 62 FM) as well as 32 television stations.

36 Press

In 2005, Louisiana had a total of 15 morning dailies, 11 evening dailies, and 21 Sunday papers. The principal dailies with their approximate 2005 daily circulations are The New Orleans Times-Picayune (252,799), The Baton Rouge Advocate (87,026), and The Shreveport Times (62,551). Two influential literary magazines originated in the state. The Southern Review was founded at Louisiana State University in the 1930s by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks. The Tulane Drama Review, founded in 1955, moved to New York University in 1967 but is still known by its original acronym, TDR.

37 Tourism, Travel & Recreation

In 2000, there were about 15.4 million visitors to the state of Louisiana. Initial reports for 2001 estimated a total travel-related economic impact of $9 billion, including support for 124,200 jobs. The two most popular activities for tourists are shopping and gambling.

New Orleans is one of the major tourist attractions. Known for its fine restaurants, serving such distinctive fare as gumbo, jambalaya, and crayfish, along with an elaborate French-inspired haute cuisine, New Orleans also offers jazz clubs, the graceful buildings of the French Quarter, and a lavish carnival called Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”). Beginning on the Wednesday before Shrove Tuesday (preceding Lent), parades and balls, staged by private organizations called krewes, are held almost nightly.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas, and tourism was virtually eliminated. As of 2006, only the French Quarter of New Orleans was able to support some tourism. A Mardi Gras celebration was held, but it was shortened from its usual month to a week.

Among the many other annual events that attract visitors to the state are the Natchitoches Christmas Festival, which includes 170,000 Christmas lights and spectacular fireworks displays. Louisiana has 34 state parks and recreation sites covering a total area of 39,000 acres (15,800 hectares).

38 Sports

Louisiana has two major league professional sports teams: the Saints of the National Football League and the Hornets of the National Basketball Association. The Hornets were formerly located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both the Saints and Hornets are located in New Orleans. The Super Bowl has been held in New Orleans six times. It has been played in the Louisiana Superdome, the largest indoor arena in the United States.

New Orleans also has a minor league baseball team, the Zephyrs, of the AAA Pacific Coast League. In Shreveport, the Captains compete in the AA Texas League. There are several other minor league baseball and hockey teams scattered throughout the state.

Horseracing is popular in the state. The principal tracks are the Louisiana Jockey Club at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and Evangeline Downs at Lafayette. Gambling has long been widespread in Louisiana, particularly in the steamboat days, when races along the Mississippi drew huge wagers.

From the 1880s to World War I, New Orleans was the nation’s boxing capital. In 1893, the city was the site of the longest bout in boxing history, between Andy Bowen and Jack Burke, lasting 7 hours and 19 minutes—110 rounds—and ending in a draw.

The TPC of Louisiana at Fairfield is a newly constructed championship-level golf course that became the home of the PGA’s HP Classic in 2005.

In college football, teams from Tulane University and Louisiana State University (LSU) have been successful. The LSU Tigers baseball team won the College World Series four times in the 1990s. The LSU Tigers have had a number of famous basketball alumni, including “Pistol” Pete Maravich and Shaquille O’Neal.

39 Famous Louisianians

Zachary Taylor (b.Virginia, 1784–1850) is the only US president to whom Louisiana can lay claim. Taylor owned a large plantation north of Baton Rouge, which was his residence before his election to the presidency in 1848. Edward Douglass White (1845–1921) served as chief justice of the US Supreme Court.

Also prominent in Louisiana history was Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle (b.France, 1643–1687), who was the first to claim the region for the French crown. Jean Étienne Boré (1741–1820) laid the foundation of the Louisiana sugar industry by developing a process for granulating sugar from cane; Norbert Rillieux (1806–1894), a free black man, developed the much more efficient vacuum pan process of refining sugar.

Biochemist Andrew Victor Schally (b.Poland, 1926) shared the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1977 for his research on hormones. Among other distinguished Louisiana professionals have been historian T. Harry Williams (1909–1979), who won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Huey Long; architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886); and heart specialist Michael De Bakey (b.1908).

Louisiana’s important writers include George Washington Cable (1844–1925), an early advocate of racial justice; Kate O’Flaherty Chopin (b.Missouri, 1851–1904); playwright and memoirist Lillian Hellman (1905–1984); and novelists Walker Percy (b.Alabama 1916–1990), Truman Capote (1924–1984), Shirley Ann Grau (b.1929), and John Kennedy Toole (1937–1969). The latter two were both winners of the Pulitzer Prize.

Louisianians in the arts include composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869); jazz musicians Jelly Roll Morton (Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe, 1885–1941) and Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (1900–1971), gained nationwide popularity. Other prominent Louisianians in music are gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972); pianist-singer-songwriter Antoine “Fats” Domino (b.1928); and pop singer Jerry Lee Lewis (b.1935).

Louisiana baseball heroes include Hall of Famer Melvin Thomas “Mel” Ott (1909–1958). Terry Bradshaw (b.1948) quarterbacked the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers during the 1970s. Player-coach William F. “Bill” Russell (b.1934) led the Boston Celtics to 10 National Basketball Association championships between 1956 and 1969. Chess master Paul Morphy (1837–1884) was born in New Orleans.