Tallulah, Louisiana

After the war, many freedmen from the plantations stayed in the parish, often working as sharecroppers. In the late 19th century, Italian immigrants settled in Louisiana, most in New Orleans but some in outlying parishes such as Madison. Some served as migrant workers on cotton or sugar cane plantations, in the north or south of the state, respectively. The immigrants were primarily from Sicily. Starting as farm workers, some banded together to establish small stores, such as groceries in county seats and other trading towns.

By 1899 five Sicilians were doing a good business in Tallulah, with four small stores devoted to fruit, vegetables and poultry. All but one of the men were relatives. Whites attacked the Sicilians because of economic competition.[8] They had also been criticized for failing to comply with Jim Crow rules: if they had black customers waiting, they made new white customers wait their turn rather than giving the whites preference, as was the custom.[9] On July 20, 1899, a mob of white residents of Tallulah lynched the five Sicilians from Cefalù. Two other Italians who lived in nearby Milliken's Bend fled the area for their safety. The Italians were still citizens (nationals) of Italy, and their government protested strongly to the United States government about each lynching murder. The US government said that the states had to prosecute such killings.[9] As was typical in this period of frequent lynchings of black US citizens, none of the white lynch mob was prosecuted.[8]

The city developed through the early 20th century and had a growing population, as people came in from rural areas to work in the lumber mills and timber processing. Because it was the center of a major agricultural area, Tallulah became the site of the Louisiana Delta Fair, held annually in October through the first half of the 20th century. It featured exhibits from Madison, East Carroll, and Tensas parishes. Later in the century, the fair was phased out.[10]

Shirley Field, also known as Scott Field, was reportedly the first airport in Louisiana; it was built in 1922 near Tallulah.[11][12] Dr. B.R. Coad, head of the Agricultural Experiment Laboratory, developed a process and equipment for crop dusting from airplanes, in order to combat the devastating boll weevil infestation of cotton crops. The USDA bought a Huff-Daland plane for this purpose in 1924.[12] Hundreds of flights took off from the Tallulah Airport as this process was developed, and fields on both sides of the Mississippi were treated. Delta Air Lines had its origins from Delta Dusters, the company developed here to produce and operate crop dusting from airplanes.[12] Shirley Field and the original airport building still stand near Tallulah, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).[11]

The parish seat also attracted Jewish immigrants. Based on the success of their drugstore, in 1927 merchant brothers Mertie M. and Abe Bloom built the first enclosed shopping mall, Bloom's Arcade, in the United States in Tallulah. It was built by A. Hays Town in the style of European city arcades.[13] The building had a central hall, with stores located on either side, much like the ones today. The hall opened into the street on both ends. This landmark is still in Tallulah, located along what is now U.S. Route 80. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). As of late 2013, it has been restored to its original architectural character and was adapted as an apartment complex.[14]

Later in 1927, the downtown was flooded during the Great Flood of 1927. Many downtown stores were flooded by several feet of water. It took time for the town to recover.

After serving in World War II, African-American veterans began to challenge racial discrimination in the South more vigorously. After the Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Allwright (1944) that the white primary of the Democratic Party was unconstitutional, more blacks began to register in the South. But in Louisiana the number of white qualified voters in 1947 still surpassed blacks by a ratio of 100 to one.[15]

The population increased in Tallulah in the decades after the war, reaching a high in 1980 (see tables below). African Americans were the majority population in the city and the parish. Having faced continuing discrimination in efforts to vote, in 1962 a group of eight African-American men successfully sued the parish registrar and state to be able to register and vote. Following passage of the national Civil Rights Act in 1964, in 1965, activists conducted boycotts to end discrimination in employment; many stores would not hire blacks as workers. Seventeen businesses closed in the city rather than hire blacks.[16][17] That year Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, authorizing the federal government to oversee voter registration and elections in jurisdictions such as Tallulah and Madison Parish with historic under-representation of minorities. The proportion of African-American voting began to increase.

In 1969 Zelma Wyche, a local veteran and activist, was elected as Police Chief of Tallulah, the first African American to hold the office. He ensured there were an equal number of white and black police officers on the force and had them patrol in mixed teams.[17]

In 1971, black candidates were running for 21 of 27 parish seats in Madison Parish, a sign of the changing times. In other parts of Louisiana, African Americans were also running for local offices.[18]

In 1974 Adell Williams was elected as mayor of Tallulah, the first African American to hold the office. He is believed to have been the first black mayor elected in Louisiana since Reconstruction.[19]

The city had its peak of population in 1980. The mechanization of agriculture and the decline of some former industries have reduced the number of local jobs, with population following. It used to be considered a lumber mill town, with the Chicago Mill and Lumber dominating local industry from its site on the west side of the city.[20] After declines from the 1970s, the mill closed in 1983, adding to local economic problems.[19]

Unlike in some areas of the state, only four antebellum structures remain in the parish, because of destruction by General Ulysses S. Grant's forces during the Vicksburg Campaign in the Civil War. One is a one-story 1855 plantation house, known as Hermione, from the Kell Plantation. It was used by Grant as a Union hospital.[21]

After being donated in 1997 to the Madison Historical Society, Hermione was moved to its current site on North Mulberry Street in Tallulah. It was adapted to serve both as offices for the society and as the Hermione Museum, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[21] Among its exhibits is one about Madam C. J. Walker, the first African-American woman to become a self-made businesswoman and millionaire.[22] Born free soon after the war as Sarah Breedlove in nearby Delta, Louisiana, she moved north as a young woman, where she developed a line of hair-care products that she manufactured and sold nationally. The museum is on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.[22]

On April 24, 2010, an EF4 tornado touched down just outside Tallulah, causing numerous injuries. The tornado also damaged a tanker in a chemical plant, causing a small nitrogen leak. Significant damage to an industrial plant with associated injuries, trapped people, and destroyed homes nearby were reported in Madison Parish near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line. The tornado continued across the Mississippi River. It gained strength and struck Yazoo, Holmes, and Choctaw counties in Mississippi, causing 10 fatalities and extensive destruction.[23][24]

Tallulah and Madison Parish have been led and represented politically by numerous members of the prominent Sevier family, who were longtime planters. They are descended from John Sevier, a veteran of the American Revolution, and his wife. Later they were pioneers in what is now Tennessee, and Sevier was elected as the first Governor of Tennessee. He was the namesake for the city of Sevierville, Tennessee.[27]

George Washington Sevier, Sr. (1858–1925) was elected as a member of the Madison Parish Police Jury. He served as the parish tax assessor from 1891 to 1916.[27] Except for the years 1887–90, there has been at least one member of the Sevier family in public office for the 122 years preceding 2005. The family's power was maintained primarily in the decades-long period when Democratic Party whites dominated voting, and Louisiana was virtually a one-party state. From its passage of a new constitution in 1898, the state legislature worked to disenfranchise African Americans, who were then mostly members of the Republican Party. They were systematically disenfranchised and nearly excluded from the political system until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century.

Under these conditions, Andrew Leonard Sevier, Sr. was repeatedly re-elected as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, serving from 1932 until his death in 1962. His widow, the former Irene Newman Jordan, was appointed to serve the rest of his term. Andrew Jackson Sevier, Jr., served as sheriff of Madison Parish from 1904 until his death in office in 1941. He was succeeded for the rest of his term by his widow, Mary Louise Day Sevier. A cousin of the Seviers, Henry Clay Sevier, was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1936 to 1952.[27]

James D. Sevier, Sr., and his son, also named James, held the office of tax assessor for more than four decades. Mason Spencer, husband of Rosa Sevier Spencer, represented Madison Parish in the Louisiana House from 1924 to 1936. He planned to run for governor of Louisiana in 1935 but withdrew his candidacy after the assassination of former governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr. Richard Leche of New Orleans, of the Long faction, won the office.[27]

Among the political leaders from this family were William Putnam "Buck" Sevier, Jr., a banker. He first served three terms as an elected town alderman in Tallulah. He was elected as mayor of the city in 1946 and served for nearly 30 years, from 1947 to 1974. His tenure included some of the volatile years of the civil rights movement, when African Americans sought changes to the Jim Crow system and justice as citizens. Sevier led white residents in adapting to change as more African-American citizens began to register, vote and be elected to local offices. Sevier at the time of his death held the record, at more than forty-four years, as the longest-serving publicly elected official in Louisiana.[27]