Bossier Parish, Louisiana


Bossier Parish is a parish located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 116,979. The parish seat is Benton. The principal city is Bossier City, which is located east of the Red River and across from the larger city of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The parish was formed in 1843 from the western portion of Claiborne Parish.
Bossier Parish is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lake Bistineau and Lake Bistineau State Park are included in parts of Bossier and neighboring Webster and Bienville parishes. Loggy Bayou flows south from Lake Bistineau in southern Bossier Parish, traverses western Bienville Parish, and in Red River Parish joins the Red River.

History

Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, an ethnic French, 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.
Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War. In July 1861, at the start of the war, the Bossier Parish Police Jury appropriated $35,000 for the benefit of Confederate volunteers and their family members left behind, an amount then considered generous.
After the war, whites used violence and intimidation to maintain dominance over the newly emancipated freedmen. From the end of Reconstruction into the 20th century, violence increased as conservative white Democrats struggled to maintain power over the state. In this period, Bossier Parish had 26 lynchings of African Americans by whites, part of racial terrorism. This was the fifth-highest total of any parish in Louisiana, tied with the total in Iberia Parish in the South of the state. Overall, parishes in northwest Louisiana had the highest rates of lynchings.

Law, government, and politics

Bossier Parish is governed by a 12-member elected body, the Bossier Parish Police Jury. Members are elected from single-member districts. Eddy Shell, a prominent Bossier City educator, was repeatedly re-elected, serving on the police jury from 1992 until his death in 2008.
The current members of the police jury are :
Since the late 20th century, the white majority of the parish has shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party, as have most conservative whites in Louisiana and other Southern states. Before this, the state was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party, in the period after the turn of the century when most blacks were disenfranchised in Louisiana.
Bossier Parish has since reliably supported Republican candidatese in most contested US presidential elections. Since 1952, George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama who ran in 1968 on the American Independent Party ticket, is the only non-Republican to have carried Bossier Parish.
In 2008, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona won in Bossier Parish with 32,713 votes over the Democrat Barack H. Obama of Illinois, who polled 12,703 votes. In 2012, Mitt Romney polled 34,988 votes in Bossier Parish, or 2,275 more ballots than McCain drew in 2008. President Obama trailed in Bossier Parish with 12,956 votes, or 253 more votes than he had received in 2008.
In 2011, Bossier Parish elected a Republican, Julian C. Whittington, as sheriff to succeed the long-term Larry Deen. He was a Democrat and later changed his registration to the Republican Party.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of, of which is land and is water. Four miles east of Bossier City is Barksdale Air Force Base.

Major highways

As of the census of 2010, there were 116,979 people, 62,000 households, and 37,500 families residing in the parish. The population density was 142 people per square mile. There were 49,000 housing units at an average density of 48 per square mile. The racial makeup of the parish was 70.66% White, 18.52% Black or African American, 0.82% Native American, 2.18% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 1.00% from other races, and 1.65% from two or more races. 8.15% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 46,020 households out of which 36.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.60% were married couples living together, 14.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.30% were non-families. 22.90% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.63 and the average family size was 3.09.
In the parish the population was spread out with 28.00% under the age of 18, 9.70% from 18 to 24, 30.50% from 25 to 44, 21.30% from 45 to 64, and 10.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 96.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.80 males.
The median income for a household in the parish was $39,203, and the median income for a family was $45,542. Males had a median income of $32,305 versus $23,287 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $18,119. About 10.60% of families and 13.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.00% of those under age 18 and 12.50% of those age 65 or over.

National Guard

The 165th CSS Battalion is headquartered in Bossier City. This unit was deployed to Iraq in 2008. Also located in Bossier City is the 156TH Army Band which deployed as part of the 256th Infantry Brigade in 2010 to Iraq.

Education

operates public schools in the parish.

Communities

Cities

Census-designated places