Red River Parish, Louisiana

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Red River Parish, Louisiana
Parish
Parish of Red River
Red River Parish Courthouse in Coushatta
Location within the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location within the U.S.
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Region	North Louisiana
Founded	March 2, 1871; 153 years ago (1871-03-02)
Named for	Red River
Parish seat	Coushatta
Largest municipality	Martin (area) Coushatta (population)
Incorporated municipalities	4 (total) 1 town and 3 villages (located entirely or partially within parish boundaries)
Area
• Total	1,040 km2 (402 sq mi)
• Land	1,010 km2 (389 sq mi)
• Water	30 km2 (13 sq mi)
• percentage	9 km2 (3.3 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	7,620
• Density	23/km2 (60/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC-6 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	318
Congressional district	4th
Website	Red River Parish Police Jury

Red River Parish (French: Paroisse de la Rivière-Rouge) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,620,^[1] making it the fourth-least populous parish in Louisiana. The parish seat and most populous municipality is Coushatta.^[2] It is one of the newer parishes, created in 1871 by the state legislature from parts of Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Desoto and Natchitoches Parishes under Reconstruction.^[3] The plantation economy was based on cotton cultivation, highly dependent on enslaved African labor before the American Civil War.

In 1880, the parish had a population with more than twice as many blacks as whites.^[4] They were essentially disenfranchised in 1898 under a new state constitution after the white Democrats regained power in the state in the late 1870s through paramilitary intimidation at the polls. Most of the former slaves worked as sharecroppers and laborers, cultivating cotton. Because of the mechanization of agriculture, many blacks left the parish during the mid-20th century Great Migration to seek better job opportunities elsewhere. By 2000, the parish population was 9,622, with a white majority, but Coushatta itself was still two-thirds black.