As this was historically a center of agriculture since the antebellum years, producing cotton and pecans, Tallulah and the parish have long had majority-African American populations.

Mechanization and industrial agriculture have reduced the number of jobs, and many residents have moved since the mid-20th century to larger cities with more opportunities.

Starting as farm workers, some banded together to establish small stores, such as groceries in parish seats and other trading towns.

[6] The city developed through the early 20th century and had a growing population, as people came in from rural areas to work in the lumber mills and timber processing.

Because it was the center of a major agricultural area, Tallulah became the site of the Louisiana Delta Fair, held annually in October through the first half of the 20th century.

[10] Shirley Field and the original airport building still stand near Tallulah, and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

After the Supreme Court ruled in Smith v. Allwright (1944) that the white primary of the Democratic Party was unconstitutional, more blacks began to register in the South.

Following passage of the national Civil Rights Act in 1964, in 1965, activists conducted boycotts to end discrimination in employment; many stores would not hire blacks as workers.

[14][15] That year, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, authorizing the federal government to oversee voter registration and elections in jurisdictions such as Tallulah and Madison Parish with historic under-representation of minorities.

In 1969, Zelma Wyche, a local veteran and activist, was elected as Police Chief of Tallulah, the first African American to hold the office.

[17] Unlike some other areas of the state, only four antebellum structures remain in the parish, because of destruction by General Ulysses S. Grant's forces during the Vicksburg Campaign in the Civil War.

[19] After being donated to the Madison Historical Society in 1997, Hermione was moved to its current site on North Mulberry Street in Tallulah.

[20] Born free soon after the war as Sarah Breedlove in nearby Delta, Louisiana, she moved north as a young woman, where she developed a line of hair-care products that she manufactured and sold nationally.

Significant damage to an industrial plant with associated injuries, trapped people, and destroyed homes nearby were reported in Madison Parish near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line.

It gained strength and struck Yazoo, Holmes, and Choctaw counties in Mississippi, causing 10 fatalities and extensive destruction.

[21][22] Tallulah and Madison Parish have been led and represented politically by numerous members of the prominent Sevier family, who were longtime planters.

The family's power was maintained primarily in the decades-long period when Democratic Party whites dominated voting, and Louisiana was virtually a one-party state.

Under these conditions, Andrew Leonard Sevier Sr. was repeatedly re-elected as a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, serving from 1932 until his death in 1962.

His tenure included some of the volatile years of the civil rights movement, when African Americans sought changes to the Jim Crow system and justice as citizens.

Sevier led white residents in adapting to change as more African-American citizens began to register, vote and be elected to local offices.

Sevier at the time of his death held the record, at more than forty-four years, as the longest-serving publicly elected official in Louisiana.

[23] In November 1994, the state opened the privately operated Tallulah Correctional Center for Youth on the western edge of the city.

In 1999, the state took over operating the facility, renaming it the Swanson Correctional Center for Youth/Madison Parish Unit, but there continued to be problems with the treatment of youth.

They gained legislative approval in one year, so when the juvenile prison was closed in 2004, there were plans developed for an educational center on the site.

[18] It is known as the Madison Parish Louisiana Transitional Center for Women (LCTW), houses 535 inmates, and is operated by LaSalle Corrections, a private company.