Джексонская округа, Луизиана: История и современность

Parish in Louisiana, United States

Jackson Parish (French: Paroisse de Jackson) is a parish in the northern part of the U. S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,031. The parish seat is Jonesboro. The parish was formed in 1845 from parts of Claiborne, Ouachita, and Union Parishes. In the twentieth century, this part of the state had several small industrial mill towns, such as Jonesboro. East of Jonesboro is the Jimmie Davis State Park, which includes Caney Lake Reservoir.

Jackson Parish was founded in 1845 after Indian Removal and named for President Andrew Jackson.

During the American Civil War Confederate General Richard Taylor sent five companies into Jackson and Winn parishes to arrest conscripts who failed to report for duty, and to halt jayhawker groups in the area.

Jonesboro became an industrial mill town in the 20th century, producing lumber and turpentine products from the pine forests. Industrialization stimulated its growth. By the 1950s and 1960s, numerous African Americans had become industrial workers. Many were veterans of World War II and the Korean War, and they began to press to gain civil rights in the segregated state and region. Ku Klux Klan chapters were active here, and they intimidated and attacked civil rights activists. In November 1964 Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick, ordained that year as a minister of the Church of God in Christ, and Earnest "Chilly Willy" Thomas founded the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an organized African American, armed self defense group to protect activists and their families. In February 1965, these two men and other CORE workers traveled 300 miles to Bogalusa, Louisiana, another small mill town, where they founded another chapter of the Deacons. They advised local activists on strategies of self defense. They helped found chapters of the Deacons in other cities of Louisiana, as well as in Mississippi and Alabama in these years.

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the parish has a total area of 580 square miles (1,502 km2), of which 569 square miles (1,474 km2) is land and 11 square miles (28 km2) (1.9%) is water.

Public schools in Jackson Parish are operated by the elected Jackson Parish School Board.

A Company 199TH FSB (Forward Support Battalion) of the 256TH IBCT resides in Jonesboro, Louisiana. This unit has deployed twice to Iraq in 2004 5 and 2010. Also deployed in 1990 for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.