Editing Lake Providence, Louisiana (section)

==History==
In the late 18th century goods such as animal pelts, [[indigo]], and cotton were transported on the Mississippi River by people commonly known as longboat men, named for the type of craft that carried the goods. These were eventually replaced by steamboats. Thieves and pirates raided the longboats, killing the crew and selling the goods. Bunch's Bend is named for a pirate who would raid the boats at this place, where they had to maneuver the bend in the river. If the longboat men made it past Bunch's Bend without being robbed, they would say they, "made it to Providence."

The trading town of Providence developed at the bend. It later was renamed as Lake Providence when the town was moved to its current location surrounding a natural [[oxbow lake]]. The Lake Providence area first opened for European-American settlement in the late 1830s, after the federal government enforced [[Indian Removal]] to Indian Territory further west of the Mississippi River, and extinguished their land titles. Settlers drained the [[cypress]] swamps along the Mississippi River and used enslaved African Americans to clear the land for cultivation.

===Civil War===
By the start of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, the region consisted mostly of large [[cotton]] [[plantations in the American South|plantations]] along the river, which were worked by thousands of [[slave]] laborers.

The town of Lake Providence developed after the arrival of the [[Union Army]] in the spring of 1862. Under the direction of General [[Ulysses S. Grant]], the area by Lake Providence was established as a supply depot and base of operations for the [[Vicksburg Campaign]]. The soldiers dug a canal between the Mississippi River and Lake Providence. The area was called "Soldiers' Rest". Grant subsequently moved his troops south for  temporary residence at [[Winter Quarters State Historic Site|Winter Quarters]] south of [[Newellton, Louisiana|Newellton]] in [[Tensas Parish, Louisiana|Tensas Parish]]. As slaves crowded into the camp at Lake Providence to gain freedom from surrounding plantations, the population quickly soared from a few hundred to several thousand.  What began as a simple military supply camp quickly transformed into a city with a large population of African-American refugees.

By the time [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]] fell to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] in 1863, most [[Plantations in the American South#Planter (plantation owner)|planters]] in the Lake Providence area had fled, and their plantations lay empty. The Union Army determined that they should be productive again.

===20th century===
[[File:African American's tenant's home beside the Mississippi River levee. Near Lake Providence, Louisiana, June 1940.jpg|thumb|right|Residence of African-American [[tenant farmer]] beside the [[Mississippi River]] levee near Lake Providence (June 1940)]]
[[File:Map_from_U.S._Post_Office_Dept._archives_of_East_Carroll_Parish_and_vicinity_showing_post_office_locations_01.jpg|thumb|Street map of Lake Providence {{Circa|1945}}]]
After white Democrats regained power in the state legislature after the [[Reconstruction Era]], they worked to reimpose [[white supremacy]]. Many blacks worked as [[sharecropper]]s or [[tenant farmer]]s in the region. In 1898, Louisiana, like other southern states, enacted a new constitution, designed to maintain Democratic Party dominance and forestall any alliances such as the Populist-Republican alliance that had won seats in the 1890s. They included provisions that raised barriers to voter registration and elections, effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchising]] most blacks despite their constitutional [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th Amendment]] right to vote. Their exclusion from the political system made them second-class citizens.

The civil rights movement of the post-World War II period from the 1940s through the 1960s brought efforts of a new generation to make constitutional rights more equitable. Until 1962, no African Americans had been allowed to register to vote in Lake Providence or [[East Carroll Parish]] in forty years when [[U.S. District Judge]] [[Edwin F. Hunter|Edwin Ford Hunter, Jr.]], based in [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]] in the far southwestern corner of the state, personally registered twenty-eight African Americans in Lake Providence under a provision of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1960]], which had been signed into law by [[U.S. President]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. Hunter was challenged by Louisiana 6th Judicial District Judge Frank Voelker Sr., who was based in Lake Providence, in a dispute over the powers of the national government. The case attracted national attention, as the civil rights movement highlighted the constitutional infringement of the rights of African Americans in the South.<ref>"State Judge Restrains Federal Judge's Order", ''Sumter Daily Item'', [[Sumter, South Carolina|Sumter]], [[South Carolina]], July 21, 1962, p. 1</ref>

Following national Democratic support for the passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, most African Americans allied with that party. With a majority African-American electorate, Lake Providence voters in the 21st century continue to support [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] candidates. Conservative whites tended to leave the Democratic Party after the 1960s, and have overwhelmingly joined the Republican Party. In the [[U.S. presidential election, 2008|2008]] and [[U.S. presidential election, 2012|2012]] presidential elections, East Carroll Parish voted handily for Democrat [[Barack H. Obama]] of [[Illinois]], rather than his Republican opponents, [[John McCain]] of [[Arizona]] and [[Mitt Romney]] of [[Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://staticresults.sos.la.gov/11042008/11042008_18.html|title=East Carroll Parish presidential election returns, November 4, 2008|publisher=staticresults.sos.la.govlaccessdate=November 19, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://staticresults.sos.la.gov/11062012/11062012_18.html|title=East Carroll Parish presidential election returns, November 6, 2012|publisher=staticresults.sos.la.gov|access-date=November 19, 2012}}</ref>