Red River Parish, Louisiana

Red River Parish, Louisiana
Red River Parish Courthouse in Coushatta
Location in the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Founded	March 2, 1871
Named for	Red River
Seat	Coushatta
Largest town	Coushatta
Area
• Total	402 sq mi (1,041 km2)
• Land	389 sq mi (1,008 km2)
• Water	13 sq mi (34 km2), 3.3%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	8,593
• Density	23/sq mi (9/km²)
Congressional district	4th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	rrppj.org

Red River Parish (French: Paroisse de la Rivière-Rouge) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 9,091, making it the fourth-least populous parish in Louisiana. Its seat is Coushatta. It was one of the newer parishes created in 1871 by the state legislature under Reconstruction. The plantation economy was based on cotton cultivation, highly dependent on enslaved African labor before the American Civil War.

In 1880, the parish had a population with more than twice as many blacks as whites. They were essentially disfranchised in 1898 under a new state constitution after the white Democrats regained power in the state in the late 1870s through paramilitary intimidation at the polls. Most of the former slaves worked as sharecroppers and laborers, cultivating cotton. Because of the mechanization of agriculture, many blacks left the parish during the mid-20th century Great Migration to seek better job opportunities elsewhere. By 2000, the parish population was 9,622, with a white majority, but Coushatta itself was still two thirds black.

As in many other rural areas, Red River Parish and the Red River Valley were areas of white vigilante and paramilitary violence after the Civil War, as insurgents tried to regain power after the South's defeat. The state legislature during Reconstruction created the parish in 1871, one of a number established to develop Republican Party strength.