Louisiana Journalism, 1836-1922

General Overview

Journalism in Louisiana developed slowly and its establishment occurred after the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory. By 1820, newspapers appeared across Louisiana in English, French, and Spanish. During the years leading up to the Civil War, a Pro-Southern, pro-slavery Democratic newspapers far outnumbered Republican viewpoints among the Louisiana press. Many newspapers went out of business between 1861-1865 due to the Civil War, paper shortages, the occupation of New Orleans, and the eventual fall of the Confederacy. Republican newspapers emerged during this period and Democratic newspapers censored themselves for fear of the Union shutting them down. In 1877, Federal troops withdrew from Louisiana and the press witnessed a war of words that targeted both southern Republicans and African-Americans. By the 1880s, emotions waned and other topics such as sports, literature, health, and gossip made their appearance in the newspapers.

Louisiana newspapers drastically altered in layout and content during the first twenty years of the 20th century. The newspapers’ issues presented unique imagery in the form of photographs and cartoons and provided readers with a front row seat to the development of the advertising industry. The Louisiana press gave more attention to the exposure of corrupt politics and business practices and less attention to the social issues of segregation and suffrage. By the 1920s, Louisiana newspapers provided significant international reporting due to World War I as well as Louisiana businessmen venturing into Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Selection of Significant Events Reported

Antebellum Period (1830-1859)

1831 - The Pontchartrain Railroad, Louisiana's first railroad and the first west of the Alleghenies, built

1834 - Medical College of Louisiana (now Tulane University) founded

1836 - New Basin Canal is completed

1836 - Texans besieged at the Alamo

1837 - New Orleans Picayuneis established

1837 - Shreveport founded

1838 - First Mardi Gras parade held in New Orleans

1838 - St. Charles, a Jesuit institution, opens in Grand Cocteau

1838 - Cherokees forced to walk the "Trail of Tears"

1838 - Henry Miller Shreve removes the Great Raft, a 160-mile logjam that blocked navigation of the Red River

1840 - Thanks to overwhelming steamboat traffic, New Orleans becomes the second largest port in the U.S.

1840 - Theatre de la Renaissance opens in New Orleans with an all-black cast

1845 - Louisiana Constitution is rewritten

1846 - Mexican-American War begins; New Orleans becomes important staging ground for the U.S. troops

1847 - Construction of the state capitol in Baton Rouge begins

1847 - The Medical College of Louisiana (now Tulane University) becomes the University of Louisiana

1847 - The Feliciana Female Collegiate Institute opens in Jackson

1848 - Zachary Taylor, a Louisiana planter, elected U.S. President

1849 - Baton Rouge becomes the capital city of Louisiana

1850 - Compromise of 1850 passed; Fugitive Slave Act is strengthened

1850 - John McDonogh bequeaths $750,000 to establish public schools in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish

1851 - Jenny Lind performs in New Orleans under the management of P.T. Barnum

1852 - Louisiana Constitution revised again

1852 - Mansfield Female College founded; Silliman Collegiate Institute, a girls school, opens in Jackson

1853 - Yellow fever epidemic kills 11,000 in New Orleans

1854 - Republican party formed

1856 - Hurricane strikes Last Island (Isle Dernière) killing more than 200

1857 - First formal Mardis Gras carnival organizations established

1857 - Emancipation of slaves is prohibited in the state

1857 - Dred Scott Case ruled upon in the U.S. Supreme Court

1858 - Know-Nothings riot in New Orleans

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Civil War and Reconstruction (1860-1877)

1860 – Louisiana State Seminary (now Louisiana State University) opens

1861 – Louisiana votes for secession

1862 – New Orleans captured by Union navy; city subjected to military rule

1862 – Confederate troops fail to recapture Baton Rouge

1863 – Siege and surrender of Port Hudson

1864 – Battles of Pleasant Hill and Mansfield

1864 – Slavery abolished in Louisiana

1865 – Confederate state capital briefly located in Shreveport

1866 – Race riots following constitutional convention in New Orleans

1868 – African-Americans granted social and civil rights; Louisiana readmitted to Union

1870 – Steamboats Robert E. Lee and Natchez race from New Orleans to St. Louis

1873 – Rail service from New Orleans to Chicago inaugurated

1873 – Race riot in Colfax, Louisiana, leaves at least 63 African Americans dead

1874 – The White League organized to drive carpetbaggers out of the state

1877 – Federal troops withdrawn from Louisiana, ending Reconstruction

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Industrial Development (1878-1900)

1878 – Yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans kills at least 3,800

1879 – State Constitution amended, neutralizing black vote

1879 – Thousands of African Americans leave Louisiana in the “Kansas Fever” exodus

1879 – James Eads’ jetty system at mouth of Mississippi River improves navigation

1880s – Opelousas receives 2,000 orphans from New York via the Orphan Trains

1880 – Southern University, now the largest historically black university in the U.S., opens in New Orleans

1882 – State Capital moves back to Baton Rouge from New Orleans

1883 – Rail service from New Orleans to California inaugurated

1884 – Louisiana State Normal College (now Northwestern State University) founded

1884‐86 – World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition held in New Orleans

1887 – Blue Laws passed, closing saloons on Sundays

1890 – Prize fighting legalized

1891 – First “Jim Crow” law passed

1893 – Hurricane kills 2,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi

1894 – One of only two U.S. hospitals for treatment of leprosy opened in Carville, Louisiana

1895 – Louisiana Lottery, the largest lottery in the United States, outlawed

1896 – Fusion Populist‐Republican gubernatorial ticket, representing north Louisiana dirt farmers and south Louisiana sugar planters, defeated by Bourbons in fraudulent election

1896 – U.S. Supreme Court rules “separate but equal” is constitutional in Plessy v. Ferguson, a case that originated in Louisiana

1897 – New Orleans’ red‐light district, Storyville, formally established

1898 – Poll tax and illiteracy test enacted to disqualify black voters

1898 – Louisiana troops, considered immune to yellow fever, sent to fight in Cuba

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Modern Development (1901-1922)

1901 – Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) founded

1901 – First oil well in the state is drilled in Jennings, Louisiana

1901 – Fire destroys a large portion of Jennings, Louisiana

1901 – Grambling College (precursor to Grambling State University) opened in Lincoln Parish

1902 – Jelly Roll Morton claims to have invented jazz

1902 – State mental hospital established at Pineville

1904 – Loyola Academy (now Loyola University of New Orleans) founded

1904 – Drainage of swamp around New Orleans begins

1905 – Last yellow fever epidemic

1909 – New locks on the Mississippi open the Atchafalaya Basin (Acadiana) to navigation

1909 – Standard Oil Company builds facility in Baton Rouge

1910 – International aviation tournament held in New Orleans

1912 – Air mail route opened between New Orleans and Baton Rouge

1914 – Southern University moves to Baton Rouge

1915 – Hurricane hits New Orleans

1916 – Natural gas discovered in north Louisiana; State Federation of Labor organized

1919 – French Opera House in New Orleans, symbol of Creole culture, destroyed by fire

1920 – Red Scare destroys Socialist Party in Louisiana

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