Monroe, Louisiana, United States

🇺🇸 Monroe is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the parish seat of Ouachita Parish. It is the principal city of the Monroe metropolitan statistical area, the second-largest metropolitan area in North Louisiana.

History As the 19th century began, the entire Ouachita Valley region… was part of Spanish colonial holdings. Ouachita County encompassed the area between the Red and the Mississippi Rivers, from north of Concordia and Rapides County to the Missouri. The area was sparsely populated, primarily by itinerant hunters and trappers until late in the 18th century. Under Spanish colonial rule, Jean Baptiste Filhiol was sent from South Louisiana to oversee the settlement of the Poste du Ouachita in 1781. In 1785 Filhiol designated Prairie des Canots, now Monroe… as the governmental centre of the Poste du Ouachita. In response to a petition by the settlers, a fortification was built in 1791 and named Fort Miro in honor of the Spanish governor, Estavan Miro.

Fort Miro changed its name to Monroe to commemorate the first arrival of the steamboat James Monroe in the spring of 1820.

In 1913, Joseph A. Biedenharn, the first bottler of Coca-Cola, moved to Monroe from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Biedenharn and his son Malcolm were among the founders of Delta Air Lines, originally Delta Dusters. That company was founded in Tallulah, Louisiana in Madison Parish. It was based on products and processes developed by the Agriculture Experimental Station to dust crops from airplanes in order to combat the devastating effects that the boll weevil had on cotton crops. Biedenharn's home and gardens have been preserved and are now operated as the Biedenharn Museum and Gardens and are open to the public.

Collett E. Woolman, the Ouachita Parish agent, was originally from Indiana. He pioneered crop dusting to eradicate the boll weevil, which destroyed cotton throughout the Mississippi Delta in the early 20th century. Woolman originated the first crop-dusting service in the world. The collapse of cotton production meant a widespread loss of farm jobs, which contributed to the early-20th-century Great Migration, when a total of 1.5 million African-Americans left the rural South for jobs in northern and midwestern cities. They were also escaping the oppressive racial conditions and violence under Jim Crow and the disenfranchisement that excluded most blacks from the political system. Howard D. Griffin (1911-1986) purchased a boat dealership in 1936 while a student at what became the University of Louisiana Monroe. By the 1960s, Griffin's company had become the world's largest outboard motor dealership, and he also sold motorcycles. From 1955 to 1985, Griffin and his wife, Birdie M. Griffin (1915-1985), operated their seasonal Land O' Toys store in Monroe.

Geography Located in north-eastern Louisiana, Monroe is the centre of the Monroe metropolitan statistical area. It is the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, and north-eastern Louisiana's economic and cultural hub. Monroe has an elevation of 72 feet (21.9 m) above sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.6 square miles (83.9 km²), of which, 28.7 square miles (74.3 km²) of it is land and 3.7 square miles (9.6 km²) of it is water. The total area is 11.46% water.

Religion As part of the Bible Belt, Christianity is the largest religion in Monroe, the city's metropolitan area, and North Louisiana. In common with much of northern and Central Louisiana, Baptists makes up the largest Christian denomination by affiliation. As a predominantly-African-American city, the largest Baptist denominations are the National Baptist Convention, USA; the National Baptist Convention of America; and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention also has churches throughout the Monroe area.

Methodism make up the second-largest Christian denomination by affiliation, primarily divided among the African Methodist Episcopal and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches. The Catholic Church is the third-largest, and the city's Catholic population is served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport as of 2021. Pentecostalism is a growing tradition among the population, divided among Classical Pentecostals, and Oneness Pentecostals. The Church of God in Christ and United Pentecostal Church are the largest Pentecostal denominations in the city and metropolitan area; there are also some independent Oneness Pentecostal churches in the city.

Islam is Monroe's second-largest religion. Muslims are predominantly Sunni, though the Nation of Islam also maintains a presence in the area. Former mayor Jamie Mayo controversially awarded a key to the city to the head of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan.

Judaism is Monroe's third-largest religion, with most being of the Reform denomination. Temple B'nai Israel, established in 1868, is Monroe's oldest synagogue.

Economy: Top employers According to the city's 2018 comprehensive annual financial report, the top employers in the area are: 1 Ouachita Parish School Board; 2 Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink); 3 Monroe City Schools; 4 St. Francis Specialty Hospital; 5 IASIS Healthcare (Glenwood Regional Medical Center); 6 JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.; 7 Walmart Inc.; 8 City of Monroe; 9 University of Louisiana Monroe; 10 Graphic Packaging Holding Company.

Education: Universities • Career Technical College • Louisiana Delta Community College • McCann School of Business & Technology • Northeast Louisiana Technical College • UniTech Training Academy • University of Louisiana Monroe.

Sports and entertainment The Monroe Civic Center has multiple facilities, the main complex being the Civic Center arena. The arena provides 44,000 square feet (4,100 m²) of exhibit space along with 5,600 seats, with a larger potential capacity of up to 7,200 seats. The arena houses events such as banquets, circuses, and rodeos.

The centre also holds the B. D. Robinson Conference Hall, Monroe Convention Center, equestrian pavilion, and the 2,200-seat W. L. Jack Howard Theatre named for W. L. "Jack" Howard, the Union Parish native who served as mayor of Monroe from 1956 to 1972 and again from 1976 to 1978. The Harvey H. Benoit Recreation Center is used for basketball games and has outdoor tennis courts.

During the last week of June, Monroe hosts the annual Miss Louisiana pageant.

Monroe is the home of the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo, which collectively maintains over 500 animals. It also offers boat rides and a catwalk, in addition to other seasonal activities.

The Monroe area is home to several museums, including the Northeast Louisiana Children's Museum, the Biedenharn Museum and Gardens, the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum, the Masur Museum of Arts, and the Northeast Louisiana Delta African-American Heritage Museum. This is one of the twenty-six sites identified in the early 21st century as part of the state's African American Heritage Trail.

Golf • Bayou Desiard Country Club • Chennault Golf Course • Frenchman's Bend Country Club • The Links at Muny, Forsythe Park

Retail • Pecanland Mall has major anchor stores: Belk, Dillard's, and JC Penney. The largest mall in North Louisiana, it has a total of 83 retail stores.

Media Monroe is served by two African-American-owned weekly newspapers: the Monroe Free Press and the Monroe Dispatch. The Free Press was founded in 1969 by Roosevelt Wright, Jr., and The Dispatch was founded in 1975 by Irma and Frank Detiege. The Ouachita Citizen is a locally owned and operated weekly newspaper that was founded in 1924. It has all-local coverage of events in Ouachita Parish, including Monroe, West Monroe, Sterlington and Richwood.

Media: Radio Monroe is served by local radio station KJLO, and KMVX, that also broad KMLB AM 540.

Emergency alert stations • KMLB-KNOE 540 AM • KMVX-KNOE 101.9 FM • KNOE TV 8 • KTVE-TV 10 • KARD-TV 14.

National Guard Monroe is home to the 528th Engineer Battalion of the Louisiana Army National Guard. This unit is part of the 225th Engineer Brigade which is headquartered in Pineville, Louisiana at Camp Beauregard.

Transport Monroe was the headquarters of Delta Air Lines during the second half of the 1920s. As it expanded, it moved to Atlanta. Monroe Regional Airport serves the city and north-east Louisiana. It has three main runways and is served by regional partners of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Greyhound Bus Lines provides transportation from Monroe to many cities across the nation. Monroe has the oldest municipally-owned transit system in the nation. Created in 1906 as a four-line street railroad, the Monroe Transit System now provides 13 fixed bus routes covering most areas of the city, and three demand-response buses serving the disabled.

Monroe can be accessed from Interstate 20, U.S. Highway 165, Louisiana Highway 15, U.S. Highway 80, and Interstate 420 (proposed).

Kansas City Southern, Union Pacific, BNSF, and Norfolk Southern serve freight traffic in the city.