[8] Baton Rouge has developed as a culturally rich center, settled by immigrants from European nations and African peoples brought to North America as slaves or indentured servants.

Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, research, motion picture,[9] and technology center of the Southern United States.

[18] The early Muskogean societies were the bearers of the Mississippian culture, which formed around 800 AD and extended in a vast network across the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, with numerous chiefdoms in the Southeast, as well.

By the time the Spanish made their first forays inland from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in the early 16th century, by some evidence many political centers of the Mississippians were already in decline, or abandoned.

In 1755, when French settlers in the colony of Acadia (known as Acadians) were deported from there by British authorities, many took up residence in rural Louisiana, including Baton Rouge.

[21] In the summer of 1862, about 2,600 Confederate troops under generals John C. Breckinridge (the former Vice President of the United States) and Daniel Ruggles attempted to recapture Baton Rouge.

When the Bourbon Democrats regained power in 1882, after considerable intimidation and voter suppression of black Republicans, they returned the state government to Baton Rouge, where it has since remained.

[27] On January 10, 1972, a violent shootout between members of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the police ensued, which left two sheriff's deputies and two black males dead at the scene.

In response, then-Louisiana Governor John McKeithen ordered 700 members of the Louisiana National Guard to patrol the streets to tamp down further intercity violence.

In 2010, Baton Rouge started a market push to become a test city for Google's new super high speed fiber optic line known as GeauxFiBR.

[41][42] During the runoff for District 3 of the Louisiana Public Service Commission in December 2022, many Baton Rougeans helped elect Davante Lewis—the first openly LGBT politician to the state government.

Rooftop shingles were ripped off, signs blew down, and minor structural damage occurred.Prior to colonization, American Indians were once the primary residents of present-day Baton Rouge.

Due to French, Spanish, and British colonization and missionary efforts, in addition to American settlement, Baton Rouge became a predominantly Christian city and metropolitan area.

[79] In a 2019 study by Sperling's BestPlaces, other notable Christian bodies in the area include Anglicans or Episcopalians, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Latter-Day Saints, and Lutherans.

[80] New religious movements including contemporary paganism have small communities in the area,[88] and a minority practice Haitian Vodou, Louisiana Voodoo, and Hoodoo.

[92] Other notable companies headquartered in the city include BBQGuys, Marucci Sports, Piccadilly Restaurants, and Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers.

[106] Baton Rouge's largest production facility is the Celtic Media Centre, opened in 2006 by a local group in collaboration with Raleigh Studios of Los Angeles.

[113] A group of physical theatre and circus artists from LSU traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, in summer 2012 to perform Dante in what has become the world's largest Fringe Festival.

Forward Arts won the international youth poetry slam, Brave New Voices in 2017, and was the first team from the Southern United States to ever win the competition.

[121] Celebrity judges included actress Rumer Willis, NBA star Karl Malone, singer Lance Bass, and actor Ian Ziering.

Following a successful round of exhibition games, the Federal Prospects Hockey League announced that Baton Rouge would be awarded a franchise, beginning play in 2023.

Though Zachary, Baker, and Central each have their own mayors, citizens living in these municipalities are still a part of the constituency who can vote and run in elections for mayor-president and metropolitan council.

In the late 1960s, Joe Delpit—a local African American businessman owning and operating the Chicken Shack[138]—was elected as the first black council member in Baton Rouge.

Other providers soon followed suit, and fiber optics have thus far proven reliable in all hurricanes since they were installed, even when mobile and broadband services are disrupted during storms.

[156] Baton Rouge is home station to the Louisiana Army National Guard 769th Engineer Battalion,[157] which had units deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Interstate 110 (The Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway) stretches 8 miles in a north–south direction from the east end of the Horace Wilkinson Bridge to Scenic Highway in Scotlandville, Louisiana.

[161] In 2009, Governor Bobby Jindal and the Baton Rouge legislative delegation allocated state and federal funding to widen I-12 from O'Neal Lane to Range Avenue (Exit 10) in Denham Springs.

[163] In 2010, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act provided supplemental funding for this project to extend to the Highland Road exit in East Baton Rouge Parish.

[165] A circumferential loop freeway was proposed for the greater Baton Rouge metro area to help alleviate congestion on the existing through-town routes.

[citation needed] According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 81.9% of working Baton Rouge residents commuted by driving alone, 8.5% carpooled, 3% used public transportation, and 2.4% walked.