White Americans
White Americans are Americans who are descendants from any of the white racial groups of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa or in census statistics, those who self-report as white based on having majority-white ancestry. White Americans constitute the historical and current majority of the people living in the United States, with 72% of the population in the 2010 United States Census. Non-Hispanic whites totaled about 197,285,202 or 60.7% of the U. S. population. European Americans are the largest ethnic group of White Americans and constitute the historical population of the United States since the nation's founding; the United States Census Bureau defines white people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa." Like all official U. S. racial categories, "White" has a "not Hispanic or Latino" and a "Hispanic or Latino" component, the latter consisting of White Mexican Americans and White Cuban Americans. The term "Caucasian" is synonymous with "white", although the latter is sometimes used to denote skin tone instead of race.
Some of the non-European ethnic groups classified as white by the U. S. Census, such as Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, may not identify as or may not be perceived to be, white; the largest ancestries of American whites are: German Americans, Irish Americans, English Americans, Italian Americans, French Americans, Polish Americans, Scottish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans, Dutch Americans, Norwegian Americans and Swedish Americans. However, the English Americans and British Americans demography is considered a serious under-count as the stock tend to self-report and identify as "Americans", due to the length of time they have inhabited the United States if their family arrived prior to the American Revolution; the vast majority of white Americans have ancestry from multiple countries. Definitions of, "White" have changed throughout the history of the United States; the term "White American" can encompass many different ethnic groups. Although the United States Census purports to reflect a social definition of race, the social dimensions of race are more complex than Census criteria.
The 2000 U. S. census states that racial categories "generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country. They do not conform to any biological, anthropological or genetic criteria."The Census question on race lists the categories White or European American, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, plus "Some other race", with the respondent having the ability to mark more than one racial and or ethnic category. The Census Bureau defines White people as follows: "White" refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa, it includes people who indicated their race as "White" or reported entries such as German, Lebanese, Moroccan, or Caucasian. In U. S. census documents, the designation White overlaps, as do all other official racial categories, with the term Hispanic or Latino, introduced in the 1980 census as a category of ethnicity and independent of race.
Hispanic and Latino Americans as a whole make up a racially diverse group and as a whole are the largest minority in the country. The characterization of Middle Eastern and North African Americans as white has been a matter of controversy. In the early 20th century, peoples of Arab descent were sometimes denied entry into the United States because they were characterized as nonwhite. In 1944, the law changed, Middle Eastern and North African peoples were granted white status; the U. S. Census is revisiting the issue, considering creating a separate racial category for Middle Eastern and North African Americans in the 2020 Census. In cases where individuals do not self-identify, the U. S. census parameters for race give each national origin a racial value. Additionally, people who reported Muslim, Zoroastrian, or Caucasian as their "race" in the "Some other race" section, without noting a country of origin, are automatically tallied as White; the US Census considers the write-in response of "Caucasian" or "Aryan" to be a synonym for White in their ancestry code listing.
In the contemporary United States anyone of European descent is considered White. However, many of the non-European ethnic groups classified as White by the U. S. Census, such as Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, Hispanics or Latinos may not identify as, may not be perceived to be, White; the definition of White has changed over the course of American history. Among Europeans, those not considered White at some point in American history include Italians, Spaniards, Swedes and Russians. Early on in the United States, membership in the white race was limited to those of British, Germanic, or Nordic ancestry. David R. Roediger argues that the construction of the white race in the United States was an effort to mentally distance slave owners from slaves; the process of being defined as white by law came about in court disputes over pursuit of citizenship. Critical race theory developed in the 1970s and 1980s, influenced by the language of critical legal studies, which challenged concepts such as objective truth and judicial neutrality, by critical theory.
Academics and activists disillusioned with the outcomes of the Civil Rights Movement pointed out that though African Americans enjoyed legal equality, white Americans continued to hold disproportionate power and still had superior living standards
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger and pianist, known for his distinctive voice, mordant pop songs and film scores. Since the 1980s, Newman has worked as a film composer, his film scores include Ragtime, The Natural, Cats Don't Dance, Meet the Parents, Cold Turkey and Seabiscuit. He has scored eight Disney-Pixar animated films: Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Inc. Cars, Toy Story 3, Monsters University and Cars 3, as well as Disney's The Princess and the Frog and James and the Giant Peach. Newman has received twenty Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories and has won twice in the latter category, he has won three Emmys, seven Grammy Awards and the Governor's Award from the Recording Academy. Newman was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 for classics such as "Short People", as a Disney Legend in 2007, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2013. Newman was born to a Jewish family on his father's 30th birthday, in Los Angeles.
He is the son of Adele "Dixie", a secretary, Irving George Newman, an internist. He lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a small child and spent summers there until he was 11 years old, when his family returned to Los Angeles; the paternal side of his family includes grandparents Luba and Michael Newman, three uncles who were noted Hollywood film-score composers: Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman and Emil Newman. Newman's cousins, Maria and Joey, are composers for motion pictures, he graduated from University High School in Los Angeles. He studied music at the University of California, Los Angeles, but dropped out one semester shy of a B. A. Newman's parents were nonobservant Jews. Newman is an atheist, he has said that religion or any sense of religious identity was absent in his childhood. To illustrate this, he has recounted in interviews an antisemitic incident that occurred when he was young: he was invited by a classmate to be her date to a cotillion at her Los Angeles country club, he accepted the invitation but was subsequently disinvited by the girl's father, who told Newman that his daughter should never have invited him because Jews were not allowed at the country club.
Newman hung up the phone went to ask his own father what a "Jew" was. Newman has been a professional songwriter since he was 17, he cites Ray Charles as his greatest influence growing up, stating, "I loved Charles' music to excess." His first single as a performer was 1962's "Golden Gridiron Boy", released when he was 18. The single flopped and Newman chose to concentrate on songwriting and arranging for the next several years. An early writing credit was "They Tell Me It's Summer", used as the b-side of the Fleetwoods 1962 single, "Lovers by Night, Strangers by Day", which led to further commissions from the Fleetwoods and Pat Boone. Other early songs were recorded by Gene Pitney, Jerry Butler, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, the O'Jays and Irma Thomas, among others, his work as a songwriter met with particular success in the UK: top 40 UK hits written by Newman included Cilla Black's "I've Been Wrong Before", Gene Pitney's "Nobody Needs Your Love" and "Just One Smile". Price, enjoying great success in England at the time, championed Newman by featuring seven Randy Newman songs on his 1967 A Price on His Head album.
In the mid-1960s, Newman was a member of the band the Tikis, who became Harpers Bizarre, best known for their 1967 hit version of the Paul Simon composition "The 59th Street Bridge Song". Newman kept a close musical relationship with Harpers Bizarre, offering them some of his own compositions, including "Simon Smith" and "Happyland"; the band recorded six Newman compositions during their short initial career. In this period, Newman began a long professional association with childhood friend Lenny Waronker. Waronker had been hired to produce the Tikis, the Beau Brummels and the Mojo Men, who were all contracted to the Los Angeles independent label Autumn Records, he in turn brought in Newman, Leon Russell and another friend, pianist/arranger Van Dyke Parks, to play on recording sessions. In 1966, Waronker was hired as an A&R manager by Warner Bros. Records and his friendship with Newman and Parks began a creative circle around Waronker at Warner Bros. that became one of the keys to Warner Bros.'
Subsequent success as a rock music label. In 2011, Newman endorsed The Randy Newman Project. Newman's song compositions are represented by Downtown Music Publishing, his 1968 debut album, Randy Newman, was a critical success but never entered the Billboard Top 200. Many artists, including Helen Reddy, Bette Midler, Alan Price, Van Dyke Parks, Dave Van Ronk, Judy Collins, Cass Elliot, Art Garfunkel, the Everly Brothers, Claudine Longet, Dusty Springfield, Tom Odell, Nina Simone, Lynn Anderson, Wilson Pickett, Pat Boone and Peggy Lee, covered his songs and "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" became an early standard. In 1969, he did the orchestral arrangements for Peggy Lee's single "Is That All There Is?", as well as her album with the same title. In 1969 he recorded "Gone Dead Train" for the 1970 movie and soundtrack album to Performance, starring Mick Jagger. In 1970, Harry Nilsson
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state in the Deep South region of the South Central United States. It is the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Louisiana is bordered by the state of Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south. A large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River. Louisiana is the only U. S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes. The state's capital is Baton Rouge, its largest city is New Orleans. Much of the state's lands were formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp; these contain a rich southern biota. There are many species of tree frogs, fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas; these support an exceptionally large number of plant species, including many species of terrestrial orchids and carnivorous plants.
Louisiana has more Native American tribes than any other southern state, including four that are federally recognized, ten that are state recognized, four that have not received recognition. Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so influenced by a mixture of 18th-century French, Spanish, Native American, African cultures that they are considered to be exceptional in the US. Before the American purchase of the territory in 1803, present-day Louisiana State had been both a French colony and for a brief period a Spanish one. In addition, colonists imported numerous African people as slaves in the 18th century. Many came from peoples of the same region of West Africa. In the post-Civil War environment, Anglo-Americans increased the pressure for Anglicization, in 1921, English was for a time made the sole language of instruction in Louisiana schools before a policy of multilingualism was revived in 1974. There has never been an official language in Louisiana, the state constitution enumerates "the right of the people to preserve and promote their respective historic and cultural origins."
Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643 to 1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane; the suffix -ana is a Latin suffix that can refer to "information relating to a particular individual, subject, or place." Thus Louis + ana carries the idea of "related to Louis." Once part of the French Colonial Empire, the Louisiana Territory stretched from present-day Mobile Bay to just north of the present-day Canada–United States border, including a small part of what is now the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea; as Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened. Louisiana developed, over millions of years, from water into land, from north to south; the oldest rocks are exposed in areas such as the Kisatchie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back to the early Cenozoic Era, some 60 million years ago.
The history of the formation of these rocks can be found in D. Spearing's Roadside Geology of Louisiana; the youngest parts of the state were formed during the last 12,000 years as successive deltas of the Mississippi River: the Maringouin, Teche, St. Bernard, the modern Mississippi, now the Atchafalaya; the sediments were carried from north to south by the Mississippi River. In between the Tertiary rocks of the north, the new sediments along the coast, is a vast belt known as the Pleistocene Terraces, their age and distribution can be related to the rise and fall of sea levels during past ice ages. In general, the northern terraces have had sufficient time for rivers to cut deep channels, while the newer terraces tend to be much flatter. Salt domes are found in Louisiana, their origin can be traced back to the early Gulf of Mexico, when the shallow ocean had high rates of evaporation. There are several hundred salt domes in the state. Salt domes are important not only as a source of salt. Louisiana is bordered to the west by Texas.
The state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north, the alluvial along the coast. The alluvial region includes low swamp lands, coastal marshlands and beaches, barrier islands that cover about 20,000 square miles; this area lies principally along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 mi ) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles, along the other rivers, the alluvial region averages about 10 miles across; the Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its own natural deposits, from which the lands decline toward a river beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile. The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features; the higher and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles. They consist of prairie and woodl
Evangeline
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians; the idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow used dactylic hexameter, imitating Greek and Latin classics, though the choice was criticized, it became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and remains one of his most popular and enduring works. The poem had a powerful effect in defining both Acadian history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More recent scholarship has revealed the historical errors in the poem and the complexity of the Expulsion and those involved, which the poem ignores. Evangeline describes the betrothal of a fictional Acadian girl named Evangeline Bellefontaine to her beloved, Gabriel Lajeunesse, their separation as the British deport the Acadians from Acadie in the Great Upheaval.
The poem follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him, at some times being near to Gabriel without realizing he was near. She settles in Philadelphia and, as an old woman, works as a Sister of Mercy among the poor. While tending the dying during an epidemic she finds Gabriel among the sick, he dies in her arms. Longfellow was introduced to the true story of the Acadians in Nova Scotia by his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, told a story of separated Acadian lovers by Boston minister Rev. Horace Conolly, who heard it from his parishioners. Hawthorne and Longfellow had attended Bowdoin College together, though they were not friends at the time. Years in 1837, Hawthorne contacted Longfellow for his opinion on his published tales in the North American Review, which Longfellow praised as works of genius. Hawthorne was not interested in fictionalizing Conolly's idea because, as he told Conolly, "It is not in my vein: there are no strong lights and heavy shadows."
Longfellow took the idea and turned it into a poem after months of studying the histories of Nova Scotian families. Longfellow, who had never visited the setting of the true story, relied on Thomas Chandler Haliburton's An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia and other books for further background information, he noted his reliance on other sources in his journal on January 7, 1847: "Went to the library and got Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, the Historical Collections of Pennsylvania. Darby's Geographical Description of Louisiana; these books must help me through the last part of Evangeline, so far as local coloring go. But for the form and the poetry,—they must come from my own brain."Evangeline was published in book form on November 1, 1847, by 1857 it had sold nearly 36,000 copies. During this time, Longfellow's literary payment was at its peak. Longfellow said of his poem: "I had the fever a long time burning in my own brain before I let my hero take it.'Evangeline' is so easy for you to read, because it was so hard for me to write."
The poem is written in unrhymed dactylic hexameter inspired by Greek and Latin classics, including Homer, whose work Longfellow was reading at the time he was writing "Evangeline." He had in 1841, translated "The Children of the Lord's Supper," a poem by Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér, which used this meter. Evangeline is one of the few nineteenth-century compositions in that meter, still read today; some criticized Longfellow's choice of dactylic hexameter, including poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who said the poem would have been better in a prose style similar to Longfellow's Hyperion. Longfellow was conscious of the potential criticism; when sending a copy of the poem to Bryan Procter, Longfellow wrote: "I hope you will not reject it on account of the metre. In fact, I could not write it. Longfellow's wife Fanny defended his choice, writing to a friend: "It enables greater richness of expression than any other, it is sonorous like the sea, sounding in Evangeline's ear." As an experiment, Longfellow reassured himself that he was using the best meter by attempting a passage in blank verse.
So, while looking over the proofs for a second edition, Longfellow wished he had used a different poetic structure: It would be a relief to the hexameters to let them stretch their legs a little more at their ease. The name Evangeline comes from the Latin word "evangelium" meaning "gospel." The Latin word itself is derived from the Greek words "eu"—"good"—and "angela"—"news". Evangeline became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and was read. Contemporary reviews were positive. A reviewer for The Metropolitan Magazine said, "No one with any pretensions to poetic feeling can read its delicious portraiture of rustic scenery and of a mode of life long since defunct, without the most intense delight". Longfellow's friend Charles Sumner said he had met a woman who "has read'Evangeline' some twenty times and thinks it the most perfect poem in the language". Other admirers of the poem included King Leopold I of Belgium, it has been called the first important long poem in American literature.
Prior to the influence of Longfellow's poem, historians focused on the British founding of Halifax as the beginning of Nova Scotia
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands is a Spanish archipelago and the southernmost autonomous community of Spain located in the Atlantic Ocean, 100 kilometres west of Morocco at the closest point. The Canary Islands, which are known informally as the Canaries, are among the outermost regions of the European Union proper, it is one of the eight regions with special consideration of historical nationality recognized as such by the Spanish Government. The Canary Islands belong to the African Plate like the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, the two on the African mainland; the seven main islands are Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. The archipelago includes much smaller islands and islets: La Graciosa, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este, it includes a series of adjacent roques. In ancient times, the island chain was referred to as "the Fortunate Isles"; the Canary Islands are the most southerly region of Spain and the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region.
The Canary Islands have been considered a bridge between four continents: Africa, North America, South America and Europe. The archipelago's beaches and important natural attractions Maspalomas in Gran Canaria and Teide National Park and Mount Teide in Tenerife, make it a major tourist destination with over 12 million visitors per year Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote; the islands have a subtropical climate, with moderately warm winters. The precipitation levels and the level of maritime moderation vary depending on location and elevation. Green areas as well as desert exist on the archipelago. Due to their location above the temperature inversion layer, the high mountains of these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands. In 1927, the Province of Canary Islands was split into two provinces; the autonomous community of the Canary Islands was established in 1982.
Its capital is shared by the cities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which in turn are the capitals of the provinces of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has been the largest city in the Canaries since 1768, except for a brief period in the 1910s. Between the 1833 territorial division of Spain and 1927 Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the sole capital of the Canary Islands. In 1927 a decree ordered; the third largest city of the Canary Islands is San Cristóbal de La Laguna on Tenerife. This city is home to the Consejo Consultivo de Canarias, the supreme consultative body of the Canary Islands. During the time of the Spanish Empire, the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas, which came south to catch the prevailing northeasterly trade winds; the name Islas Canarias is derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs", a name, applied only to Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained "vast multitudes of dogs of large size".
Alternatively, it is said that the original inhabitants of the island, used to worship dogs, mummified them and treated dogs as holy animals. The ancient Greeks knew about a people, living far to the west, who are the "dog-headed ones", who worshipped dogs on an island; some hypothesize that the Canary Islands dog-worship and the ancient Egyptian cult of the dog-headed god, Anubis are connected but there is no explanation given as to which one was first. Other theories speculate that the name comes from the Nukkari Berber tribe living in the Moroccan Atlas, named in Roman sources as Canarii, though Pliny again mentions the relation of this term with dogs; the connection to dogs is retained in their depiction on the islands' coat-of-arms. It is considered that the aborigines of Gran Canaria called themselves "Canarios", it is possible that after being conquered, this name was used in plural in Spanish, i.e. as to refer to all of the islands as the Canarii-as. What is certain is that the name of the islands does not derive from the canary bird.
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the archipelago. Gran Canaria, with 865,070 inhabitants, is both the Canary Islands' second most populous island, the third most populous one in Spain after Majorca; the island of Fuerteventura is the second largest in the archipelago and located 100 km from the African coast. The islands form the Macaronesia ecoregion with the Azores, Cape Verde and the Savage Isles; the Canary Islands is the largest and most populated archipelago of the Macaronesia region. The archipelago consists of seven large and several smaller islands, all of which are volcanic in origin. According to the position of the islands with respect to the north-east trade winds, the climate can be mild and wet or dry. Several native species form laurisilva forests; as a consequence, the individual islands in the Canary archipelago tend to have distinct microclimates. Those islands such as El Hierro, La Palma and La Gomera lying to the west of the archipelago have a climate, influenced by the m
Ville Platte, Louisiana
Ville Platte is a city in, the parish seat of, Evangeline Parish, United States. The population was 7,430 at the 2010 census, down from 8,145 in 2000; the city's name is of French origin translating to "flat city", in reference to its flat topography in contrast to the more hilly terrain north of the area. The area around Ville Platte appears to have been first settled during the last half of the eighteenth century, when Louisiana was under Spanish rule; the earliest record of settlement in the immediate area of Ville Platte was in the 1780s. Popular legend states the founder of Ville Platte was Marcellin Garand, an adjutant major in the Army of the French Empire during the reign of Napoleon. In 1824, Garand obtained one of the first two lots that were platted in what is now Ville Platte, with the second being obtained by a Doctor Robert Windex; those lots were obtained from the estate of William O'Donegan. This appears to be the actual beginning of, or the founding of, the present town of Ville Platte.
The first post office in Ville Platte was established in 1842 with Marcellin Garand as postmaster from 1842 to 1848. Ville Platte is located in eastern Evangeline Parish at 30°41′21″N 92°16′39″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, Ville Platte has a total area of 4.0 square miles, of which 0.25 acres, or 0.01%, is water. U. S. Route 167 passes through the city as Lasalle Street; the highway leads north 52 miles to Alexandria. Louisiana Highway 10 passes through the city in tandem with US 167 but leads northwest 28 miles to Oakdale. Chicot State Park, Louisiana's largest state park, is located 8 miles north of Ville Platte; the park covers 6,400 acres of rolling hills and water and has large numbers of deer and other wildlife. As of the census of 2000, there were 8,145 people, 3,169 households, 2,047 families residing in the city; the population density was 2,665.4 people per square mile. There were 3,513 housing units at an average density of 1,149.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 40.53% White, 58.67% African American, 0.21% Native American, 0.07% Asian, 0.11% from other races, 0.41% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.23% of the population. There were 3,169 households out of which 32.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.9% were married couples living together, 24.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 35.4% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.17. In the city, the population was spread out with 30.9% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $12,917, the median income for a family was $18,056. Males had a median income of $29,798 versus $16,563 for females; the per capita income for the city was $9,672. About 43.5% of families and 50.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 68.9% of those under age 18 and 32.5% of those age 65 or over.
Public schools in Evangeline Parish are operated by the Evangeline Parish School Board. Three campuses are located in Ville Platte - James Stephens Montessori School, Ville Platte Elementary School, Ville Platte High School. There is two private schools. Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School is a Roman Catholic school, serving grades PK-12. Christian Heritage Academy is a Christian school, serving grades PK-12; the famous St. Landry Parish Sheriff Cat Doucet was educated in Ville Platte. Ville Platte is located at the heart of Louisiana's Cajun country; the town is famous for its smoked meat and swamp pop music, bills itself as "Smoked Meat Capital of the World". Ville Platte has been designated by the Louisiana Legislature at the "Swamp Pop Capital of the World," recognizing the town's "long, rich history of fostering the development of swamp pop music." Ville Platte has Cajun cultural associations. It lies at the northern point of the "French Triangle" with a significant francophone population residing in the city as well as the parish.
It is one of the birthplaces of the Afro-creole zydeco music that has become one of the signatures of Louisiana culture throughout the world, as well as the Choctaw-Métis tradition of "viande boucanee" or smoked meat. Ville Platte hosts two large festivals each year; the Louisiana Cotton festival, run in conjunction with the Le Tournoi, the Festival de la Viande Bouccanee are held in Ville Platte annually. Ville Platte and the surrounding areas participate in the traditional Mardi Gras held in Mamou. Radio host Jim Soileau, the "Voice of KVPI" throughout most of the past 50 years, is semi-retired but still host the French News as well as co-host "La Tasse de Café" on Monday and Wednesday mornings, he has one of the most recognized voices in Acadiana and hosted "This is Mamou Cajun radio" from location at Fred's Lounge for many years. Former U. S. Representative T. Ashton Thompson of Louisiana's 7th congressional district, since disbanded, was born in Ville Platte in 1916, he died in office in 1965 as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident in Gastonia, North Carolina.
His death paved the way for Edwin Washington Edwards to assume the seat. Bernard LeBas
Acadians
The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who settled in Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries, some of whom are descended from the Indigenous peoples of the region. The colony was located in what is now Eastern Canada's Maritime provinces, as well as part of Quebec, present-day Maine to the Kennebec River. Acadia was a distinctly separate colony of New France, it was administratively separate from the French colony of Canada. As a result, the Acadians and Québécois developed two distinct cultures, they developed a different French language. France has one official language and to accomplish this they have an administration in charge of the language. Since the Acadians were separated from this council, their French language evolved independently, Acadians retain several elements of 17th-century French that have disappeared in France; the settlers whose descendants became Acadians came from many areas in France, but regions such as Île-de-France, Brittany and Aquitaine. Acadian family names have come from many areas in France.
For example, the Maillets are from Paris. During the French and Indian War, British colonial officers suspected Acadians were aligned with France after finding some Acadians fighting alongside French troops at Fort Beausejour. Though most Acadians remained neutral during the French and Indian War, the British, together with New England legislators and militia, carried out the Great Expulsion of the Acadians during the 1755–1764 period, they deported 11,500 Acadians from the maritime region. One-third perished from disease and drowning; the result was what one historian described as an ethnic cleansing of the Acadians from Maritime Canada. Other historians indicate that it was a deportation similar to other deportations of the time period. Most Acadians were deported to various American colonies, where many were forced into servitude, or marginal lifestyles; some Acadians were deported to England, to the Caribbean, some were deported to France. After being expelled to France, many Acadians were recruited by the Spanish government to migrate to present day Louisiana state, where they developed what became known as Cajun culture.
In time, some Acadians returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada to New Brunswick because they were barred by the British from resettling their lands and villages in what became Nova Scotia. Before the US Revolutionary War, the Crown settled New England Planters in former Acadian communities and farmland as well as Loyalists after the war. British policy was to assimilate Acadians with the local populations. Acadians speak. Many of those in the Moncton area speak English; the Louisiana Cajun descendants speak a variety of American English called Cajun English, with many speaking Cajun French, a close relative of Acadian French from Canada, but influenced by Spanish and West African languages. During the early 1600s, about sixty French families were established in Acadia, they developed friendly relations with the Wabanaki Confederacy, learning their hunting and fishing techniques. The Acadians lived in the coastal regions of the Bay of Fundy. Living in a contested borderland region between French Canada and British territories, the Acadians became entangled in the conflict between the powers.
Over a period of seventy-four years, six wars took place in Acadia and Nova Scotia in which the Confederacy and some Acadians fought to keep the British from taking over the region. While France lost political control of Acadia in 1713, the Mí'kmaq did not concede land to the British. Along with some Acadians, the Mi'kmaq from time to time used military force to resist the British; this was evident in the early 1720s during Dummer's War but hostilities were brought to a close by a treaty signed in 1726. The British Conquest of Acadia happened in 1710. Over the next forty-five years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. Many were influenced by Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre, who from his arrival in 1738 until his capture in 1755 preached against the'English devils'. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour. During the French and Indian War, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Acadia.
With the founding of Halifax in 1749 the Mi'kmaq resisted British settlements by making numerous raids on Halifax, Dartmouth and Lunenburg. During the French and Indian War, the Mi'kmaq assisted the Acadians in resisting the British during the Expulsion of the Acadians. Many Acadians might have signed an unconditional oath to the British monarchy had the circumstances been better, while other Acadians did not sign because they were anti-British. For the Acadians who might have signed an unconditional oath, there were numerous reasons why they did not; the difficulty was p
Interstate 49
U.S. Highway 190
U.S. Highway 167
Louisiana Highway 10
Louisiana Highway 13
Louisiana Highway 29
Evangeline Parish, Louisiana
