| Plain Dealing, Louisiana | |
| Official Name: | Town of Plain Dealing |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Image Map1: | Louisiana in United States (US48).svg |
| Map Caption1: | Location of Louisiana in the United States |
| Coordinates: | 32.9058°N -93.7°W |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | Parish |
| Subdivision Name2: | Bossier |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Leader Title: | Mayor[1] |
| Leader Name: | Shavonda E. Gay (NP) |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Footnotes: | [2] |
| Area Total Km2: | 4.10 |
| Area Total Sq Mi: | 1.58 |
| Area Land Km2: | 4.09 |
| Area Land Sq Mi: | 1.58 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.01 |
| Area Water Sq Mi: | 0.00 |
| Elevation Ft: | 266 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Total: | 893 |
| Population Rank: | BO 4th |
| Population Density Km2: | 218.41 |
| Population Density Sq Mi: | 565.55 |
| Timezone1: | CST |
| Utc Offset1: | -6 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | -5 |
| Area Code: | 318 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank Info: | 22-60670 |
| Blank2 Name Sec2: | Wikimedia Commons |
| Website: | https://thetownofplaindealing.com/ |
Plain Dealing is a town in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 893 in 2020. It is part of the Shreveport - Bossier City metropolitan statistical area.
Prior to 1839, the United States government forcibly removed the Caddo Nation of Native Americans—longtime local inhabitants who had first settled the area over 1,000 years before Europeans' 16th-century arrival in mainland North America—from the area of Northern Louisiana that included the parcel that would later become the town of Plain Dealing.[3]
In 1839, George Oglethorpe Gilmer and his son, James Blair Gilmer, bought 5,000 acres of this land—now described as a "vast, unsettled wilderness"—from the United States government, calling a portion of this acreage "Plain Dealing" after the family's Virginia plantation.[3] [4] The "Plain Dealing" name became official when the town was formally chartered on April 24, 1890.[3]
On March 26, 1893, during an evening school dance at Plain Dealing High School, a fight broke out. Two students were shot and killed immediately, two more were fatally wounded, and the high school's Professor Johnson was wounded in the arm.[5]
Plain Dealing is 8miles south of the Arkansas border and north of Shreveport.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 4.1sqkm, of which 0.01sqkm, or 0.26%, is water.[6]
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Plain Dealing has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Plain Dealing was 114F on August 10, 1936, while the coldest temperature recorded was -14F on February 13, 1899. The record high temperature is also the highest temperature ever recorded in Louisiana.[7]
| Number | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 440 | 49.27% | |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 414 | 46.58% | |
| Other/Mixed | 22 | 2.46% | |
| Hispanic or Latino | 15 | 1.68% |
The community is in the Bossier Parish School District.[8] There is one school in the community, Plain Dealing High School, which covers grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12.[9] Its attendance boundary includes all of Plain Dealing.[10]
White and black students had separate K-12 schools, under educational segregation in the United States. White students went to Plain Dealing High School, then K-12, while black students went to Carrie Martin High School, a K-12 school established in 1952 by its namesake. In 1969 the white and black schools were consolidated into a single school with two campuses, later separated into Plain Dealing Elementary School and Plain Dealing High School. The elementary school was renamed Carrie Martin Elementary School in 2003.[11] In 2017 the district announced that it will merge Martin Elementary into Plain Dealing High, and stop using the former elementary facility.[12]
Bossier Parish is in the areas of Bossier Parish Community College and Northwest Louisiana Technical Community College.[13]