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Louisiana State...
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Louisiana Parishes
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Louisiana Parishes
Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes in the same way that 48 of the other states of the United
States are divided into counties (Alaska is divided into boroughs and census areas).
On March 31, 1807, the territorial legislature divided the state into 19 parishes, without getting rid of the
old counties (which continued to exist until 1845).
In 1811, a
constitutional convention organized the state into seven judicial districts, each consisting of groups of
parishes. In 1816, the first official map of the state used the term, as did the 1845 constitution. Since then,
the official term has been parishes. |
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Louisiana Parishes
Louisiana, state in the southern United States, on the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. The French were the original European colonizers of Louisiana, beginning in the early 18th century. After a period of Spanish control it reverted to France. During this colonial period other European
and African cultures were introduced into the area. Most of Louisiana was bought by the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase; the rest came as a result of the West Florida Rebellion of 1810. Louisiana entered the Union on April 30, 1812, as the 18th state. Louisiana (New France)
was named after Louis XIV, one of France's greatest and most powerful kings. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis". Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana. The state's three
principal cities are New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport.
Louisiana's government is like that of no other state in the United States of America. Louisiana
has "parishes" instead of "counties" and each of those parishes, for the most part, are governed by
"police juries." Police jurors are elected officials and function in the same way as county
commissioners in other states' counties.
At one time, Louisiana had counties. When the Louisiana Territory was purchased by the United States,
twelve counties were established, but those large areas proved too hard to govern effectively. In 1807
the state was divided into 19 parishes, and the parish became the local government district.
Each parish was governed by a 12-member jury serving with the parish judges and the justices of the
peace. Each jury was charged with the responsibility of "execution of whatever concerns the interior and
local police and administration of the parish." In 1811 an act made the members of these assemblies
elective, and they were officially designated as the "police jury."
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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