List of parishes in Louisiana
The U.S. state of Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes (French: "paroisses") in the same manner that 48 other states of the United States are divided into counties, and Alaska is divided into boroughs.
Samuel W. Martien
At the time, each Louisiana parish regardless of population had at least one representative. That advantage was lost completely to rural parishes in 1972, when both legislative chambers came into full compliance with the United States Supreme Court decision "Reynolds v. Sims", which requires that each state legislative district be nearly equal in population. In recent census reports, Tensas Parish, which is majority African American, has been the smallest parish in the state in population, and the numbers continue to decline.