INDReporter

A closer look at Louisiana's lynchings

Following Tuesday’s release of a report logging close to 4,000 lynchings (including about 700 newly discovered cases), here’s a closer look at the numbers for Louisiana and Acadiana.

Following Tuesday’s release of a report logging close to 4,000 lynchings (including about 700 newly discovered cases), here’s a closer look at the numbers for Louisiana and Acadiana.

Tuesday’s report was the result of a four year undertaking by the Equal Justice Initiative out of Montgomery, Ala. to unearth one of America's often overlooked history, what the organization’s founder Bryan Stevenson describes as “lynching and the terror era.” (Read more on Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative and his other efforts at putting a focus on the history of black Americans during slavery and Jim Crow here.)

Based on the data included in the report’s condensed version (The IND is awaiting a copy of the full, more in-depth version of EJI’s study), here’s a parish-by-parish breakdown of Acadiana’s lynchings documented between 1877 and 1950:

Acadia Parish – 1
Evangeline Parish – 2
Iberia Parish – 23
Lafayette Parish – 4
St. Martin Parish – 2
St. Mary Parish – 4
St. Landry Parish – 6
Vermilion Parish – N/A

And here’s a parish-by-parish listing (from most to fewest) showing all of Louisiana’s 540 known lynchings that were discovered over the 73 years cataloged in EJI’s report:

Caddo Parish – 54
Lafourche Parish – 50
Tensas Parish – 40
Ouachita Parish – 35
Bossier Parish – 32
Iberia Parish – 23
Tangipahoa Parish – 22
Morehouse Parish – 16
Jefferson Parish – 14
Richland Parish – 14
Orleans Parish – 13
Pointe Coupee Parish – 13
Rapides Parish – 12
Washington Parish – 11
Bienville Parish – 10
Madison Parish – 9
West Carroll Parish – 9
Webster Parish – 9
Claiborne Parish – 8
Franklin Parish – 8
Catahoula Parish – 7
Concordia Parish – 7
East Baton Rouge Parish – 7
Iberville Parish – 7
Lincoln Parish – 7
St. Tammany Parish – 7
St. James Parish – 6
St. Landry Parish – 6
West Feliciana Parish – 6
East Feliciana Parish – 5
Grant Parish – 5
Avoyelles Parish – 4
Calcasieu Parish – 4

Check out the report here.