Music
Iry LeJeune
At a time when popular Cajun music leaned heavily toward western swing bands featuring the fiddle, Iry LeJeune is credited with reintroducing the traditional Cajun accordion.
Southwest Louisiana (Acadiana)
Southwest Louisiana (Acadiana) Index
Peoples of Louisiana
Ishak Indigenous People
The Ishak are an Indigenous people who have lived in southwest Louisiana and southeastern Texas since precolonial times.
Peoples of Louisiana
Italians
Between 1880 and 1914, New Orleans was a principal port of entry for Italians migrating to the United States.
Art
Ivy Billiot
A member of the United Houma Nation, Ivy Billiot is a self-taught woodcarver who creates colorful, meticulously rendered fish, birds, reptiles, and other wildlife out of native Louisiana woods.
Business & Industry
J. D. Miller’s Recording Studios
J. D. Miller’s recording studios in Crowley are best known for recording South Louisiana musical genres but the studio leaves a mixed legacy, having produced a series of racist songs in the 1960s.
Foodways
Jambalaya
A rice-based mixture of meats and/or seafood along with vegetables, herbs, and spices, jambalaya is a representative dish of South Louisiana.
Literature
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is the author of detective fiction set in Louisiana.
Government, Politics & Law
James Madison Wells
Alexandria native James Wells served as governor of Louisiana from 1865 until 1867, leading the state's initial efforts at Reconstruction.
Art
Janie Verret Luster
Janie Verret Luster is a master palmetto basket weaver and cultural preservationist of the United Houma Nation, a state-recognized tribe from southeast Louisiana.
Government, Politics & Law
Jared Young Sanders
Democrat Jared Sanders, who served as governor of Louisiana from 1908 until 1912, was the first governor elected under a state law that required gubernatorial candidates to participate in a primary election.
Business & Industry
Jean Baptiste Roudanez
A radical civil rights advocate during the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jean Baptiste Roudanez helped found two historic Black newspapers.
Government, Politics & Law
Jean Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie
Jean Jacques Blaise D'Abbadie, an experienced naval officer and administrator, was one of three officials that Louis XV sent to govern French Colonial Louisiana in 1763.
