Amicus Curiae Brief — Louisiana, Appellant v. Phillip Callais, et al.

Supreme Court briefDec 26, 2024

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Nos. 24-109, 24-110

IN THE

Supreme Court of the United States

————

STATE OF LOUISIANA,

Appellant,

PHILLIP CALLAIS, et al.,

Appellees.

————

PRESS ROBINSON, et al.,

Appellants,

PHILLIP CALLAIS, et al.,

Appellees.

————

On Appeal from the United States District

Court for the Western District of Louisiana

————

BRIEF FOR LOUISIANA HISTORIANS AS

AMICI CURIAE SUPPORTING APPELLANTS

————

HILARY HARRIS KLEIN

Counsel of Record

JEFFREY LOPERFIDO

CHRISTOPHER SHENTON

ADRIANNE SPOTO

SOUTHERN COALITION FOR

SOCIAL JUSTICE

P.O. Box 51280

Durham, NC 27717

(610) 574 5244

hilaryhklein@scsj.org

December 26, 2024

Counsel for Amici Curiae

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................

iii

INTERESTS OF AMICI CURIAE ......................

INTRODUCTION AND

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT .........................

ARGUMENT ........................................................

I. District 6 Closely Aligns with Louisiana’s

Historic Red River Valley, a LongRecognized Community of Interest ..........

II. The Red River Valley’s Black Population

Shares a Common Lineage of Slavery .....

A. Post-Reconstruction White Supremacy

Limited the Mobility of Red River

Valley’s Freedmen ...............................

B. Black Habitation Remained Remarkably Stable During the Great Migration

and 20th Century Urbanization .........

C. Surname Analysis Evidences the

Stability of the Red River Valley’s

Black Community from the 19th

Century to the Present Day ................

III. The Red River Valley Contains Common

Economic, Civic, Commercial, and

Educational Systems ................................

A. The Red River and I-49 Transport

Corridor ................................................

B. Regional Civic and Commercial

Organizations ......................................

(i)

TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued

Page

IV. Red River Valley Populations Share

Common Socioeconomic Hardship and

Disparities Perpetuated by Common

Experiences of Discrimination .................

CONCLUSION ....................................................

iii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

CASES

Page(s)

Bush v. Vera,

517 U.S. 952 (1996) ...................................

1, 2

LULAC v. Perry,

548 U.S. 399 (2006) ...................................

Miller v. Johnson,

515 U.S. 900 (1995) ...................................

Pigford v. Glickman,

185 F.R.D. 82 (D.D.C. 1999) aff'd,

206 F.3d 1212 (D.C. Cir. 2000) .................

Slaughter-House Cases,

83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873) .........................

STATUTES

Voting Rights Act, § 2, 52 U.S.C. § 10301 ...

La. Acts 2024, 1st Ex. Sess., Act No. 2

(SB8) ..........................................................

1, 4

Act No. 236, passed 17 July 1924, in ACTS

PASSED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE

STATE OF LOUISIANA AT THE REGULAR

SESSION BEGUN AND HELD IN THE CITY OF

BATON ROUGE ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF

MAY, 1924 (1924).......................................

OTHER AUTHORITIES

6 to Represent Red River Presbytery at

General Assembly, SHREVEPORT JOURNAL

(Shreveport, La.), May 24, 1952 ...............

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Alexandria Louisiana Railroads, ALEXANDRIA,

https://www.alexandria-louisiana.

com/alexandria-louisiana-railroads.htm ....

Am. Ass’n of State Highway and Transp.

Officials, Route Numbering Committee

Agenda 1976-07-13, WIKISOURCE, https://

en.wikisource.org/wiki/Route_Numberin

g_Co mmittee_Agenda_1976-07-13 ..........

C. Geoffrey Mangin, Clearing the Great Raft:

Impetus for Economic Growth in

Louisiana’s Red River Valley, 1830-1860, 31

N. LA. HIST. 32 (2000) .....................................

Campbell Gibson & Kay Jung, Historical

Census Statistics On Population Totals

By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic

Origin, 1970 to 1990, For Large Cities

And Other Urban Places In The United

States (U.S. Census Bureau Population

Div., Working Paper No. 76, 2005)........... 19, 20

Carin Peller-Semmens, Unreconstructed:

slavery and emancipation on Louisiana's

Red River, 1820-1880 (Univ. of Sussex,

Doctoral Dissertation, American Studies,

2016) .......................................................... 9, 10

Carl L. Bankston III & Jacques Henry,

Spectacles of Ethnicity: Festivals and the

Commodification of Ethnic Culture

among Louisiana Cajuns, 20 SOCIO.

SPECTRUM 377 (2000) ...............................

Carl Newton Tyson, THE RED RIVER IN THE

SOUTHWESTERN HISTORY (1981) ...............

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Carleton Washburne, LOUISIANA LOOKS AT

ITS SCHOOLS: A SUMMARY REPORT OF

THE LOUISIANA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY

COMMISSION (1942) ...................................

Carole Marks, FAREWELL—WE’RE GOOD

AND GONE: THE GREAT BLACK MIGRATION

(1989) .........................................................

Casson Surname Distribution Map,

FOREBEARS, https://forebears.io/surname

s/casson......................................................

Cloutier Surname Distribution Map,

FOREBEARS, https://forebears.io/surname

s/cloutier ....................................................

DAILY PICAYUNE (New Orleans, La.), Aug.

21, 1874 .....................................................

DAILY PICAYUNE (New Orleans, La.), May

25, 1883 .....................................................

David

Russ,

The

Quaternary

Geomorphology of the Lower Red River

Valley, Louisiana. (Penn. State Univ.

Doctoral Dissertation, 1975) ....................

6-7

David C. Weindorf, An Update of the Field

Guide to Louisiana Soil Classification

(Bulletin No. 889), LA. STATE UNIV.

AGCENTER BULLETINS (2008) ....................

Edward Royce, THE ORIGINS OF SOUTHERN

SHARECROPPING (1993) .............................

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Emerson W. Gould, FIFTY YEARS ON THE

MISSISSIPPI; OR, GOULD’S HISTORY OF

RIVER NAVIGATION (1889) .........................

Eric Foner, THE SECOND FOUNDING: HOW

THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION

REMADE THE CONSTITUTION (2019) ...........

Frederick Law Olmsted, A JOURNEY IN THE

SEABOARD SLAVE STATES, WITH REMARKS

ON THEIR ECONOMY (1856) ........................

Friedrich

Gërstacker,

GËRSTACKER’S

LOUISIANA:

FICTION

AND

TRAVEL

SKETCHES FROM ANTEBELLUM TIMES

THROUGH RECONSTRUCTION (Irene di

Maio trans., 2006) .....................................

Gavin Wright, OLD SOUTH, NEW SOUTH:

REVOLUTIONS IN THE SOUTHERN ECONOMY

SINCE THE CIVIL WAR (1986) .....................

Geologic Map of Louisiana, U.S. GEOLOGICAL

SURV. (Nov. 30, 2000), https://www.usgs.

gov/media/images/geologic-map-louisiana .

George Brown Tindall, THE EMERGENCE OF

THE NEW SOUTH, 1913–45 (1967)..............

Glenn Martel, Early Days in Northwest

Louisiana, 12 AM. HIST. QUARTERLY 120–

21 (1953) ....................................................

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, AFRICANS IN

COLONIAL LOUISIANA: THE DEVELOPMENT

AFRO-CREOLE CULTURE IN THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (1992) ....................

vii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Henry Alexander Wiencek, OIL CITIES: THE

MAKING

NORTH

LOUISIANA’S

BOOMTOWNS, 1901–1930 (2024) ................

Isabel Wilkerson, THE WARMTH OF OTHER

SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA’S

GREAT MIGRATION (2010) ..........................

J.R. Schultz & E.L. Krinitzsky, Geology of

the Lower Red River, Technical Memorandum No. 3-319. (Vicksburg, Ms.: U.S.

Army Engineer Waterways Experiment

Station, 1950) ............................................

Jack Dillard, Indicator Fall Is Upon Us,

Heritage Harvest Tour Is Too, SHREVEPORT

TIMES (Shreveport, La.), Sept. 18, 2016 ...

James G. Hollandsworth, PORTRAIT OF A

SCIENTIFIC RACIST: ALFRED HOLT STONE

OF MISSISSIPPI (2008) ................................

Janet Speyrer et al., Red River Development

Commission, LOUISIANA, https://crt.state.

la.us/Assets/documentarchive/impact-re

port/Red%20River.pdf ...............................

John C. Baker, FARM BROADCASTING: THE

FIRST SIXTY YEARS (1981) .........................

Joshua D. Rothman, THE LEDGER AND THE

CHAIN: HOW DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADERS

SHAPED AMERICA (2021) ............................

Joubert Surname Distribution Map,

FOREBEARS, https://forebears.io/surname

s/joubert .....................................................

viii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Justin T. Callais & Gonzalo Schwarz,

Social Mobility in the 50 States,

ARCHBRIDGE INSTITUTE (Dec. 18, 2023),

https://www.archbridgeinstitute.org/social

-mobility-in-the-50-states/..........................

La Tourrette’s reference map of the state of

Louisiana, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS,

https://www.loc.gov/item/2006629760/ .....

LeeAnna Keith, THE COLFAX MASSACRE:

THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLACK POWER,

WHITE TERROR, AND THE DEATH OF

RECONSTRUCTION (2008) ............................

Letter from D.B. Allen (Nov. 13, 1851)........

Louisiana Education: At Least Bachelor’s

Degree, NAT’L INST. ON MINORITY HEALTH

AND HEALTH DISPARITIES: HDPULSE,

https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih ..........................

Louisiana Income: All Races, NAT’L INST.

ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH

DISPARITIES: HDPULSE, https://hdpulse.

nimhd.nih.gov ...........................................

Louisiana Income: White and African

American, NAT’L INST. ON MINORITY

HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES:

HDPULSE, https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov

...................................................................

Louisiana Mortality: All Causes of Death,

NAT’L INST. ON MINORITY HEALTH AND

HEALTH DISPARITIES: HDPULSE, https://

hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov .............................

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Louisiana Poverty: All Races, Whites and

African Americans, NAT’L INST. ON

MINORITY

HEALTH

AND

HEALTH

DISPARITIES: HDPULSE, https://hdpulse.

nimhd.nih.gov ...........................................

Map of Louisiana Cities and Roads,

GEOLOGY.COM, https://geology.com/citiesmap/louisiana.shtml...................................

McCraw Surname Distribution Map,

FOREBEARS, https://forebears.io/surname

s/mccraw ....................................................

Michael Tadman, The Demographic Cost of

Sugar: Debates on Slave Societies and

Natural Increase in the Americas, 105

AM. HIST. REV. 1534 (2000).......................

Nicholas Lemann, REDEMPTION: THE LAST

BATTLE OF THE CIVIL WAR (2006)..............

Pete Daniel, BREAKING THE LAND: THE

TRANSFORMATION OF COTTON, TOBACCO,

AND RICE CULTURES SINCE 1880 (1985)....

Pete Daniel, DISPOSSESSION: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST AFRICAN AMERICAN FARMERS

IN THE AGE OF CIVIL RIGHTS (2013) ..........

Petition of a number of citizens of

Louisiana, praying for an alteration in a

mail route, S. DOC. 274-26 (1840).............

Poverty rate in the United States in 2023, by

state, STATISTA, https://www.statista.

com/statistics/233093/us-poverty-rateby-state/ .....................................................

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Quaternary Geology and Geoarchaeology of

the Lower Red River Valley (Whitney J.

Autin & John Pearson eds., 1993)............

Rachal Surname Distribution Map,

FOREBEARS, https://forebears.io/surname

s/rachal ......................................................

Railway Systems Map, LA. DEP’T OF

TRANSP. AND DEV., http://wwwsp.dotd.la.

gov/Inside_LaDOTD/Divisions/Multimod

al/Data_Collection/Mapping/Wall%20Ma

p/RailwaySystems_color.pdf ........................

Ralph J. Ramsey & Harold Hoffsommer,

Farm Tenancy in Louisiana, U.S. DEP’T OF

AGRIC., BUREAU OF AGRIC. ECON. (1941)..... 17, 18

Rand McNally and Company, Louisiana,

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS https://www.loc.

gov/item/98688489/ (map dates to 1896)..

Raymond J. Burby, Baton Rouge: The

Making (and Breaking) of a Petrochemical Paradise, in TRANSFORMING NEW

ORLEANS AND ITS ENVIRONS: CENTURIES

OF CHANGE (Craig Colten ed., 2000) .........

Rebecca Scott, DEGREES OF FREEDOM:

LOUISIANA AND CUBA AFTER SLAVERY

(2005) .........................................................

Red River, DAILY PICAYUNE (New Orleans,

La.), Aug. 3, 1844 ......................................

RED RIVER BANK, https://www.redriver

bank.net/locations/ ....................................

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

The Red River Country, DAILY NATIONAL

INTELLIGENCER (Washington, D.C.), Aug.

21, 1817 .........................................................

5, 7

The Red River Country, in UNIVERSAL

GAZETTEER OF THE WORLD: A DICTIONARY,

GEOGRAPHICAL,

HISTORICAL

AND

STATISTICAL (Z. & B.F. Pratt eds., 1852) ..

5, 9

Red River Delegates Back, NEW ORLEANS

STATES (New Orleans, La.), Nov. 19,

1927 ...........................................................

Red River Presbytery Delegates Return,

SHREVEPORT JOURNAL (Shreveport, La.),

Oct. 13, 1921 .............................................

Red River Research Station, LSU

AGCENTER, https://www.lsuagcenter.com/

portals/our_offices/research_stations/red

river ...........................................................

RED RIVER VALLEY ASS’N, https://rrva.org/ ..

RED RIVER WATERWAY COMM’N, https://

redriverwaterway.com/ .............................

Richard L. Engstrom et al., Louisiana, in

QUIET REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH: THE

IMPACT OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT,

1965–1990 (Chandler Davidson & Bernard

Grofman eds., 1994) .....................................

Robert H. Gudmestad, A TROUBLESOME

COMMERCE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE

INTERSTATE SLAVE TRADE (2003) ...............

xii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Robert Gudmestad, Steamboats and the

Removal of the Red River Raft, 52 LA.

HIST. 389 (2011) ........................................

Robert Gudmestad, STEAMBOATS AND THE

RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM (2011) .... 7, 8, 13

Shane

Bernard,

THE CAJUNS:

AMERICANIZATION OF A PEOPLE (2009) ......

Seventeenth Census of the United States,

United States National Archives, https://

www.ancestry.com ............................... 21, 23-25

Solomon Northup, TWELVE YEARS A

SLAVE (1853) ...........................................

Stephen W. Stathis, LANDMARK LEGISLATION,

1774-2012: MAJOR U.S. ACTS AND

TREATIES (2014) ........................................

Ted Tunnell, Coushatta Massacre, 64

PARISHES (Jan. 18, 2021), https://64paris

hes.org/entry/coushatta-massacre ............

Terri Richardson, Thursday is Jack Dillard

Day of Appreciation, MARSHALL NEWS

MESSENGER (Mar. 30, 2010) https://www.

marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/thur

sday-is-jack-dillard-day-of-appreciation/

article_c99812ac-1076-580c-ada2-c2bf8b

e53f0b.html ...............................................

Testimony of B.W. Marston Re: The

Coushatta Affair, H.R. REP. NO. 816-44

(1872) .........................................................

xiii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

Thomas C. Buchanan, BLACK LIFE ON THE

MISSISSIPPI: SLAVES, FREE BLACKS, AND THE

WESTERN STEAMBOAT WORLD (2004) .........

Tom Blake, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana,

Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave

Census Schedules and Surname Matches

for African Americans on 1870 Census,

ROOTSWEB (Apr. 2001), https://sites.roots

web.com/~ajac/desoto.htm ........................

Tom Blake, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana,

Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave

Census Schedules and Surname Matches

for African Americans on 1870 Census,

ROOTSWEB (May 2001), https://sites.roots

web.com/~ajac/lanatchitoches.htm........... 21, 25

Tom Blake, Rapides Parish, Louisiana,

Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave

Census Schedules and Surname Matches

for African Americans on 1870 Census,

ROOTSWEB (Mar. 2001), https://sites.

rootsweb.com/~ajac/larapides.htm ...........

Tom Blake, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana,

Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave

Census Schedules and Surname Matches

for African Americans on 1870 Census,

ROOTSWEB (Mar. 2001), https://sites.

rootsweb.com/~ajac/lastlandry.htm .........

xiv

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

U.S. Census Bureau, 1980 CENSUS OF

POPULATION, SUPPLEMENTARY REPORTS:

STANDARD METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL

AREAS AND STANDARD CONSOLIDATED

STATISTICAL AREAS (1981) ........................

U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Censuses

of 1830, 1840, 1850, and 1860, SOCIAL

EXPLORER, INC., https://www.socialexplo

rer.com ..................................................... 3, 9, 10

U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Censuses

of 1910 and 1960, SOCIAL EXPLORER,

https://www.socialexplorer.com ................ 18-20

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table B04003, Total

Ancestry Reported, 2013 American

Community Survey 5-Year Estimates,

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2

013.B04003?q=Total&g=040XX00US22$

0500000 .....................................................

2-4

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table S1501, Educational Attainment, 2018-2022 American

Community Survey 5-Year Estimates,

https://data.census.gov/table?q=educatio

n&g=040XX00US22$0500000 .................... 31-32

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table S1702, Poverty

Status in the Past 12 Months of Families,

2018–2022 American Community Survey

5-Year Estimates, https://data.census.

gov/table/ACSST5Y2022.S1702?q=pover

ty%20rate&g=040XX00US22$0500000 ...

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued

Page(s)

U.S. DEP’T OF AGRICULTURE, Louisiana

State and Parish Data, Volume 1:

Geographic Area Series, Part 18, in 2022

CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE (2024) ...............

Valery Gaienne Hyams, A History of

Navigation on Red River from 1815 to

1865 (Louisiana State University

Doctoral Dissertation, 1939) ....................

WHITEPAGES, whitepages.com...................... 22-24

Women are United in Church Work, DAILY

PICAYUNE (New Orleans, La.), May 13,

1913 ...........................................................

INTERESTS OF AMICI CURIAE 1

Amici Dr. John Bardes of Louisiana State University,

Dr. R. Blakeslee Gilpin of Tulane University, and Dr.

Adam Fairclough of Leiden University (Emeritus), are

expert historians of Louisiana and the greater American

South. They file this brief to assist the Court in

understanding why a robust historical record demonstrates that Louisiana’s Congressional District 6, as

set forth in SB8, reflects a longstanding community of

interest in the state. This historical evidence, together

with modern-day sociological data, reinforces the lay

testimony of witnesses in the trial record. It supports

that the District Court erred when it disregarded this

testimony and instead relied on an incomplete and

unreliable historical analysis to reach its conclusion

that District 6 is not reasonably configured.

INTRODUCTION AND

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT

The Louisiana Legislature enacted SB8 to remedy

an established violation under Section 2 of the Voting

Rights Act of 1965 for its failure to draw at least two

Black-opportunity Congressional districts in 2022. In

crafting a remedial district, “States retain a flexibility

[and] may avoid strict scrutiny altogether by respecting their own traditional districting principles.” Bush

v. Vera, 517 U.S. 952, 978 (1996). And even when strict

scrutiny applies, “[a] § 2 district that is reasonably

compact and regular, taking into account traditional

districting principles such as maintaining communities

of interest and traditional boundaries, may pass strict

scrutiny without having to defeat rival compact

No counsel for a party authored this brief in whole or in part,

and no person other than amici or their counsel made a monetary

contribution to this brief’s preparation and submission.

districts designed by plaintiffs' experts in endless

‘beauty contests.’” Bush v. Vera, 517 U.S. 952, 977

(1996) (emphasis in original).

Communities of interest share common “needs and

interests,” including shared characteristics such as

“socio-economic status, education, employment, [or]

health,” LULAC v. Perry, 548 U.S. 399, 432, 435 (2006)

(internal quotation omitted), or other commonalities

such as public transport infrastructure and institutions. Bush v. Vera, 517 U.S. at 964. Race may

“correlate[] strongly” with these unifying traits, see id.,

and states are “free” to recognize and preserve

communities of interest “that have a particular racial

makeup” as long as that “action is directed toward

some common thread of relevant interests.” Miller v.

Johnson, 515 U.S. 900, 920 (1995).

The District Court committed clear error when it

disregarded the evidence of communities of interest

within District 6 and, instead, took impermissible

judicial notice of extra-record materials that do not

constitute a reliable or accurate historical analysis of

the region. In particular, the District Court’s determination that District 6 divides Louisiana’s “Cajun”

community, Robinson App.185a n.12, greatly exaggerates

the homogeneity of Louisiana’s parishes, misrepresents

the distribution of residents who claim Cajun ancestry,

and wrongly assumes that communities within a given

space are mutually exclusive and non-overlapping. In

none of the parishes that constitute District 6 do more

than 3 percent of residents report their ancestry as

“Cajun,” according to the latest census figures. 2

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table B04003, Total Ancestry

Reported, 2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates,

Prioritizing that group’s claim to historical cohesiveness over all other overlapping claims elevates the

interests of a small minority over those of the broader

plurality. Leading historical scholarship on the Cajun

people, moreover, recognizes that Louisiana’s “Acadiana”

region is a recent invention, influenced in part by the

interests of the state’s tourism economy. 3

Likewise, the District Court’s determination that

District 6 violates “the traditional north-south” divide

between “creoles” of French-Spanish colonial ancestry

and the descendants of more recent Anglo-American

migrants is based on a simplistic and historically

inaccurate understanding of Louisiana’s history. The

colonial census of 1800 (the last before the Louisiana

Purchase) recorded 44,116 persons in Louisiana, while

the 1850 U.S. census documented 517,762 residents—

a more than tenfold increase in just five decades,

during which the state experienced its five highest

rates of decennial growth in its entire history. 4 Across

all Louisiana parishes, the predominant ancestral groups

are Anglo-American migrants, Black and white, who

arrived from the upper United States after the

https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2013.B04003?q=Total&g

=040XX00US22$0500000 (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

See, e.g., Carl L. Bankston III & Jacques Henry, Spectacles of

Ethnicity: Festivals and the Commodification of Ethnic Culture

among Louisiana Cajuns, 20 SOCIO. SPECTRUM 377 (2000); Shane

K. Bernard, THE CAJUNS: AMERICANIZATION OF A PEOPLE (2009).

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, AFRICANS IN COLONIAL LOUISIANA:

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRO-CREOLE CULTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY (1992), 278; U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Decennial Censuses

of 1850, SOCIAL EXPLORER, https://www.socialexplorer.com (last

visited Dec. 21, 2024).

Louisiana Purchase. Once again, the interests of a

minority should not supersede those of a larger plurality.

Several witnesses have testified that District 6 is

united by the I-49 corridor and the Red River, and that

the population shares a common ancestry and similar

cultural and socio-economic characteristics. See Robinson

App. 149a–151a; see also Robinson App. 66a–69a

(testimony of Mayor Glover), 69a–77a (testimony of

Ms. Shelton), 117a–119a (testimony of Commissioner

Lewis), 225a (testimony of Rev. Harris), App.420a–

423a (statement by Sen. Womack).

This lay testimony is supported by the historical

record of the Red River Valley as a distinct and

long-recognized community of interest in Louisiana.

District 6 of SB8 closely aligns with the historical

boundaries of this region.

The Red River Valley has been recognized as a

cohesive geographical, agricultural, economic, social,

and political unit for over two hundred years.

Beginning in the early 19th century, this narrow and

highly fertile floodplain became a center of intensive

cotton production that relied upon enslaved labor.

Today’s Black population, a latticework of interconnected

communities, is largely descended from those enslaved

laborers. Because of its distinctive agriculture and

Black majority population, Louisiana’s Red River Valley

has also long been recognized as dissimilar to the

regions immediately bordering it to the northeast and

southwest. Both the historical record and contemporary evidence support the lay witness testimony that

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table B04003, Total Ancestry Reported,

2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, https://

data.census.gov/table/ACSDT5Y2013.B04003?q=Total&g=040XX

00US22$0500000 (last visited Dec. 21, 2024).

District 6 constitutes a well-established community of

interest. The District Court’s finding to the contrary is

an error of fact supporting reversal.

ARGUMENT

I. District 6 Closely Aligns with Louisiana’s

Historic Red River Valley, a LongRecognized Community of Interest.

The Red River traverses Louisiana from Shreveport

in the northwest to the Mississippi River in the

southeast. After America gained control of the

Louisiana Territory, the agricultural boom of cotton

production helped create a unique identity for this

area, commonly referred to then as the “Red River

region” or “Red River country.” 6 Mid-19th century

structural changes diverted the Red River’s flow into

the Atchafalaya River, creating a single river system

that connected the communities now within District 6,

as shown below. 7

See, e.g., The Red River Country, DAILY NATIONAL

INTELLIGENCER (Washington, D.C.), Aug. 21, 1817 [hereinafter

INTELLIGENCER]; The Red River Country, in UNIVERSAL GAZETTEER

OF THE WORLD: A DICTIONARY, GEOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL AND

STATISTICAL 759–60 (Z. & B.F. Pratt eds., 1852) [hereinafter

GAZETTEER].

Image from Geologic Map of Louisiana, U.S. GEOLOGICAL

SURV. (Nov. 30, 2000), https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/geolog

ic-map-louisiana (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

The Valley’s historical distinctiveness derives in

part from its geology. The Red River and its snaking

web of tributaries and lakes carry and deposit vast

amounts of nutrient-rich sediment from the Great

Plains. This composition gives the water its distinctive

reddish hue and creates a soil composition ideally

suited for intensive cash-crop agriculture (which in

turn attracted plantations). The Valley contrasts with

the sandy, low-fertility soil in the lands to either side

of the river in the northeast and southwest, leading to

dissimilar agricultural uses, settlement patterns, and

present-day demographic profiles compared to the Red

River Valley. 8

David P. Russ, The Quaternary Geomorphology of the Lower

Red River Valley, Louisiana (Pennsylvania State University

The history of present-day communities within the

Red River Valley begins with the migration of wouldbe cotton farmers and their enslaved workforces. After

the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, land prospectors quickly

recognized the floodplain’s exceptional suitability for

cotton production. 9

Settlement was initially inhibited, however, by the

region’s inaccessibility. There were no roads into the

Valley and only two rudimentary overland trails. 10

Consequently, travel, transport, and farmers’ ability to

bring their goods to market depended entirely on the

Red River and its tributary network.

To allow for the passage of steamboats and thus

enable the development of cotton plantations, a series

of sandbars, debris, and other natural obstructions had

to first be cleared. 11 In 1829, the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers enlisted steamboat builder Henry Miller

Shreve to remove these obstructions and open the Red

River Valley to extensive cotton cultivation. In 1831, in

Doctoral Dissertation, 1975); J.R. Schultz & E.L. Krinitzsky,

Geology of the Lower Red River, Technical Memorandum No.

3-319. (Vicksburg, Ms.: U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment

Station, 1950); David C. Weindorf, An Update of the Field Guide

to Louisiana Soil Classification (Bulletin No. 889), LA. STATE

UNIV. AGCENTER BULLETINS (2008); Quaternary Geology and

Geoarchaeology of the Lower Red River Valley (Whitney J. Autin

& John Pearson eds., 1993).

See INTELLIGENCER, supra note 6.

Glenn Martel, Early Days in Northwest Louisiana, 12 AM.

HIST. QUARTERLY 120–21 (1953).

Robert Gudmestad, STEAMBOATS AND THE RISE OF THE

COTTON KINGDOM 81–82, 130 (2011) [hereinafter Gudmestad,

STEAMBOATS AND THE RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM]; C. Geoffrey

Mangin, Clearing the Great Raft: Impetus for Economic Growth in

Louisiana’s Red River Valley, 1830-1860, 31 N. LA. HIST. 32 (2000).

Pointe Coupée Parish, Shreve oversaw the construction

of a canal at a long, C-shaped curve in the Mississippi

River, transforming what had been two separate

waterways (the Red and Atchafalaya Rivers) into one

single, cohesive river system. 12 From 1833 through

1838, Shreve removed the “Great Raft”—a massive,

centuries-old logjam that stretched more than

160 miles upriver from Campti, Louisiana to the

present-day site of Shreveport, Louisiana, opening the

Red River system to steamboat travel and uniting

communities along the Red River floodplain. These

environmental modifications collected settlements

within the Red River Valley into a cohesive network

that was also closely attached to communities within

the Atchafalaya River floodplain, including parts of

Avoyelles, St. Landry, Lafayette, West Baton Rouge,

and Pointe Coupée Parishes.

A new logjam quickly formed immediately upriver of

Shreveport, blocking any further upriver travel and

transport until it was removed in 1873, and drawing

a hard line of American settlement along the

Atchafalaya-Red River system. 13 The economic futility

of traversing this blockage dictated historical settlement

to such an extent that the former barrier broadly

aligns with the northwestern boundary of District 6.

Most settlers and their enslaved workforces migrated

into the valley in the immediate aftermath of Shreve’s

engineering feats. Between 1830 and 1860, the population density of Red River Valley parishes ballooned:

Gudmestad, STEAMBOATS AND THE RISE OF THE COTTON

KINGDOM, supra note 11, at 131–33.

Robert Gudmestad, Steamboats and the Removal of the Red

River Raft, 52 LA. HIST. 389 (2011); Carl Newton Tyson, THE RED

RIVER IN THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORY, 152 (1981).

Natchitoches Parish leapt from 1.4 to 10.1 persons per

square mile, Rapides Parish from 3.4 to 9.0, Avoyelles

Parish from 2.9 to 15.2, and St Landry Parish from 1.7

to 10.1. Caddo Parish, established by the state

legislature in 1838, saw an even more dramatic rise:

From 1840 to 1860, its population density increased

from 3.3 to 12.2 persons per square mile. 14

Cotton plantations quickly dominated the region,

described in a 19th-century encyclopedia as “particularly

adapted to the cotton culture” and yielding “more bales

to the acre probably than any other extensive district.” 15

Settlers described “immense fields of cotton higher

than my head on my horse,” 16 so dense and uniform

that the entire floodplain appeared “covered with

snow.” 17 In 1842, cotton merchants estimated that the

Red River Valley produced 200,000 bales of cotton:

nearly one-tenth of all the cotton produced in the

United States that year. 18

These plantations required large labor forces to

plant, weed, and hand-pick the bulbous cotton fibers

from the plants. After the international slave trade

ended in 1808, Red River Valley cotton entrepreneurs

Population data based on the U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial

Censuses of 1830, 1840, 1850, and 1860, SOCIAL EXPLORER, INC.,

https://www.socialexplorer.com (last visited November 22, 2024).

GAZETTEER, supra note 6, at 759–60.

Carin Peller-Semmens, Unreconstructed: slavery and emancipation on Louisiana's Red River, 1820-1880, 15 (University of

Sussex, Doctoral Dissertation, American Studies, 2016) (quoting

a letter from D.B. Allen written Nov. 13, 1851).

Friedrich Gërstacker, GËRSTACKER’S LOUISIANA: FICTION

AND TRAVEL SKETCHES FROM ANTEBELLUM TIMES THROUGH

RECONSTRUCTION 28 (Irene di Maio trans., 2006).

GAZETTEER, supra note 6, at 759.

met their labor needs by importing enslaved communities from other States. 19 The most famous firsthand

account of this forced migration is that of Solomon

Northup, taken to Avoyelles Parish in 1841, whose

detailed memoir of slavery in the Red River Valley was

the basis of the Oscar-winning 2013 film, Twelve Years

a Slave. 20 By 1860, all of the parishes within the

Atchafalaya-Red River system had Black majorities. 21

Though disjointed by this forced relocation, the

enslaved survivors of this journey quickly formed

stable, cohesive, self-reproducing communities. Cotton

cultivation within the Atchafalaya-Red River system

fostered plantation conditions that supported natural

population growth, and by extension, a high degree of

community stability even compared to other plantation

regions. For example, plantations in Louisiana’s sugarproducing regions—where death rates exceeded birth

rates and gender ratios were skewed 22—required the

constant importation of enslaved people from other

parts of the country. By contrast, enslaved communities

within the Red River Valley experienced high rates of

natural population growth. 23

On this domestic slave trade, see Robert H. Gudmestad, A

TROUBLESOME COMMERCE: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE INTERSTATE

SLAVE TRADE (2003); Joshua D. Rothman, THE LEDGER AND THE

CHAIN: HOW DOMESTIC SLAVE TRADERS SHAPED AMERICA (2021).

Solomon Northup, TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE (1853).

Population data based on the U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial

Censuses of 1850 and 1860, SOCIAL EXPLORER, INC., https://

www.socialexplorer.com (last visited Nov. 22, 2024).

Michael Tadman, The Demographic Cost of Sugar: Debates

on Slave Societies and Natural Increase in the Americas, 105 AM.

HIST. REV. 1534 (2000), 1536–37, 1542–55.

Peller-Semmens, Unreconstructed, supra note 16, at 47–50;

Tadman, The Demographic Cost of Sugar, supra note 22.

The best alluvial soil was confined to the immediate

banks of the Atchafalaya-Red River system, which

meant that settlement followed long, narrow strips of

highly concentrated cotton cultivation. This settlement

pattern is clearly discernable on maps of the period,

showing parallel strips of cotton plantations along the

banks of the Atchafalaya-Red River system and its

lines of parallel tributaries, including the map of

Louisiana’s largest plantations in 1848 shown below. 24

Consequentially, cotton cultivation and Black settlement were concentrated in the same narrow strips of

land that flanked the river system, reaching from the

northwest end of the state down southeast. As one

Image from La Tourrette’s reference map of the state of

Louisiana, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, https://www.loc.gov/item/2006

629760/ (last visited Dec. 20, 2024).

moved further away from the river system, geology,

land use, and demographic patterns rapidly changed.

Settlers and travelers repeatedly described how

dissimilar the narrow cotton-producing floodplain was

to the regions immediately southwest and northeast.

For example, in 1853, the famous landscape architect

Frederick Law Olmsted highlighted the stark demographic divide between river-adjacent and off-river

communities. Whereas the overwhelming majority of

people living within the floodplain were Black (enslaved

people working on cotton plantations), Black people

were rarely encountered in the piney woods, where the

poorer farmers and cattle ranchers “seldom own

slaves.” 25 This settlement pattern, shaped by

geological features, remains powerfully coherent 175

years later, corresponding to today’s boundaries and

dimensions of District 6.

Because Red River Valley settlers were entirely

reliant on riverways for travel and transport, the

peoples living within the floodplain were geographically

isolated from those living further from that river

system. In an 1840 petition for a new mail route, for

example, residents of Rapides Parish noted that the

journey from Alexandria to the Mississippi River took

“two and three months” over land; via the AtchafalayaRed River route, that same journey took only a matter

of hours by steamboat. 26

Frederick Law Olmsted, A JOURNEY IN THE SEABOARD SLAVE

STATES, WITH REMARKS ON THEIR ECONOMY 628 (1856).

Petition of a number of citizens of Louisiana, praying for an

alteration in a mail route, S. DOC. 274-26, at 1 (1840).

By 1840, over forty steamboat lines provided regular

service along the Atchafalaya-Red River system. 27

By 1860, there were more than 100 steamboat lines

along that route. 28 For both enslaved and free people,

proximity to the river provided degrees of access to

material goods, travel, and information that were

comparatively unavailable in remote inland regions.

Enslaved and formerly enslaved people frequently

described how Black communities along the river were

culturally and socially distinct, shaped by the river’s

exceptional connectivity and opportunities. 29

As a result of these settlement patterns, Louisianians

have consistently referred to residents of the Red

River Valley as a distinct population, with shared

interests and concerns, and in certain respects different

from neighboring communities. At Louisiana’s 1844–

45 State Constitutional Convention, for example,

commentators and reporters repeatedly described

“the members of the Convention from the Red River

country” as a bloc that behaved as a (sometimes

frustratingly) coherent political unit. 30 Despite the

upheavals and destruction of the intervening Civil

War, “The delegates from the Red River country” were

still identified as a distinct political bloc during the

Emerson W. Gould, FIFTY YEARS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; OR,

GOULD’S HISTORY OF RIVER NAVIGATION 235 (1889).

Valery Gaienne Hyams, A History of Navigation on Red

River from 1815 to 1865, at 65–66 (Louisiana State University

Doctoral Dissertation, 1939).

See generally, Thomas C. Buchanan, BLACK LIFE ON THE

MISSISSIPPI: SLAVES, FREE BLACKS, AND THE WESTERN STEAMBOAT

WORLD (2004), 6–8, 88–100; Gudmestad, STEAMBOATS AND THE

RISE OF THE COTTON KINGDOM, 48–51, 155, supra note 11.

From Red River, DAILY PICAYUNE (New Orleans, La.), Aug.

3, 1844.

1874 State Democratic Party Convention.31 Periodically,

Red River Valley residents petitioned Federal Congress in

this very formation, as in 1927 when a “delegation of

the Red River Valley” traveled to Washington D.C. and

met with members of Congress.32 The phrase, “Delegates

from the Red River” was ubiquitous at the numerous

religious conventions that met across the 20th century. 33

Similarly, Red River valley planters and businessowners have repeatedly formed organizations to lobby

for what they clearly understood as their unique

communal interests. For instance, in 1883, delegates

from across the valley met in Natchitoches where they

organized the “Red River Planters’ and Merchants’

Transportation Company.” 34

II. The Red River Valley’s Black Population

Shares a Common Lineage of Slavery.

Today’s Black communities trace their ancestry to

individuals brought by white settlers during the river

system’s antebellum land rush. Unlike in more volatile

regions where Black populations experienced greater

geographic mobility before and after the Civil War, the

Black communities along the Atchafalaya-Red River

system have remained unusually stable and rooted,

from emancipation to this day.

DAILY PICAYUNE (New Orleans, La.), Aug. 21, 1874.

Red River Delegates Back, NEW ORLEANS STATES (New

Orleans, La.), Nov. 19, 1927.

Women are United in Church Work, DAILY PICAYUNE (New

Orleans, La.), May 13, 1913; Red River Presbytery Delegates

Return, SHREVEPORT JOURNAL (Shreveport, La.), Oct. 13, 1921; 6

to Represent Red River Presbytery at General Assembly,

SHREVEPORT JOURNAL (Shreveport, La.), May 24, 1952.

DAILY PICAYUNE (New Orleans, La.), May 25, 1883.

A. Post-Reconstruction White Supremacy

Limited the Mobility of Red River

Valley’s Freedmen.

Although the Civil War and Reconstruction disrupted

populations across the South and Louisiana, the Red

River region within District 6 maintained remarkable

continuity during these tumultuous years. What followed

was a period in which white farmers reasserted their

political, social and cultural power, violently suppressing

Black populations and effectively binding them to the

region. This repression severely limited the economic

or social mobility necessary for migration out of the valley.

From 1865 to 1880, an array of “white-supremacist

leagues, clubs, and ‘rifle companies’” dedicated themselves

to the task of suppressing the social and political

freedom of the region’s freedpeople. 35 Through violence

and intimidation, racist organizations like the Knights

of the White Camelia, the Ku Klux Klan and the White

League decimated Black political participation. White

terrorism reached its apotheosis on Easter Sunday of

1873 in the Colfax Massacre, in which an armed white

mob murdered about a hundred Black men, women,

and children in and outside the courthouse of Colfax,

a town on the Red River near Alexandria. 36

White supremacists realized that Republican rule

during Reconstruction relied heavily on votes from

freed Black people in the “alluvial bottomlands,” along

Rebecca Scott, DEGREES OF FREEDOM: LOUISIANA AND CUBA

AFTER SLAVERY 49 (2005).

Eric Foner, THE SECOND FOUNDING: HOW THE CIVIL WAR AND

RECONSTRUCTION REMADE THE CONSTITUTION 335 (2019); see also

LeeAnna Keith, THE COLFAX MASSACRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF

BLACK POWER, WHITE TERROR, AND THE DEATH OF RECONSTRUCTION

(2008).

the Red River. This led to the rapid rise of the White

League, a white supremacist militia organization, in

the Red River Valley. 38 Just one year after the

Slaughter-House rulings (1873), Louisiana experienced

two more of the most significant acts of violence in the

state’s history, both aimed at disenfranchising Black

citizens: the Coushatta Massacre (in which the local

White League assassinated six white Republicans and

as many as 20 Black bystanders who witnessed the

killings in the Red River-adjacent community 39) and

New Orleans’ Battle of Liberty Place.

This combination of terroristic violence, voter intimidation, and weakened federal authority undermined

Black political activism in the Red River Valley.

Stripped of political representation, Black Louisianians

were rendered vulnerable to the control of the

plantation owners who owned the vast majority of the

region’s agricultural land. As a result, these Black

farmhands and their families found it exceedingly

difficult to achieve economic or social mobility or to

migrate out of the valley.

With the collapse of Republican government and the

withdrawal of federal support, sharecropping became

the dominant and increasingly oppressive labor system

within the Red River Valley. Sharecropping trapped

Black farmers in cycles of debt due to exploitative

Ted Tunnell, Coushatta Massacre, 64 PARISHES (Jan. 18,

2021), https://64parishes.org/entry/coushatta-massacre.

See Nicholas Lemann, REDEMPTION: THE LAST BATTLE OF

THE CIVIL WAR 25 (2006); see also James G. Hollandsworth,

PORTRAIT OF A SCIENTIFIC RACIST: ALFRED HOLT STONE OF

MISSISSIPPI 57 (2008) (quoting Judge J.B. Chrisman).

Testimony of B.W. Marston Re: The Coushatta Affair, H.R.

REP. NO. 816-44, at 645–727 (1872).

terms, high interest rates charged by farm commissaries, and poor harvests. By the late 19th century,

sharecropping was firmly entrenched on plantations in

the Red River Valley, effectively stifling opportunities

for Black economic and social advancement. These

conditions contributed to exceptionally low rates of

outbound migration among Black families in the

region, even compared to other Black communities in

the American South. 40

A 1941 United States Department of Agriculture

report on sharecropping in Louisiana concluded that

those Black farmers who lived and worked under the

most restrictive sharecropping arrangements were

most heavily concentrated along the AtchafalayaRed River system, particularly in Caddo, DeSoto,

Natchitoches, Avoyelles, St. Landry, and Pointe Coupée

Parishes. These farmers faced unusually strict control

and surveillance by white landowners and overseers,

with little autonomy in decision-making. 41 The report

also highlighted that the highest concentration of

“unpaid family laborers”––wives, children, and other

dependent relatives of sharecropping household heads,

working without any direct monetary compensation—

was found along the Atchafalaya-Red River system,

particularly in Caddo, DeSoto, Natchitoches, St.

Landry, and Pointe Coupée Parishes. 42 It concluded

On the rise of sharecropping, see Pete Daniel, BREAKING THE

LAND: THE TRANSFORMATION OF COTTON, TOBACCO, AND RICE

CULTURES SINCE 1880 (1985); Edward Royce, THE ORIGINS OF

SOUTHERN SHARECROPPING (1993); Gavin Wright, OLD SOUTH,

NEW SOUTH: REVOLUTIONS IN THE SOUTHERN ECONOMY SINCE

THE CIVIL WAR (1986).

Ralph J. Ramsey & Harold Hoffsommer, Farm Tenancy in

Louisiana, U.S. DEP’T OF AGRIC., BUREAU OF AGRIC. ECON. 12 (1941).

Id. at 5, Figure 8.

that agricultural laborers in the Red River Valley

tended to be the most economically exploited and

directly supervised in Jim Crow Louisiana. 43

B. Black Habitation Remained Remarkably

Stable During the Great Migration and

20th Century Urbanization.

The Great Migration, the most significant demographic

shift in African American history, refers to the mass

movement of an estimated six million Black Americans

out of the American South to the industrializing cities

of the North. Motivated by intensifying discrimination

and a lack of social and economic opportunities in the

South, large numbers of Black Americans left their

birthplaces and migrated for high-paying factory work

in the North, Midwest, and West. 44

But unlike Black communities in the South as a

whole or even in Louisiana’s other agricultural region,

Black communities in Louisiana’s Red River Valley

remained remarkably stable. Between 1910 and 1960,

the Black population of the ten parishes that make up

District 6 grew from 197,572 to 302,841—a 53.3%

increase. This contrasts sharply with the population

decline in Louisiana’s other cotton-intensive agricultural

region, located along the northeastern edge of the

state. 45 In other words, Black communities in the Red

See id. at 17.

Carole Marks, FAREWELL—WE’RE GOOD AND GONE: THE

GREAT BLACK MIGRATION (1989); Isabel Wilkerson, THE WARMTH

OF OTHER SUNS: THE EPIC STORY OF AMERICA’S GREAT

MIGRATION (2010).

In the five main parishes of Louisiana’s northeastern region

(East Carroll, Madison, Tensas, Concordia, and West Feliciana),

the Black population fell from 58,411 in 1910 to 44,767 in 1960—

a 23.4% decrease. Population data based on the U.S. Census

River Valley largely remained in place, even as Black

Southerners fled other regions.

This relative population stability reflected two

factors. First, Black families were denied opportunities

for out-migration due to the restrictive economic and

social conditions within the Red River Valley. Second,

the Great Migration coincided with the rapid growth

of urban industrial centers—in particular, the cities of

Shreveport, Alexandria, and Baton Rouge—within the

present-day boundaries of District 6. These industrializing cities provided demographic stability by

absorbing many of the Black migrants from the Red

River Valley who would otherwise have left Louisiana

entirely. Put another way, whereas Black southerners

from other agricultural regions tended to leave the

South altogether, those living in the Red River Valley

were able to find industrial job opportunities within

their own region.

Urbanization within the present-day boundaries of

District 6 was jumpstarted by Louisiana’s oil boom. 46

In 1904, the discovery of oil immediately outside of

Shreveport triggered that city’s rapid growth. 47

Between 1910 and 1960, the Black population of

Shreveport grew from 13,896 to 55,607, while the city’s

overall population grew from 28,015 to 164,372. 48 The

Bureau, Decennial Censuses of 1910 and 1960, SOCIAL EXPLORER,

https://www.socialexplorer.com (last visited Nov. 22, 2024).

William D. Reeves, HISTORIC LOUISIANA: AN ILLUSTRATED

HISTORY 59 (2002).

Henry Alexander Wiencek, OIL CITIES: THE MAKING OF

NORTH LOUISIANA’S BOOMTOWNS, 1901–1930 (2024).

Campbell Gibson & Kay Jung, Historical Census Statistics

On Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic

Origin, 1970 to 1990, For Large Cities And Other Urban Places In

rapid industrialization and growth of Baton Rouge

was triggered by Standard Oil Company’s construction

of an enormous refinery there in 1909. That refinery

grew to be the world’s largest. 49

Between 1910 and 1960, Baton Rouge’s Black

population grew from 7,899 to 45,475, while the city’s

overall population rose from 14,897 to 152,419. 50

Similarly, Alexandria experienced rapid growth, spurred

by the construction of Army and Army Air Bases

nearby during both world wars. Alexandria was home

to only 11,213 residents in 1910 but by 1970, 131,740

persons lived in the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical

Area. 51 Despite the changes wrought by the mechanization of cotton plantations and a declining demand

for agricultural labor, displaced farmworkers living

along the Atchafalaya-Red River remained in the

region. They found stable employment in Shreveport,

Baton Rouge, and Alexandria, relocating to cities still

within the present-day boundaries of District 6.

The United States 59 tbl.19 (U.S. Census Bureau Population Div.,

Working Paper No. 76, 2005).

Raymond J. Burby, Baton Rouge: The Making (and

Breaking) of a Petrochemical Paradise, in TRANSFORMING NEW

ORLEANS AND ITS ENVIRONS: CENTURIES OF CHANGE 160, 164–68

(Craig Colten ed., 2000); George Brown Tindall, THE EMERGENCE

OF THE NEW SOUTH, 1913–45 (1967).

See supra note 48.

U.S. Census Bureau, 1980 CENSUS OF POPULATION,

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORTS: STANDARD METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL

AREAS AND STANDARD CONSOLIDATED STATISTICAL AREAS 6

(1981); U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Censuses of 1910 and

1960, SOCIAL EXPLORER, https://www.socialexplorer.com (data for

1910) (last visited Nov. 22, 2024).

C. Surname Analysis Evidences the Stability

of the Red River Valley’s Black

Community from the 19th Century to

the Present Day.

One method for identifying the enduring presence of

these communities is by tracking the occurrence of

uncommon surnames. This approach reveals that

descendants of the enslaved communities living along

the Atchafalaya-Red River system in 1860 remained

heavily concentrated along that same river system

nearly a century later (according to the 1950 census,

the most recent year for which enumerated persons’

identifying information is publicly released) and even

up to the present (based on current sources like the

Whitepages).

For example, in Natchitoches Parish in 1860, one

of the largest slaveholders was a white Louisianian

named Victor Rachal, who claimed ownership of fiftyfive people. 52 In 1950, 340 Black Louisianians bore this

unusual “Rachal” surname: 208 lived in Natchitoches

Parish (61.2 percent) while 103 lived in other parishes

included in District 6 (30.3 percent). In an astonishing

testament to the cohesion of the Red River Black

community across time, only 29 Black Louisianians

with the “Rachal” surname (8.5 percent) lived in a

parish not included in District 6. 53

Tom Blake, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, Largest

Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname

Matches for African Americans on 1870 Census, ROOTSWEB (May

2001), https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ajac/lanatchitoches.htm.

For 1950 census rolls, see Seventeenth Census of the United

States, United States National Archives, reproduced on USNA

microfilm publication T628 and accessed via https://www.ance

stry.com.

Further analysis reveals that, even today, a large

majority of the descendants of people enslaved by

Victor Rachal of Natchitoches Parish continue to reside

in District 6. For example, according to the Whitepages’

online directory, the four census-designated places in

Louisiana with the highest number of individuals

bearing the “Rachal” surname are the cities of

Natchitoches (206 entries, or 11.2 percent), Alexandria

(197 entries, or 10.7 percent), Shreveport (163 entries,

or 8.8 percent) and Pineville, an Alexandria suburb

(121 entries, or 6.6 percent). All of these locations are

within District 6 and on the Red River. 54 Overall, at

least 1,109 of the 1,846 “Rachal” surname entries in

Louisiana (60.1 percent) are concentrated in the parishes

constituting District 6. Similar results are revealed by

Forebears.io, a digital database of surname distributions:

throughout the entirety of the United States, the three

U.S. counties with the greatest concentrations of people

with the “Rachal” surname are Natchitoches Parish,

Louisiana (91 persons per ten thousand), Rapides

Parish, Louisiana (32 per ten thousand), and Avoyelles

Parish, Louisiana (27 per ten thousand): again, all

within District 6 parishes. 55 In other words, during the

twentieth and twenty-first centuries, most paternal

descendants of the people enslaved by Victor Rachal in

Natchitoches Parish have either remained in

Natchitoches Parish or moved to cities in District 6.

This pattern of Black constancy was replicated

across the Red River Valley. In 1860 in St. Landry

Parish, the plantation-owner Hyacinth Joubert claimed

WHITEPAGES, whitepages.com (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

Rachal Surname Distribution Map, FOREBEARS, https://fore

bears.io/surnames/rachal (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

ownership of 74 enslaved persons. 56 In 1950, census

takers identified 182 Black Louisianians with the

“Joubert” surname, of whom 151 lived in St. Landry

Parish (83.0 percent) and 13 lived in another parish

included in District 6 (7.1 percent); only 18 Black

persons named “Joubert” lived in parishes not comprising

District 6 (9.9 percent). 57 Today, Whitepages has 981

entries for the “Joubert” surname in Louisiana.

At least 510 of those entries (52.0 percent) are of

people in the parishes of District 6; the largest single

concentration is still found in St. Landry Parish (at

least 279 entries, or 28.4 percent). 58 According to

Forebears.io, the county with the single greatest

concentration of “Joubert” persons is St. Landry

Parish, Louisiana. 59

In 1860 in DeSoto Parish, J.H. McCraw claimed

ownership of 54 people. 60 In 1950, census takers

documented 35 Black Louisianians with the “McCraw”

surname, 21 of whom lived in DeSoto Parish (60.0

percent) and two of whom lived in Caddo Parish (5.7

percent); only 12 people (34.3 percent) lived in

parishes excluded from District 6. Today, Whitepages

lists 93 entries for persons with the “McCraw” surname

Tom Blake, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, Largest Slaveholders

from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for

African Americans on 1870 Census, ROOTSWEB (Mar. 2001),

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ajac/lastlandry.htm.

See supra note 53.

See supra note 54.

Joubert Surname Distribution Map, FOREBEARS, https://fore

bears.io/surnames/joubert (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

Tom Blake, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, Largest Slaveholders

from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for

African Americans on 1870 Census, ROOTSWEB (Apr. 2001),

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ajac/ladesoto.htm.

in Louisiana. The largest number of Louisianians with

the McCraw surname are found in Shreveport (21

persons, or 22.6 percent). According to Forebears.io,

the greatest concentration of Louisianians named

“McCraw” is found in DeSoto Parish. 61

In 1860 in Rapides Parish, a woman named Adelia

E. Casson claimed ownership of 416 people. 62 In 1950,

90 Black Louisianians bore the “Casson” surname; 10

lived within Rapides Parish (11.1 percent) while 67

(74.4 percent) lived in other District 6 parishes; only

13 persons (14.4 percent) lived in parishes excluded

from District 6. 63 Today, the Whitepages lists 97

entries for Louisiana residents with the “Casson”

surname. The four largest numbers of persons with that

surname live in the cities of Natchitoches (36 entries,

or 37.1 percent), Shreveport (23 entries, or 23.7

percent), Alexandria (6 entries, or 6.2 percent), and

Baton Rouge (4 entries, or 4.1 percent). Each of these

towns are in District 6. All told, 78 of the 97 entries for

“Casson” (80.4 percent) are found in parishes

comprising District 6.64 According to Forebears.io, the

three Louisiana parishes with the greatest

concentration of “Casson” persons are Rapides,

Natchitoches, and Caddo. 65

McCraw Surname Distribution Map, FOREBEARS, https://

forebears.io/surnames/mccraw (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

Tom Blake, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, Largest Slaveholders

from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname Matches for

African Americans on 1870 Census, ROOTSWEB (Mar. 2001),

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ajac/larapides.htm.

See supra note 53.

See supra note 54.

Casson Surname Distribution Map, FOREBEARS, https://fore

bears.io/surnames/casson (last visited Dec. 17, 2024).

In 1860 in Natchitoches Parish, J.B. Cloutier claimed

ownership of 83 people. 66 In 1950, there were 17 Black

Louisianians with the “Cloutier” surname, and all 17

(100 percent) lived within parishes that constitute

District 6.67 Today the Louisiana parish with the greatest

concentration of “Cloutier” persons is Natchitoches. 68

This evidences a remarkable consistency across

time. Settlement conditions established during the

1810s–1840s predictably foretold who would remain in

the region, two centuries later. And, as set forth below,

the historic roots of the Red River Valley as a

community of interest manifest today in common

infrastructure, institutions, and shared socioeconomics

that support a common set of needs and interests.

III. The Red River Valley Contains Common

Economic,

Civic,

Commercial,

and

Educational Systems.

A. The Red River and I-49 Transport

Corridor.

Throughout the twentieth and twentieth-first

centuries, even as the Red River itself has declined as

a primary means of travel and transport, the Red

River Valley has remained a distinctive region and

community. A succession of railroads, highways, and

interstates replaced riverboats as the primary conduits

connecting peoples, changes that in another region

Tom Blake, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, Largest

Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules and Surname

Matches for African Americans on 1870 Census, ROOTSWEB (May

2001), https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ajac/lanatchitoches.htm.

See supra note 53.

Cloutier Surname Distribution Map, FOREBEARS, https://fore

bears.io/surnames/cloutier (last visited Dec. 19, 2024).

might have transformed demographic and spatial

patterns. However, because all major settlements were

originally established along riverways, and because

successive generations of engineers prioritized the

most efficient routes to link these communities, each

new transportation system has mirrored the network

originally shaped by the geography of the AtchafalayaRed River system.

During the 1880s and 1890s, as railroads supplanted

riverboats, new rail lines ran parallel to the river in

diagonal lines from Shreveport to Baton Rouge, thereby

connecting the corridor of communities along the

Atchafalaya-Red River system. Today, two of Louisiana’s

major railroad lines still follow this route. 69

Later, the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921 spurred

the development of Louisiana’s modern highway system. 70

Three years later, Louisiana established Louisiana

State Highway 1. As with the railroad, this new

highway was also built parallel to the Atchafalaya-Red

River, in a diagonal line running between Shreveport

and Baton Rouge, so that it would link the preexisting

river towns along that long, narrow corridor. 71 During

Alexandria Louisiana Railroads, ALEXANDRIA, https://www.

alexandria-louisiana.com/alexandria-louisiana-railroads.htm (last

visited Dec. 12, 2024). For Louisiana’s late-nineteenth-century

rail network, see Rand McNally and Company, Louisiana,

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS https://www.loc.gov/item/98688489/ (map

dates to 1896). For a current railroad map see Railway Systems

Map, LA. DEP’T OF TRANSP. AND DEV., http://wwwsp.dotd.la.gov/In

side_LaDOTD/Divisions/Multimodal/Data_Collection/Mapping/W

all%20Map/RailwaySystems_color.pdf (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

Stephen W. Stathis, LANDMARK LEGISLATION, 1774-2012:

MAJOR U.S. ACTS AND TREATIES 219 (2014).

Act No. 236, passed 17 July 1924, in ACTS PASSED BY THE

LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA AT THE REGULAR

the latter half of the 20th century, the coherence of the

Red River Valley was once again reinforced by the

construction of Interstate-49. Approved in 1976, I-49

was, like its predecessors, built parallel to the

Atchafalaya-Red River system, in a diagonal line

cutting across the state, thereby linking together the

river system’s historic towns, as shown below. 72

SESSION BEGUN AND HELD IN THE CITY OF BATON ROUGE ON THE

TWELFTH DAY OF MAY, 1924 at 479 (1924).

Image from Am. Ass’n of State Highway and Transp.

Officials, Route Numbering Committee Agenda 1976-07-13,

WIKISOURCE, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Route_Numbering_

Committee_Agenda_1976-07-13 (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

In other words, the railroad, highway, and interstate

network have each reproduced and reinforced the

geographic cohesiveness of the Red River Valley.

District 6’s boundaries reflect this consistently

interconnected region. 73

B. Regional

Civic

Organizations.

and

Commercial

Louisianians have consistently identified the Red

River Valley as a distinct region. Today, numerous

community organizations, businesses, and lobbying

groups claim to represent or serve this region’s people,

reflecting residents’ strong sense of shared identity.

The Red River Development Commission, for example,

seeks “to promote the region along the Red River in

Louisiana as a premier tourist destination, thus

building awareness, expanding economic opportunity

and strengthening place.” 74 Similarly, Louisiana State

University’s AgCenter operates the “Red River

Research Station” outside Shreveport, focusing on the

region’s specific agricultural needs. 75 The Red River

Waterway Commission and the Red River Valley

Association address the water management concerns

Image from Map of Louisiana Cities and Roads,

GEOLOGY.COM, https://geology.com/cities-map/louisiana.shtml (last

visited Dec. 17, 2024).

Janet Speyrer et al., Red River Development Commission,

LOUISIANA, https://crt.state.la.us/Assets/documentarchive/impactreport/Red%20River.pdf (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

Red River Research Station, LSU AGCENTER, https://

www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/our_offices/research_stations/redri

ver (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

common to communities along the river. 76 The region’s

financial needs are served by Red River Bank, a

regional community bank whose branches are dispersed

between Shreveport, Alexandria, and several of the

smaller towns of the Red River Valley. 77

Geological conditions continue to shape the narrow

floodplain’s exceptional agricultural fertility, reinforcing

the valley’s economic distinctiveness from the

geologically dissimilar communities surrounding it.

For example, Jack Dillard, known regionally as the

“Voice of Agriculture,” has repeatedly claimed to

represent the agricultural interests of the “Red River

Valley” during his half-century career as a radio

personality, newspaper columnist, and livestock

auctioneer. 78 “A trip down (or up) the Red River Valley

lets us know the fall of the year has arrived as cotton

fields are turning white with the open bolls,” Dillard

observed in a 2016 newspaper column. 79 In short, the

region’s agricultural and economic cohesiveness

remains very salient to farmers living within the

valley.

RED RIVER WATERWAY COMM’N, https://redriverwater

way.com/ (last visited Dec. 13, 2024); RED RIVER VALLEY ASS’N,

https://rrva.org/ (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

RED RIVER BANK, https://www.redriverbank.net/locations/

(last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

John C. Baker, FARM BROADCASTING: THE FIRST SIXTY YEARS

150 (1981); Terri Richardson, Thursday is Jack Dillard Day of

Appreciation, MARSHALL NEWS MESSENGER (Marshall, Tex.)

(Mar. 30, 2010) https://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/

thursday-is-jack-dillard-day-of-appreciation/article_c99812ac1076-580c-ada2-c2bf8be53f0b.html.

Jack Dillard, Indicator Fall Is Upon Us, Heritage Harvest

Tour Is Too, SHREVEPORT TIMES (Shreveport, La.), Sept. 18, 2016,

at C4.

IV. Red River Valley Populations Share

Common Socioeconomic Hardship and

Disparities Perpetuated by Common

Experiences of Discrimination.

The parishes comprising District 6 are both poor by

national standards and poorer than the rest of

Louisiana—already the poorest State in the Union. 80

The overall proportion of families living in poverty in

these parishes exceeds both the national and the state

averages. 81

Economic hardship in District 6 is deeply marked by

racial inequalities. Across the district, the median

household income of Black families is about half that

of white families. While this disparity is lowest in the

most urbanized parishes, it is everywhere substantial.

In West Baton Rouge, for example, the district’s

wealthiest parish, the median income of white

households stands at $95,349, that of Black families at

$55,931. The gap is most pronounced in parishes

without large cities. In Natchitoches Parish, one of the

poorest in the United States, median household

income is $41,310, with Black households earning a

median of $24,090 compared to $52,040 for white

households. In neighboring DeSoto Parish, Black

Louisiana Income: All Races, NAT’L INST. ON MINORITY

HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES: HDPULSE, https://hdpulse.

nimhd.nih.gov (last visited Dec. 13, 2024); Poverty rate in the

United States in 2023, by state, STATISTA, https://www.statista.

com/statistics/233093/us-poverty-rate-by-state/ (last visited Dec.

17, 2024).

See U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table S1702, Poverty Status in the

Past 12 Months of Families, 2018–2022 American Community

Survey 5-Year Estimates, https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y

2022.S1702?q=poverty%20rate&g=040XX00US22$0500000 (last

visited Dec. 22, 2024).

households have a slightly higher median income of

$25,452, but the disparity widens as white households

earn a median of $65,913. 82 In Avoyelles Parish, a

staggering 39.8 percent of Black families live below

the poverty line—three times the rate of white families

in the same parish. Among white residents, only two

parishes, Avoyelles and St. Landry, have poverty rates

that exceed the state average. 83

As with income and poverty, so it is with other

indicators of well-being. Residents of District 6 are less

educated than the average Louisianian, who is already

less educated than the average American. Black

residents of the district fare worse in educational

attainment than whites in both the state and nation.

Only in East Baton Rouge Parish does the percentage

of adults with college degrees exceed the national

average of 34 percent. In every other parish the

proportion fell well below both the national average

and Louisiana’s state average of 26 percent. Within

District 6, Black residents are about half as likely as

whites to attain a bachelor’s degree. In Pointe Coupée

Parish only 6 percent of Black adults aged 25 and older

held college degrees; in St. Landry the percentage is

8.3 and in DeSoto 7.2. The corresponding percentages

for whites in those three parishes are 17.3, 16.6 and 7.2. 84

Louisiana Income: White and African American, NAT’L INST.

MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES: HDPULSE,

https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

Louisiana Poverty: All Races, Whites and African Americans,

NAT’L INST. ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES:

HDPULSE, https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov (last visited Dec. 13,

2024).

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, Table S1501, Educational Attainment,

2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates,

Mortality data tells a similar story: every parish in

District 6 has a higher death rate than the national

average. Among the white population, only West Baton

Rouge has a death rate below the national average,

while five parishes exceed the averages for both the

state and the nation. In contrast, for Black residents,

the death rate exceeds both state and national

averages in every parish of the district. 85

Nowhere is the racial disparity more evident than in

the statistics of farm ownership. According to the 2022

Census of Agriculture, Louisiana boasted about 25,000

owner-operated farms, but only two thousand were

cultivated by Black owners. White-owned farms were,

on average, two and a half times larger than Blackowned farms. In Natchitoches Parish, 92 Black owners

operated farms with an average size of 129 acres,

compared to 383 white farmers whose farms averaged

428 acres. Among the 485 farm-owners of Pointe

Coupée Parish, only 30 were Black; their 80-acre plot

average was dwarfed by the 450-acre farm average of

their white neighbors. 86

These disparities have been exacerbated by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture (“USDA”), which historically

accelerated the decline of smaller Black-owned farms

https://data.census.gov/table?q=education&g=040XX00US22$05

00000 (last visited Dec. 21, 2024).

Louisiana Education: At Least Bachelor’s Degree, NAT’L INST.

MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES: HDPULSE,

https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov (last visited Dec. 13, 2024); Louisiana

Mortality: All Causes of Death, NAT’L INST. ON MINORITY HEALTH

AND HEALTH DISPARITIES: HDPULSE, https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.

gov (last visited Dec. 13, 2024).

U.S. DEP’T OF AGRICULTURE, Louisiana State and Parish

Data, Volume 1: Geographic Area Series, Part 18, at 3, 665–66, in

2022 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE (2024).

while funneling support to larger, capital-intensive

operations typically owned by wealthy white farmers.

Despite a 1999 consent decree and the USDA’s admission

of past discrimination, the number of Black farmers

continues to fall in both absolute terms and relative to

white farmers. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of

Black-owned farms decreased by 4 per cent, compared

to a 0.8 per cent decrease in white-owned farms. 87

The persistent disparities between Black and white

populations in District 6 are rooted in a shared history

of slavery, segregation, and white supremacy, as

described above. During the period of total Black

disfranchisement (1898–1944) and partial Black

enfranchisement (1944–1965), Black residents had

little or no voice in government and were rarely

represented politically by members of their own race.

White residents systematically excluded Black citizens

from entire employment sectors and maintained a

total monopoly over law enforcement and the criminal

justice system. White officials candidly admitted that

they designed public education to deny Black citizens

equal economic opportunity. They explicitly tailored

education to prepare Black individuals for lives “as a

plantation worker, as a tenant farmer, as a farm owner,

as a domestic servant, as a laborer . . . [and] as a

professional man or woman rendering service to his

own race.” 88

Pete Daniel, DISPOSSESSION: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST

AFRICAN AMERICAN FARMERS IN THE AGE OF CIVIL RIGHTS xii

(2013); Pigford v. Glickman, 185 F.R.D. 82 (D.D.C. 1999) aff'd,

206 F.3d 1212 (D.C. Cir. 2000).

Carleton Washburne, LOUISIANA LOOKS AT ITS SCHOOLS: A

SUMMARY REPORT OF THE LOUISIANA EDUCATIONAL SURVEY

COMMISSION, 105 (1942).

Even after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of

1965, suffrage access in Louisiana has been repeatedly

undermined by efforts to curb Black voters’ impact and

disrupt communities of interest. Between 1965 and

1989, the U.S. Attorney General issued 66 objection

letters—11 to the state and 55 to local governments—

nullifying more than 200 discriminatory changes

aimed at lessening the political power of Black

Louisianians. 89 Furthermore, limited geographic and

social mobility within the populations of District 6 has

allowed racial disparities, rooted in centuries of

history, to persist to modern day. 90

* * *

The Red River Valley encompassed by District 6 has

existed as a distinct region for over two centuries.

Contemporary evidence further supports that this

region persists as a well-established community of

interest. The District Court’s disregard of lay witness

testimony consistent with this record, and reliance on

flawed historical analysis instead, was thus a clear error.

Richard L. Engstrom et al., Louisiana, in QUIET REVOLUTION

IN THE SOUTH: THE IMPACT OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT, 1965–

1990 103, 110 (Chandler Davidson & Bernard Grofman eds., 1994).

A 2023 study by the non-partisan think tank the Archbridge

Institute ranked Louisiana dead last (50th out of 50) in overall

social mobility. See Justin T. Callais & Gonzalo Schwarz, Social

Mobility in the 50 States, ARCHBRIDGE INSTITUTE 463–65 (Dec. 18,

2023), https://www.archbridgeinstitute.org/social-mobility-in-the-50states/.

CONCLUSION

The judgment of the three-judge district court

should be reversed.

Respectfully submitted,

HILARY HARRIS KLEIN

Counsel of Record

JEFFREY LOPERFIDO

CHRISTOPHER SHENTON

ADRIANNE SPOTO

SOUTHERN COALITION FOR

SOCIAL JUSTICE

P.O. Box 51280

Durham, NC 27717

(610) 574 5244

hilaryhklein@scsj.org

December 26, 2024

Counsel for Amici Curiae

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