Louisiana Constitution of 1812 The first constitution was made after the
Constitution of Kentucky with three stark differences. A
Bill of Rights was not included, the system of law was (and still is) based on
Civil law instead of
English Common law, and the use of
parishes instead of counties. The first constitution was drafted on January 22, 1812, and Louisiana became a U.S. State on April 30, 1812.
Antebellum period In Louisiana, the period of time from 1812 until the start of the
American Civil War is considered to be the
antebellum period, although some use 1789 as the beginning. The period gave renewed fever to
abolitionists and in 1814 the founding of the
Manumission Society of Tennessee furthered
anti-slavery sentiment. According to the Constitution of 1812, originally called the
Constitution or Form of Government of the State of Louisiana, that while the candidates for governor would be voted upon, the constitution provided that the
legislature chose from the two who received the most votes.
Louisiana Constitution of 1845 An act entitled, "An act to provide for the calling of a Convention for the purpose of re-adopting, amending or changing the Constitution of the State", was approved March 18, 1845, and the senatorial and representative delegates met August 5, 1844 to update or replace what had been considered to be an outdated constitution of 1812. The Constitutional Convention of 1845 included senatorial delegates from the "counties" of Acadia, Lafourche, Attakapas, Opelousas, Rapides, Ouachita, Pointe Coupee, and Iberville, as well as representative delegates from parishes. Some notable articles in the constitution: • Only free white male citizens allowed to vote and persons eligible to vote under the constitution of 1812 retained (Title II: article 10) • Eligibility for representative must be a free white male (Title III article 6) • Members of active military ineligible to vote in any election (Title II; article 12) • No active clergy, teacher of any religious persuasion are eligible as members of the general assembly (Title II; article 29) • Four year successive term limits on the Governor (Title III; article 41); Minister ineligible as member of Congress (Title III; article 42) • Felons under sentence where "death or hard labor may be inflicted" could appeal to the state Supreme Court (Title IV article 63) • Created the office of Superintendent of Public Education (Title VII; article 133) • Establishment of public schools (Title VII; article 134) • Establishment of the
University of Louisiana, which included the Medical College of Louisiana, which had been founded in 1834; in 1884, it became
Tulane University, the only state public institution in America to be converted to a private one (Title VII; article 137 and 138).
Louisiana Constitution of 1852 The Constitution of 1852 included an increase in the number of Louisiana Supreme Court justices to five, restricted the governor's powers, and created a public works. The fourth district included Imperial
Calcasieu Parish, before the separation of
Cameron,
Beauregard,
Jefferson Davis and
Allen Parishes.
Louisiana Constitution of 1861 The convention of 1861, convened to address concerns arising from the current political conflict, modified the constitution of 1852 to reflect Louisiana's secession (January 26, 1861) from the
union. Ordinances included secession from the Union and the adoption of the constitution of the
Confederate States of America,
Louisiana Constitution of 1864 The Louisiana Constitution of 1864 abolished slavery throughout the state, but was effective only in the thirteen Louisiana parishes under Union control during the war. Voting rights to black men who fought for
the Union, owned property, or were literate, were allowed to be authorized (but not given) by the state legislature. Other
persons of color were excluded. A free public school system was allowed for all children aged six to eighteen, but the legislature established schools for whites only. The failed
Wade–Davis Bill included the
Ironclad oath that was implemented by the
Radical Republicans and used until repealed by
President Arthur in May, 1884. The oath excluded ex-
Confederate soldiers, anyone holding office in a state that seceded from the Union, or supporters of
the Confederacy. This created further tension between persons of color and ex-Confederate soldiers. The lack of voting rights,
Black codes, and a recall on the Constitutional Convention ultimately resulted in the
New Orleans Riot.
Louisiana Constitution of 1868 In 1867, Louisiana and
Texas were placed in the
Fifth Military District under General
Philip Sheridan. A Third Reconstruction Act (1867) allowed district commanders authority to remove state officials from office. "
Carpetbaggers" were appointed to many offices to assure loyalty to the Union. A requirement for state Congressional representation, added by Congress as part of the
Reconstruction Acts, was ratifying the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The constitution, adopted in conference March 7, 1868, was the first one in Louisiana to provide a formal bill of rights. It eradicated the Black Codes of 1865, removed property qualifications for holding office, and former Confederates were still disfranchised. Black men secured full citizenship with equal civil and political rights, state funded public education that prohibited segregated schools (Title VII; article 135) funded by one-half of the income from a poll tax (article 141), and equal treatment on public transportation. Title VI; article 75 provided a Supreme Court that consisted of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the state Senate, for eight year terms. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, and the Louisiana was readmitted to the Union. Considered the best constitution in Louisiana history, it did not solve racial discrimination. For the next eight years, political fighting and corruption continued in Louisiana. The Reconstruction era finally came to a close in Louisiana and the rest of the South with the trading of votes at the national level that led to the election of
Rutherford B. Hayes as President. Federal troops were withdrawn on April 29, 1877, and mostly white, conservative Democrats regained control of Louisiana.
Louisiana Constitution of 1879 The Constitution of 1879 was adopted in conference July 23, and was ratified December 8, 1879 returning Louisiana to
home rule. The new constitution placed more limits on the voting rights of
freedmen. The state capital was moved from
New Orleans to
Baton Rouge. The state Supreme Court retained five members, who were appointed by the governor for twelve-year terms, and for the first time were given supervisory power over inferior courts. A lottery was authorized (article 167) but gambling (article 172) was considered a vice to be suppressed. From 1872 to 1877 there had been essentially a dual government, as Democrats rejected the election of Republicans. During this period election cycle violence continued to increase as white Democrats sought to suppress the black Republican vote. Louisiana was torn, not unlike during the Civil war, with battles between the
Radical Republicans and the
Southern Democrats. With the Democrats resumption of power in 1877, the
Solid South coalition was formed. The period of time from 1868 to 1879 was marked with violence against freedmen, as seen in the First Battle of
the Cabildo (March 5, 1873) and the
Colfax massacre April 13, 1873), both events that arose from the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872. Charges related to the Colfax events reached the US Supreme Court. In
United States v. Cruikshank (1876), it supported federal restrictions on the civil freedoms supposedly guaranteed by the
Bill of Rights of the
Constitution of the United States and the Louisiana Constitution. It denied African-American citizens the constitutional rights of the Fourteenth Amendment and the
right to bear arms. The
Coushatta Massacre (1874), the
Battle of Liberty Place (September 14, 1874), and the Second Battle of the Cabildo (January 1877), are instances of whites attacking blacks that involved the
Redeemers and the
White League, an insurgent
paramilitary group. The
Freedmen's Bureau had reported a multitude of physical attacks on freedmen and their supporters in Louisiana from 1865 to 1868, when the Bureau was closed and no authority recorded this data. After the Bureau closed in 1872, atrocities were largely buried by local communities and seldom taken to court. Federal courts, as well as the Louisiana Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, did not generally hear charges at the state level. Following the end of Reconstruction, the rate of lynchings of blacks increased, reaching a peak at the end of the 19th century, when Louisiana and other southern states passed new constitutions and laws to effectively
disenfranchise African Americans.
Louisiana Constitution of 1898 The Louisiana Constitution of 1898, was adopted in Convention May 12, 1898. Article 197 provided restrictions, directed primarily at black voters. An annual poll tax of one dollar was levied (Article 198) on all males, ages twenty-one to sixty to be eligible to vote, with receipt of the two previous years being paid. The money to be used in the parish where the tax is levied and collected for education. For the first time women tax payers were allowed to vote (Article 199). An annual poll tax of one dollar was levied on every male between the ages of twenty-one and sixty to be used for public school maintenance (article 231). Parish road districts were created (Article 291) and taxes were authorized to include, an annual road maintenance poll tax of not more than one dollar for each able-bodied male (eighteen to fifty-five years old) authorized, with compulsory road service to be waved on those that paid the tax, and an annual road tax from twenty-five cents to one dollar for each vehicle, including bicycles, was levied. The state would support the old soldiers home (Article 302) known as Camp Nichols. Loyal, honorably discharged or paroled, indigent Confederate soldiers, referred to as inmates, were provided a pension of eight dollars a month. The home housed confederate soldiers into the 1940s.
Non-unanimous jury The 1898 constitution provided for conviction in "cases in which the punishment is necessarily at hard labor" by a verdict of nine out of twelve jurors. This provision survived into the 1974 constitution, but with the change to require a verdict of ten out of twelve. Research by Louisiana’s newspaper of record,
The Advocate, shows how this provision has been used to drive incarceration, especially of black people. The series, entitled “Tilting the Scales,” debuted Easter Sunday 2018, and would later win
The Advocate its first
Pulitzer Prize, as well as a
George Polk Award. Praised by state lawmakers, the series had an impact on public opinion; Louisiana voters overwhelmingly voted to amend the Constitution of 1974 in November of 2018, requiring all future felony convictions to be unanimous. In the 2020 case
Ramos v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court incorporated the
Sixth Amendment right of a unanimous verdict against all the states.
White supremacy The proceedings of the convention at which the 1898 constitution was developed and adopted contains the word "supremacy" at least eight times, including: • Page 10, opening remarks by Ernest Kruttschnitt, president of the convention, final paragraph: "May this hall, where. thirty-two years ago, the negro first entered upon the unequal contest for supremacy, and which has been reddened with his blood, now witness the evolution of our organic law which will establish the relations between the races upon an everlasting foundation of right and justice. (Applause)." • Page 374..5, concluding remarks by Thomas Semmes, Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary: "... We met here to establish the supremacy of the white race, and the white race constitutes the Democratic party of this State." • Page 375, Now then, what have we done? is the question. Our mission was, in the first place, to establish the supremacy of the white race in this State to the extent to which it could be legally and constitutionally done, and what has our ordinance on suffrage, the constitutional means by which we propose to maintain that ascendency, done? We have established throughout the State white manhood suffrage." "We, therefore, have in this State a large white population whose right to vote would have been stricken down but for the operation of section 5. And all of these men had aided the white people of the State to wrest from the hands of the Republican party, composed almost exclusively of negroes, the power which, backed by the Federal bayonets, they had exercised for many years." • Page 381, concluding remarks by Ernest Kruttschnitt, president of the convention: "We have placed it within the power of the people of this State to have elections as fair and as pure as those in the State of Massachusetts herself; and I say to you that we can appeal to the conscience of the nation, both judicial and legislative, and I don't believe that they will take the responsibility of striking down the system which we have reared in order to protect the purity of the ballot box, and to perpetuate the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race in Louisiana."
Louisiana Constitution of 1913 A constitutional convention was called to re-fund the state debt and enlarge the powers of the New Orleans Sewer and Water Board. Concerns over possible Supreme Court constitutionality decisions led to a longer constitution with all sixty-six amendments to the Constitution of 1898 being included. Supreme Court Justices to be elected, more funding for education was provided, and six amendments to the Confederate Pension Plan.
Louisiana Constitution of 1921 The Louisiana Constitution of 1921, was adopted in convention June 18, 1921. A major concern was validity of some provisions of the Constitution of 1913. Article IV: section 7; Authority to set minimum wage, regulate hours and working conditions for women and girls, with exceptions for agriculture and domestic service. Article IV: section 16; No law abolishing forced "heirship". Article VII: section 4; The Supreme Court justices increased to seven. Section 5; Supreme Court may sit in divisions of three, and two judges from the Court of Appeals may be called in for a third division to reduce backlogs. Section 6; Justices to be elected for a period of fourteen years. The constitution, the longest in Louisiana history (as of 2020), lasted fifty-three years. It removed all references to the French language and mandated that "the general exercises in the public schools... be conducted in the English language". ==Articles of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974==