Grant Parish, Louisiana facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Grant Parish, Louisiana
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| Parish of Grant | |
Grant Parish Courthouse in Colfax
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Location within the U.S. state of Louisiana
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Louisiana's location within the U.S.
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| Country |  United States |
| State |  Louisiana |
| Region | Central Louisiana |
| Founded | 1869 |
| Named for | Ulysses S. Grant |
| Parish seat | Colfax |
| Largest town | Montgomery (area) Colfax (population) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,720 km2 (665 sq mi) |
| • Land | 1,670 km2 (643 sq mi) |
| • Water | 60 km2 (22 sq mi) |
| • percentage | 9 km2 (3.3 sq mi) |
| Population
(2020)
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| • Total | 22,169 |
| • Density | 12.871/km2 (33.337/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (CST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| Area code | 318 |
| Congressional district | 5th |
Grant Parish is a parish located in the North Central portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,169. The parish seat is Colfax. The parish was founded in 1869 during the Reconstruction era.
Grant Parish is part of the Alexandria, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area and Red River Valley. From 1940 to 1960, the parish had a dramatic population loss, as many African Americans from the plantation areas left in the Great Migration to seek better opportunities in the North and West. Such migration continued until about 1970. One of the eleven parishes organized during Reconstruction, Grant was created from parts of Winn and Rapides parishes.
Grant Parish is the site of United States Penitentiary, Pollock.
Contents
History
Grant Parish was originally a part of the more populous Rapides Parish to the south. Prior to the American Civil War, the center of activity focused upon "Calhoun's Landing," named for the cotton and sugar planter Meredith Calhoun, a native of South Carolina. Calhoun also published the former National Democrat newspaper in what became Colfax, the seat of government of the new parish.
Grant was one of several new parishes created by the Reconstruction legislature in an attempt to build the Republican Party. Founded in 1869, it had a slight majority of freedmen. It was named for U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. The parish seat of Colfax was named for Grant's first vice president, Schuyler M. Colfax (pronounced COAL-facks) of Indiana. However, the town of Colfax is pronounced CAHL-facks. The parish encompassed both cotton plantations and pinewoods. It was one of several areas along the Red River that had considerable violence during Reconstruction, as whites tried to maintain social control.
The gubernatorial election of 1872 was disputed, leading to both parties' certifying their slates of local officers. The election was finally settled in favor of the Republican candidates, but the decision was disputed in certain areas. As social tensions rose, Republican officials took their places at the courthouse in Colfax. They were defended by freedmen and state militia (mostly made up of freedmen), who feared a Democratic Party takeover of the parish. Amid widespread rumors, whites organized a militia and advanced on the courthouse on Easter Sunday, 1873. In the ensuing violence, three whites and 120-150 blacks were killed, including 50 that night who were held as prisoners. Leading 20th-century historians renamed the Colfax Riot, the original state designation, as the Colfax Massacre. The total number of freedmen deaths were never established because some of the bodies were thrown into the river and woods.
The white militia was led by Christopher Columbus Nash, a Confederate officer who had been a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio. It consisted of veterans from Grant and neighboring parishes. The following year, Nash gathered many of the white militia members as the basis of the first chapter of the White League. Other chapters quickly grew up across the state. The White League's organized violence in support of the Democratic Party included widespread intimidation of black voters. The League was integral to white Democrats' regaining power in the state by 1876. Soon after, they effectively disfranchised most blacks, a situation that persisted until after the Civil Rights-era legislation of the mid-1960s.
Population and politics
Grant Parish! had the highest growth rate in central Louisiana in the five-year period between 2001 and 2006, according to projections of the United States Census Bureau. The parish has had a 4.3 percent growth rate compared to 1.7 percent for its larger neighbor, Rapides Parish. Some neighboring parishes, including Winn, have experienced population decreases.
Grant Parish is heavily Republican in contested elections. Mitt Romney polled 7,082 votes (81.7 percent) in his 2012 race against the Democrat U.S. President Barack H. Obama, who trailed with 1,422 votes (16.4 percent). In 2008, U.S. Senator John S. McCain of Arizona swept the parish too, with 6,907 votes (80.7 percent) to Obama's 1,474 (17.2 percent).
In 1996, the Republican Robert J. Dole narrowly won in Grant Parish over U.S. President Bill Clinton, 3,117 votes (42.8 percent) to 2,980 (40.9 percent). Ross Perot, founder of his Reform Party, polled another 1,055 (14.5 percent). In 1992, George Herbert Walker Bush carried Grant Parish in his unsuccessful bid for reelection. He polled 3,214 votes (40.8 percent) to Bill Clinton's 3,122 (39.6 percent) and Perot's 1,174 (14.9 percent).
The last Democrat to win in Grant Parish at the presidential level was former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia in his 1976 defeat of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., with Bob Dole as the Republican vice-presidential choice.
Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was a runaway winner in Grant Parish in 2016 over Hillary Rodham Clinton: 7,408 (84 percent) to 1,181 (13 percent).
Nativity scene
In December 2016, a courthouse nativity scene in Colfax drew a complaint from the New Orleans chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. In a letter to the Grant Parish Police Jury, the ACLU said that officials must include secular symbols of the Christmas holiday if a nativity scene is placed alone on public property. District Attorney Jay Lemoine objected to the ACLU challenge in a statement to Alexandria Town Talk: "There have been various holiday displays presented both inside and outside the courthouse over many years. This year, as in years past, they include both secular and non-secular symbols. It is unfortunate that some are offended by these displays during this holiday season, as that was not the intent."
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 665 square miles (1,720 km2), of which 643 square miles (1,670 km2) is land and 22 square miles (57 km2) (3.3%) is water.
Major highways
U.S. Highway 71
U.S. Highway 165
U.S. Highway 167
Louisiana Highway 8
Louisiana Highway 34
Louisiana Highway 122
Louisiana Highway 123
Louisiana Highway 471
Louisiana Highway 500
Adjacent parishes
- Winn Parish (north)
- La Salle Parish (east)
- Rapides Parish (south)
- Natchitoches Parish (west)
National protected area
- Kisatchie National Forest (part)
Demographics
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1870 | 4,517 | — | |
| 1880 | 6,188 | 37.0% | |
| 1890 | 8,270 | 33.6% | |
| 1900 | 12,902 | 56.0% | |
| 1910 | 15,958 | 23.7% | |
| 1920 | 14,403 | −9.7% | |
| 1930 | 15,709 | 9.1% | |
| 1940 | 15,933 | 1.4% | |
| 1950 | 14,263 | −10.5% | |
| 1960 | 13,330 | −6.5% | |
| 1970 | 13,671 | 2.6% | |
| 1980 | 16,703 | 22.2% | |
| 1990 | 17,526 | 4.9% | |
| 2000 | 18,698 | 6.7% | |
| 2010 | 22,309 | 19.3% | |
| 2020 | 22,169 | −0.6% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census 1790-1960 1900-1990 1990-2000 2010 |
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2020 census
| Race | Number | Percentage |
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| White (non-Hispanic) | 16,678 | 75.23% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 3,060 | 13.8% |
| Native American | 193 | 0.87% |
| Asian | 67 | 0.3% |
| Pacific Islander | 6 | 0.03% |
| Other/Mixed | 832 | 3.75% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 1,333 | 6.01% |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 22,169 people, 6,989 households, and 4,651 families residing in the parish.
Education
Public schools in Grant Parish are operated by the Grant Parish School Board.
National Guard
A Company 199TH FSB (Forward Support Battalion) resides in Colfax, Louisiana. This unit deployed twice to Iraq as part of the 256TH IBCT in 2004-5 and 2010.
Communities
Towns
- Colfax (parish seat)
- Montgomery
- Pollock
Villages
Census-designated places
Prison
| Name | Address | Zip | Aged |
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| Grant Parish Detention Center | Richardson Drive, Colfax, Louisiana | 71417 | 18+ |
Notable people
- W. K. Brown, state representative from Grant Parish from 1960 to 1972
- Joe T. Cawthorn (1911-1967), lawyer, businessman, and politician affiliated with the Long faction, born in Selma in Grant Parish, resided in Mansfield in DeSoto Parish
- Billy Ray Chandler, state representative from Grant Parish, 2006-2012
- Jesse C. Deen (1922-2015), state representative from primarily Bossier Parish, 1972–1988; reared in the Hargis Community near Montgomery
- Stephen Lee "Steve" Gunn, former mayor of Montgomery; represented Grant Parish in the legislature as an Independent from 1992 to 1996
- Leonard R. "Pop" Hataway, sheriff of Grant Parish, 1976 to 2008; member of the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Paroles; member of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame
- Ed Head (1918–1980), Major League Baseball player who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers
- Swords Lee, timber owner from Pollock and Alexandria; former Grant Parish assessor and state representative
- W. T. McCain (1913-1993) - State representative for Grant Parish 1940 to 1948; first state court judge for only Grant Parish (1976), lawyer in Colfax
- W.L. Rambo, member of both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature from Georgetown.
- Richard S. Thompson (1916-1997), state representative from Grant Parish from 1972 to 1984
- Russ Springer, Major League baseball player
See also
In Spanish: Parroquia de Grant para niños
