Bayou Legacy - Hidden Stories of Louisiana History -

09/16/2026

🌊 BAYOU LEGACY | SEPTEMBER 16, 1920 🌊

OUR HISTORY HAS ALWAYS BEEN WRITTEN BY THE WATER. Bayou Legacy - Hidden Stories of Louisiana History -

On this day in 1920, a tropical depression formed over the western Caribbean Sea—beginning the life of the storm that would become known as the 1920 Louisiana Hurricane.

The system crossed Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula before entering the Gulf of Mexico and rapidly strengthening. On September 22, it struck near Houma, Louisiana, as a powerful Category 2 hurricane with winds reaching approximately 100 mph.

The storm uprooted trees, damaged homes and other structures, disrupted railroads and affected communities across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. It became another chapter in Louisiana’s long struggle to live beside waters that could provide life one season—and bring destruction the next.

Here in the Baton Rouge region, that relationship with water can also be seen in Bayou Manchac.

On March 24, 1699, French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville turned from the Mississippi River into the waterway later called Bayou Manchac. The bayou became an important travel and trade route and, at different times, served as a significant colonial and international boundary.

Today, it forms part of the boundary separating East Baton Rouge Parish from Ascension and Iberville parishes. In 2009, it was officially recognized as Louisiana’s second historic waterway.

From hurricanes crossing the Gulf to bayous guiding explorers, carrying commerce and marking boundaries, Louisiana’s story cannot be separated from its waterways.

The water has shaped our land.
The water has tested our people.
The water still carries our history.

This is our history. This is our heritage. This is our Bayou Legacy.

— Christopher W. Strahan Ministries

09/16/2026

🎶 ON THIS DAY IN BLACK HISTORY — SEPTEMBER 16 🎶


On September 16, 1925, legendary bluesman Riley “B.B.” King was born on a cotton plantation near Itta Bena and Berclair, Mississippi.

From the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta to stages around the world, he became the undisputed King of the Blues. With his beloved guitar, Lucille, B.B. King helped define modern electric blues and influenced generations of blues, rock, R&B, and soul musicians.

During his extraordinary career, he earned 15 Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and became a global ambassador for the music born from the struggles, faith, resilience, and creativity of Black America.

Also born on this day:

📚 September 16, 1950 — Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Born in Keyser, West Virginia, Gates became one of America’s foremost scholars of African American literature, history, and culture. Today, he is widely known as a Harvard professor, author, filmmaker, and host of the acclaimed PBS series Finding Your Roots.

Today, we celebrate two men whose work has helped preserve, interpret, and share the richness of the Black experience—one through the strings of a guitar and the other through scholarship, storytelling, and genealogy.

Their gifts became history. Their legacies continue to educate and inspire.

— Christopher W. Strahan Ministries

09/10/2026

Every home has that one drawer full of things nobody understands—but everybody keeps! 😂

09/10/2026

🌀 September 9, 1965 — Hurricane Betsy Strikes the Bayou State

On the evening of September 9, 1965, Hurricane Betsy roared ashore near Grand Isle, Louisiana. The storm was later reclassified as a Category 4 hurricane at landfall.

Betsy became the first hurricane in United States history to cause more than $1 billion in damage, earning the unforgettable nickname “Billion-Dollar Betsy.”

Powerful winds and a devastating storm surge flooded thousands of square miles across South Louisiana. Water surged into Lake Pontchartrain and through the Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet, contributing to levee failures and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.

Betsy remained a hurricane as it traveled inland toward Baton Rouge. The New Orleans Weather Bureau radar captured its final image at 10:46 p.m. before the station lost power.

The destruction prompted Congress to authorize an extensive federal hurricane-protection system for Greater New Orleans—the system whose catastrophic failures would become part of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating legacy 40 years later.

Christopher W. Strahan Ministries

08/12/2026

We didn’t need Wi-Fi to have a good childhood… we had outside, imagination, and a box of crayons! 😂🙌🏾

08/12/2026

😂 If you remember walking across the classroom just to crank this thing, congratulations… you survived the ORIGINAL pencil technology! ✏️🤣 Who remembers?

08/12/2026

🔥 BEFORE HOLLYWOOD GAVE THE COWBOY A WHITE HAT, BLACK MEN WERE ALREADY RIDING THE BAYOU. 🐎

By the early 1760s, enslaved West African cattle herders were working ranches along Louisiana’s Bayou Teche—before Acadians settled that region. They brought generations of cattle knowledge, horsemanship, endurance, and skill that helped shape Louisiana’s ranching culture.

Their story didn’t disappear.

You can still see echoes of that legacy today in the Black Creole trail rides of southwest Louisiana—where horses, family, zydeco, faith, culture, and community come together.

Louisiana history is deeper than what most of us were taught.

The Bayou didn’t just have cowboys. Some of Louisiana’s earliest cowboys were Black.

08/11/2026

08/11/2026

🔥 ON THIS DAY IN LOUISIANA HISTORY — AUGUST 10, 1936 🔥

🌡️ LOUISIANA’S HOTTEST DAY EVER!

On August 10, 1936, the temperature in Plain Dealing, Louisiana, soared to an unbelievable 114°F, establishing the highest temperature ever officially recorded in the state of Louisiana — a record that still stands today.

Now THAT was some Louisiana heat! 🥵🔥

From the bayous to the piney woods, Louisiana history isn’t just about people and places — sometimes, even the weather makes history.

📜 114°F | Plain Dealing, Louisiana | August 10, 1936 Bayou Legacy - Hidden Stories of Louisiana History -

Bayou Legacy — Keeping Louisiana History Alive.