Editing Homer, Louisiana (section)

==History==
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File:Louisiana - Boyce through Kinder - NARA - 23940403 (cropped).jpg|Homer in 1935
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The city was once the home of [[Homer College]] (also known as Homer Colored College), a private school for African American students active from 1855 until early 1880s and offered bachelor's degrees and masters degrees.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 6, 1855 |title=Louisiana Legislature |pages=2 |work=[[The Times-Picayune]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-louisiana-legislature/131716969/ |access-date=September 13, 2023 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jr0EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA525 |title=Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana |date=1867 |publisher=State of Louisiana |others=Louisiana Supreme Court |pages=525 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 15, 2012 |title=Tech artists help with Homer mural |pages=13 |work=The News-Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-star-tech-artists-help-with-hom/131716993/ |access-date=September 13, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=November 2, 1996 |title=Many a College Has Come And Gone Here |pages=11 |work=The Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-many-a-college-has-come-and-go/131717042/ |access-date=September 13, 2023 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>

The [[Herbert S. Ford Memorial Museum]] operates across from the parish courthouse in the former Claiborne Hotel (completed 1890).<ref>Beverly E. Smith, "Ford Museum Being Re-established in Homer," ''[[North Louisiana History]]'', Vol. 14, Nos. 2-3 (Spring-Summer 1983), pp. 132–133</ref> The museum claims the oldest compressed bale of [[cotton]] in existence in the United States. This cotton display is believed to have been baled about 1930.<ref>Cotton exhibit, Herbert S. Ford Memorial Museum, Homer, Louisiana</ref> Adjacent to the cotton exhibit is the "Black Gold", a replica of an oilfield [[roughneck]]—a general laborer worker who loading and unloads cargo from crane baskets and keeps the drilling equipment clean—employed in the early 1930s by the [[Sinclair Oil Corporation|Sinclair Oil]] and Gas Company. The exhibit has a recording which explains how a farm family, growing mostly cotton and corn faced great economic travail in [[Mississippi]] but relocated to Claiborne Parish to take advantage of the oil and natural gas boom. "Oil changed our lives forever. We owe a lot to the men, mud, and mules that made it happen," concludes the recorded message. In 1921, oil was discovered in Homer; in 1921, another strike followed in Haynesville in northern Claiborne Parish. The boom continued through the 1930s and brought many customers to the then booming Hotel Claiborne, which had been established in 1890 and declared a state historic site in 1984.<ref>"Black Gold" exhibit, Ford Memorial Museum</ref>

Former Homer Mayor Alecia Smith was sentenced in 2017 after she pleaded guilty to two counts of [[malfeasance]] in office. She diverted Homer municipal funds to personal use and falsified public records. Her two five-year sentences were deferred, and she was instead placed on [[probation]]. She must pay a $1,000 fine and repay more than $6,000 to the municipality. [[Attorney General of Louisiana|Louisiana Attorney General]] [[Jeff Landry]] said that department will "not stand for corrupt public officials. ... The people of our state deserve better and should expect more out of those who are appointed or elected to serve."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://710keel.com/former-mayor-avoids-jail-in-malfeasance-trial/?trackback=tsmclip|title=Former Mayor Avoids Jail in Malfeasance Trial|date=July 7, 2017 |publisher=[[KEEL]] Radio in [[Shreveport, Louisiana|Shreveport]]|access-date=July 7, 2017}}</ref>