Tangipahoa Parish () is a parish located on the southeastern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 133,157. The parish seat is Amite City, while the largest city is Hammond. Southeastern Louisiana University is located in Hammond. Lake Pontchartrain borders the southeastern side of the parish.
The name Tangipahoa comes from an Acolapissa word meaning "ear of corn" or "those who gather corn." The parish was organized in 1869 during the Reconstruction era.
Tangipahoa Parish comprises the Hammond, LA metropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Baton Rouge–Hammond, LA combined statistical area. It is one of what are called the Florida Parishes, at one time part of West Florida.
History
Tangipahoa Parish was created by Louisiana Act 85 on March 6, 1869, during the Reconstruction era. The parish was assembled from territories taken from Livingston Parish, St. Helena Parish, St. Tammany Parish, and Washington Parish. It was named after the Tangipahoa River and the historic Tangipahoa Native American people of this area. Tangipahoa is the youngest parish in the Florida Parishes region of southern Louisiana.
Parts of this area had already been developed for sugar cane plantations when the parish was organized, and that industry depended on numerous African American laborers who were freedmen after the war. Mostly white yeomen farmers occupied areas in the piney woods and resisted planters' attempts at political dominance. African Americans comprised about one-quarter of the population overall in the Florida Parishes before the war but were prevalent in the plantation areas, where they had been enslaved laborers.
The region developed rapidly during and after Reconstruction. Both physical and political conflicts arose in Tangipahoa Parish among interests related to construction of railroads, exploitation of timber, yeoman farmers in the piney woods keeping truck farms, and the beginning of manufacturing.
Sugar cane had depended on the labor of large gangs of enslaved African Americans before the Civil War. After the war and emancipation, some freedmen stayed to work on the plantations as laborers. Others moved to New Orleans and other cities, seeking different work. This area had rapid development and received a high rate of immigrants and migrants from other areas of the country. Through the turn of the twentieth century, the eastern Florida Parishes had the most white mob violence and highest rate of lynchings (primarily of black men) in southern Louisiana.
Especially after Reconstruction, whites helped black communities with flowers and food. Piney woods whites resisted the planters' efforts to restore their political power, but imposed their own brutal violence on freedmen.
Tangipahoa Parish became more socially volatile by a "pronounced in-migration" of northerners (from the Midwest) and Sicilian immigrants, coupled with "industrial development along the Illinois Central Railroad, and crippling political factionalism."
During the period of 1877–1950, a total of 24 Black people were lynched in the parish as a means of racial terrorism and intimidation. This was the sixth highest total of any parish in LouisianaLynching in America, Third Edition: Supplement by County , p. 6, Equal Justice Initiative, Mobile, AL, 2017 and the highest number of any parish in southern Louisiana.Michael James Pfeifer, Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947, University of Illinois Press, 2004, pp. 83-84 Twenty-two of these murders took place from 1879 to 1919, a time of heightened violence in the state. Unlike some other parishes, Tangipahoa did not have a high rate of legal executions of blacks; the whites operated outside the justice system altogether. Among those lynched and hanged by a mob was Emma Hooper, a black woman who had shot and wounded a constable.Pfeifer (2004), Rough Justice, p. 198, Footnote #104
In 1898 the Louisiana state legislature disenfranchised most slaves by raising barriers to voter registration. They effectively excluded blacks from politics for decades, until after passage and enforcement of federal civil rights legislation.
In the first half of the 20th century, many African Americans left Tangipahoa Parish to escape the racial violence and oppression of Jim Crow, moving to industrial cities in the Great Migration. Especially during and after World War II, they moved to the West Coast, where the buildup of the defense industry opened up new jobs. In the 21st century, blacks constitute a minority in the parish.
Timber, agriculture and industry are still important to the parish. It suffered flooding in 1932 and in the early 1980s. In 2016, Tangipahoa was one of many parishes declared a Federal disaster area due to historic flooding from rainfall and storms in both March and August.
Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of , of which is land and (3.9%) is water. Lake Pontchartrain lies on the southeast side of the parish.
Most of the parish south of Ponchatoula consists of Holocene coastal swamp and marsh—gray-to-black clays of high organic content and thick peat beds underlying freshwater marsh and swamp.
Communities
Cities Hammond (largest municipality) Ponchatoula
Towns Amite City (parish seat) Independence Kentwood Roseland
Villages Tangipahoa Tickfaw
Census-designated place Natalbany
Other unincorporated places
Baptist Fluker Husser Loranger Manchac (Akers) Pumpkin Center Robert Rosaryville Wilmer
Demographics
+Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)55,37559,89569,30077,80779,82568.62%69.88%68.89%64.25%59.95%Black or African American alone (NH)23,94524,44628,38836,48539,77029.67%28.52%28.22%30.13%29.87%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)841752223554090.10%0.20%0.22%0.29%0.31%Asian alone (NH)1412323877149420.17%0.27%0.38%0.59%0.71%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census53523xx0.00%0.03%0.02%Other race alone (NH)9910621083760.12%0.01%0.06%0.09%0.28%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census6881,3334,570xx0.68%1.10%3.43%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1,0549511,5364,2607,2421.31%1.11%1.53%3.52%5.44%Total80,69885,709100,588121,097133,157 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
As of the 2020 census, the parish had a population of 133,157. The median age was 36.6 years. 23.8% of residents were under the age of 18 and 15.7% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 94.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 91.3 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the parish was 61.1% White, 30.1% Black or African American, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 2.2% from some other race, and 5.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 5.4% of the population.
54.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 46.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 50,961 households in the parish, of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 42.2% were married-couple households, 19.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 30.5% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 27.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 56,685 housing units, of which 10.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 69.1% were owner-occupied and 30.9% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.3%.
Government and politics The parish is part of both Louisiana's 1st congressional district and Louisiana's 5th congressional district. Since the late 20th century most of the conservative, white-majority voters have left the Democratic Party and shifted to the Republican Party. African Americans have largely continued to support the Democratic Party and its candidates.
The parish government is governed by the Louisiana State Constitution and the Tangipahoa Parish Home Rule Charter. The Parish Government of Tangipahoa is headed by a parish president and a parish council (president-council government). The council is the legislative body of the parish, with authority under Louisiana State Constitution, the Parish Home Rule Charter, and laws passed by the Louisiana State Legislature. The Parish Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer; other elected officers include the coroner, assessor, and clerk of court.
Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace for the parish's 8th ward (Robert, Louisiana), attracted attention in October 2009 for refusing to officiate the wedding of an interracial couple. Bardwell, a justice of the peace for 34 years, had concluded that "most black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society". He said he does not perform weddings for interracial marriages because "I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves." Bardwell said he had refused to perform the weddings of four couples during the 2½-year period before the news of his actions was publicized, resigned effective November 3, 2009. Governor Bobby Jindal said that the resignation was "long overdue."
Despite the parish's Republican leanings, the parish is also the home of Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. Edwards won over 60% of the parish vote in 2015 and carried the parish again in 2019, outperforming Democratic presidential candidates by over 30 points in both elections.
Parish Council Tangipahoa Parish is governed by an elected ten-member Council, each representing a geographic district and roughly equal populations. As of October 2016 its chairman was Bobby Cortez. Kristen Pecararo is the clerk of the council.Council page on Parish website, accessed December 1, 2019.
President of Tangipahoa Parish In 1986, the former governing body of Tangipahoa Parish, the Tangipahoa Police Jury, and the voters of the Parish approved a "home rule charter" style of government. The charter provided for the election of a parish president, essentially a parish-wide mayor. Democrat Gordon A. Burgess was elected to an initial one-year term and re-elected the following year for a four-year term. Burgess was repeatedly re-elected as parish president until he retired in 2015.
In 2016, Republican businessman Robert "Robby" Miller succeeded Burgess. In April 2016, the Parish hired its first chief administrative officer, Shelby "Joe" Thomas, Jr. to handle operating functions.
President Terms of Office Party Gordon Burgess October 27, 1986 – January 11, 2016 Democratic Robby Miller January 11, 2016 – incumbent Republican
Law enforcement The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office is headquartered in Hammond. The Sheriff's office was excluded from a DEA task force in 2016 after the Justice Department charged two deputies with stealing money and drugs seized in raids.
Education The parish is served by the Tangipahoa Parish School System.Official website of the Tangipahoa Parish School System Southeastern Louisiana University is located in Hammond.
On seven occasions, the American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Tangipahoa Parish School Board, along with other defendants, for having allegedly sponsored and promoted religion in teacher-led school activities.Mitchell, David. "School board sued over prayer", Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, Capital City Press, p. B01.
Education