Editing Lafourche Parish, Louisiana (section)

==History==
South Louisiana became known as “Sugarland”, and Lafourche one of the sugar parishes, where sugar cane plantations were established before and after the Civil War. They required the labor of large numbers of enslaved African Americans. In the postbellum era, they constituted from 50 to 80 percent of the population in most of the sugar parishes.<ref name="pfiefer">{{cite book|first=Michael James|last=Pfeifer|title=Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|year=2004|pages=75-77}}</ref>

Particularly after Reconstruction, whites in the parish used violence and intimidation against the large population of [[freedmen]] to suppress Republican voting and re-establish [[white supremacy]], but were less successful than in North Louisiana until after disenfranchisement of blacks at the turn of the century.<ref name="pfiefer"/> From 1877 through the early 20th century, there were 52 [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings of African Americans]] in Lafourche Parish. Most of the deaths were due to white suppression of labor unrest in 1887; blacks were skilled sugar workers and had begun to organize for better wages and conditions.<ref name="pfiefer"/> Some 10,000 workers had struck in Lafourche and three other parishes during the critical harvest period. At the request of the planters, the state sent in militia against the workers to break the strike.

In what was called the [[Thibodaux Massacre]] of November 22, 1887, local whites organized by leaders of the town killed up to 50 blacks who had taken refuge in the African-American quarters after a major [[Knights of Labor]] strike was called on sugar plantations. Hundreds more were wounded or missing, and presumed dead.<ref name="KnowLA">Bell, Ellen Baker, [http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/thibodaux-massacre "Thibodaux Massacre (1887)"], KnowLA ''Encyclopedia of Louisiana,'' September 15, 2011, access-date April 23, 2017</ref>

The total deaths in this parish due to this racial terrorism were the highest of any parish in the state and nearly twice as high as some others among the six parishes with the highest totals.<ref>[https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf ''Lynching in America, Third Edition: Supplement by County''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023063004/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-summary.pdf |date=October 23, 2017 }}, p. 6, Equal Justice Initiative, Mobile, AL, 2017</ref> In general, most of the lynching and racial terrorism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

On August 29, 2021, [[Hurricane Ida]] made landfall in [[Port Fourchon]] at 16:55 UTC as a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150&nbsp;mph. Additional reports surveyed by ships in Port Fourchon reported wind gusts up to 194 knots.<ref name=auto>{{cite web |url=https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL092021_Ida.pdf|title=Hurricane Ida |author=John L. Beven II|date=April 4, 2022|display-authors=et. al.|work=nhc.noaa.gov  |accessdate=February 10, 2023}}</ref> In [[Golden Meadow, LA]], the [[National Weather Service]] recorded storm surge measurements of 10.1&nbsp;ft.<ref name="auto"/> It was the strongest storm on record to make landfall in Lafourche Parish and at the time the 5th costliest hurricane in United States history.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/dcmi.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517103720/https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/dcmi.pdf |archive-date=May 17, 2022 |url-status=live|title=Costliest U.S. Tropical Cyclones|work=ncei.noaa.gov |access-date=February 10, 2023}}</ref>