Editing Coushatta, Louisiana (section)

==History==
[[File:Revised Coushatta, LA, welcome sign IMG 0083.JPG|thumb|left|Welcome sign]]

Red River Parish and the Red River Valley were areas of unrest and white [[paramilitary]] activity and violence after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], and especially during the 1870s of [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]]. The parish developed around [[cotton]] cultivation and  [[Slavery|enslaved]] [[African American]]s who far outnumbered the whites. After the war, white planters and farmers tried to reestablish dominance over a majority of the population. With [[abolitionism in the United States|emancipation]] and being granted citizenship and suffrage, African Americans tried to create their own lives.

Formed in May 1874 from white militias, the [[White League]] in Louisiana was increasingly well-organized in rural areas like Red River Parish.  It worked to turn out the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], as well as suppress [[freedmen]]'s [[civil rights]] and voting rights. It used violence against officeholders, running some out of town and killing others, and acted near elections to suppress black and white Republican voter turnout.<ref>Nicholas Lemann, ''Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War'', New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006, p.76</ref>

In one of the more flagrant examples of violence, the White League in August 1874 captured six Republican officials in Coushatta, made them sign a pledge to leave the state, and escorted them when they were [[assassinated]] on their departure from the state. Victims included the brother and three brothers-in-law of the Republican [[Louisiana State Legislature|State Senator]] [[Marshall H. Twitchell]]. Twitchell's wife and her brothers were from a family with long ties in Red River Parish. One of Twitchell's several [[biography|biographies]] is an unpublished 1969 [[dissertation]] at [[Mississippi State University]] in [[Starkville, Mississippi|Starkville]] by the [[historian]] [[Jimmy G. Shoalmire]], a [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]] native and a specialist in [[Reconstruction era in the United States|Reconstruction]] studies.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mlVfWvPLWXUC&q=Jimmy+G.+Shoalmire&pg=PA222|title=Footnote No. 2, Chapter 7, Jimmy G. Shoalmire, ''Carpetbagger Extraordinary: Marshall Harvey Twitchell, 1840–1905'' cited in Lawrence N. Powell, ''New Masters: Northern Planters During the Civil War and Reconstruction''|isbn=978-0-8232-1894-3|access-date=July 5, 2010|last1=Powell|first1=Lawrence N.|year=1998}}</ref>

The White League also killed five to twenty freedmen who had been escorting the Republicans and were witnesses to the assassinations.<ref>[http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-01/reconstruction.html Danielle Alexander, "Forty Acres and a Mule: The Ruined Hope of Reconstruction", ''Humanities'', January/February 2004, Vol.25/No.1. Her article says that twenty freedmen were killed.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080916095443/http://neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-01/reconstruction.html |date=September 16, 2008}}, accessed April 14, 2008</ref> The events became known as the [[Coushatta Massacre]] and contributed to the Republican governor's requesting more Federal troops from [[U.S. President]] [[U.S. Grant]] to help control the state.  Ordinary Southerners wrote to the White House describing the terrible conditions and fear they lived under during these years.<ref>Nicholas Lemann, ''Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War'', New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006, p.76-77. Lemann contends that five freedmen were killed.</ref>

With increased fraud, violence and intimidation, white [[Redeemers|Redeemer Democrats]] gained control of the state legislature in 1876 and established a new system of one-party rule.  They passed laws making elections more complicated and a new constitution with provisions that effectively disenfranchised most African Americans and many poorer whites. This disenfranchisement persisted for decades into the 20th century before passage of [[civil rights]] legislation and the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]].

After [[World War II]], Dr. Lawrence Edward L'Herisson, Sr., a native of [[Bossier Parish, Louisiana|Bossier Parish]], built a 23-bed regional rural hospital in Coushatta. He subsequently relocated to [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]].<ref name=mslobit>{{cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=mary-sloan-lherisson&pid=181272074&fhid=6593#sthash.TzxfGw6C.dpuf|title=Mary Sloan L'Herisson|newspaper=[[The Times (Shreveport)|The Shreveport Times]]|access-date=September 6, 2016}}</ref> Coushatta is now served by the 25-bed Christus Coushatta Health Care Center.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/la/christus-coushatta-health-care-center-6720170|title=Overview|publisher=usnews.com|access-date=September 6, 2016}}</ref>