Paris, Texas

Paris, Texas
City
Historic downtown Paris
Location of Lamar County
Coordinates: 33°39′45″N 95°32′52″W / 33.66250°N 95.54778°W / 33.66250; -95.54778
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Lamar
Government
• City Council	Dr Steve Clifford Derrick Hughes Renae Stone Bill Trenado Linda Knox Clayton Pilgrim Paula Portugal
• City Manager	John Godwin
Area [1]
• Total	37.07 sq mi (96.00 km2)
• Land	35.19 sq mi (91.14 km2)
• Water	1.88 sq mi (4.86 km2)
Elevation	600 ft (183 m)
Population  (2010)
• Total	25,171
• Estimate  (2019)[3]	24,847
• Density	706.08/sq mi (272.62/km2)
• Demonym	Parisite
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	75460-75462
Area code(s)	903/430
FIPS code	48-55080
GNIS feature ID	1364810[2]
Website	paristexas.gov

Paris is a city and county seat of Lamar County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 25,171. Paris is in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, and 98 miles (158 km) northeast of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. Physiographically, these regions are part of the West Gulf Coastal Plain.^[4]

Following a tradition of American cities named "Paris" (named after France's capital), the city commissioned a 65-foot-tall (20 m) replica of the Eiffel Tower in 1993 and installed it on site of the Love Civic Center, southeast of the town square. In 1998, presumably as a response to the 1993 construction of a 60-foot-tall (18 m) tower in Paris, Tennessee, the city placed a giant red cowboy hat atop its tower. The current Eiffel Tower replica is at least the second one; an earlier replica constructed of wood was destroyed by a tornado.

History[]

Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River County during the Republic of Texas. By 1840, population growth necessitated the organization of a new county. George Washington Wright, who had served in the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas as a representative from Red River County, was a major proponent of the new county. The Fifth Congress established the new county on December 17, 1840, and named it after Mirabeau B. Lamar,^[5] who was the first Vice President and the second President of the Republic of Texas.

Lamar County was one of the 18 Texas counties that voted against secession on February 23, 1861.^[6]

In 1877, 1896, and 1916, major fires in the city forced considerable rebuilding. The 1916 fire destroyed almost half the town and caused an estimated $11 million in property damage. The fire ruined most of the central business district and swept through a residential area. The burned structures included the Federal Building and Post Office, the Lamar County Courthouse and Jail, City Hall, most commercial buildings, and several churches.^[7]

In 1893, black teenager Henry Smith was accused of murder, tortured, and then burned to death on a scaffold in front of thousands of spectators in Paris.^[8] In 1920, two black brothers from the Arthur family were tied to a flagpole and burned to death at the Paris fairgrounds. The city has prominent memorials to the Confederacy, but has no acknowledgement of these killings.^[8]

In 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court in Largent v. Texas struck down a Paris ordinance that prohibited a person from selling or distributing religious publications without first obtaining a city-issued permit. The Court ruled that the ordinance abridged freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.^[9]

Transportation[]

Paris has long been a railroad center. The Texas and Pacific reached town in 1876; the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway (later merged into the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway) and the Frisco in 1887; the Texas Midland Railroad (later Southern Pacific) in 1894; and the Paris and Mount Pleasant (Pa-Ma Line) in 1910. Paris Union Station, built 1912, served Frisco], Santa Fe, and Texas Midland passenger trains until 1956. Today, the station is used by the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce and serves as the research library for the Lamar County Genealogical Society.^[10]

Historical residences[]

The city is home to several late-19th to mid-20th century stately homes. Among these is the Rufus Fenner Scott Mansion, designed by German architect J.L. Wees and constructed in 1910. The structure is solid concrete and steel with four floors. Rufus Scott was a prominent businessman known for shipping, imports, and banking. He was well known by local farmers, who bought aging transport mules from him. The Scott Mansion narrowly survived the fire of 1916. After the fire, Scott brought the architect Wees back to Paris to redesign the historic downtown area.^[11]

Camp Maxey[]

Camp Maxey is maintained by a Texas Army National Guard unit.^[12]

City rating[]

Paris was named the "Best Small Town in Texas" by Kevin Heubusch in his book The New Rating Guide to Life in America's Small Cities (1997).^[13]

Media[]

EParisExtra and myparistexas.com are both news sources for Paris, Texas.

Newspaper[]

Since 1869, The Paris News has served as the newspaper in the city of Paris. It circulates daily in the city and throughout Lamar County, as well as in neighboring Delta, Fannin, and Red River Counties in Texas and Choctaw County, Oklahoma.

Radio stations[]

Six radio stations are licensed in the city of Paris: KFYN, KZHN, KPLT (AM), KOYN, KBUS, KITX, and KPLT-FM.

Television[]

Paris is served by KXII; the low-power translator station KXIP-LD (channel 12) is in Paris.

Racial violence[]

Paris has a bloody history of racism. Racial issues have been deeply polarizing, turbulent, and sometimes explosive.^[14][15]

In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, several lynchings were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds as public spectacles, with thousands of White spectators cheering as the African-American victims were tortured and then immolated, dismembered, or otherwise murdered.^[16][14] A Black teenager named Henry Smith was lynched in 1893. His murder was the first lynching in US history that was captured in photographs sold as postcards and other trinkets commemorating the killing.^[17] Journalist Ida B. Wells said of the incident "Never in the history of civilization has any Christian people stooped to such shocking brutality and indescribable barbarism as that which characterized the people of Paris, Texas."^[17]

On July 7, 1920 there was the Lynching of Irving and Herman Arthur.

In 2008, an African-American man, Brandon McClelland, was run over and dragged to death under a vehicle. Two White men were arrested, but the prosecutor cited lack of evidence and declined to press charges, and no serious subsequent attempt to find other perpetrators was made. This caused unrest in the Paris African-American community. Following this incident, an attempt by the United States Department of Justice Justice Community Relations Service to initiate a dialogue between the races in the town^[18] ended in failure when African-American complaints were mostly met by silent glares from White community members.^[14]

A 2009 protest rally over the case led to Texas State Police intervention to prevent groups shouting "white power!" and "black power!" from coming to blows.^[19] In response to the incident, civil rights activist Brenda Cherry said "I think we are probably stuck in 1930 right about now".^[20] In 2007, a 14-year-old African-American girl was sentenced by a local judge to up to 7 years in a youth prison for shoving a hall monitor at Paris High School. Three months earlier, the same judge had sentenced a 14-year-old White girl to probation for arson. This sentencing disparity occasioned nationwide controversy^[21] and the African-American girl was released after serving one year on orders of a special conservator appointed by the State of Texas to investigate problems with the state's juvenile-justice practices.^[21]

In 2009, some African-American workers at the Turner Industries plant in the city claimed that hangman's nooses, Confederate flags, and racist graffiti were regular features of plant culture.^[22] At the same time, the United States Department of Education was conducting an investigation into allegations that African-American students in Paris's schools are disciplined more harshly than White students for similar offenses.^[21]

In 2015, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled after an investigation that African-American workers at the Sara Lee Corporation plant in Paris (closed in 2011)^[23] were deliberately exposed disproportionately to asbestos, black mold, and other toxins, and also were targets of racial slurs and racist graffiti.^[24]

Some Paris residents deny that the town has a race-relations problem.^[16][19] Judge M. C. Superville commented "I do not believe there is systematic racial discrimination in Lamar County. I do believe there is a misperception that that is going on".^[20]

Geography[]

Paris is located at

33°39′45″N 95°32′52″W / 33.66250°N 95.54778°W / 33.66250; -95.54778 (33.662508, −95.547692).^[25] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 44.4 square miles (115 km²), of which 42.8 square miles (111 km²) are land and 1.7 square miles (4.4 km²) (3.74%) are covered by water.

Climate[]

Paris has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa in the Köppen climate classification). It is located in "Tornado Alley", an area largely centered in the middle of the United States in which tornadoes occur frequently because of weather patterns and geography. Paris is in USDA plant hardiness zone 8a for winter temperatures. This is cooler than its southern neighbor Dallas, and while similar to Atlanta, Georgia, it has warmer summertime temperatures. Summertime average highs reach 94 °F (34 °C) and 95 °F (35 °C) in July and August, with associated lows of 72 °F (22 °C) and 71 °F (22 °C). Winter temperatures drop to an average high of 51 °F (11 °C) and low of 30 °F (−1 °C) in January. The highest temperature on record was 115 °F (46 °C), set in August 1936, and the record low was −5 °F (−21 °C), set in 1930. Average precipitation is 47.82 in (1,215 mm). Snow is not unusual, but is by no means predictable, and years can pass with no snowfall at all.

On April 2, 1982, Paris was hit by an F4 tornado that destroyed more than 1,500 homes, and left 10 people dead, 170 injured, and 3,000 homeless. The damage toll from this tornado was estimated at US$50 million in 1982.^[26]

Demographics[]

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1880	3,980		—
1890	8,254		107.4%
1900	9,358		13.4%
1910	11,269		20.4%
1920	15,040		33.5%
1930	15,649		4.0%
1940	18,678		19.4%
1950	21,643		15.9%
1960	20,977		−3.1%
1970	23,441		11.7%
1980	25,498		8.8%
1990	24,799		−2.7%
2000	25,898		4.4%
2010	25,171		−2.8%
2019 (est.)	24,847	[3]	−1.3%
Texas Almanac[28]

As of the census^[29] of 2010, 25,171 people, 10,306 households, and 6,426 families resided in the city. The population density was 588.1 people per square mile (227.4/km²). The 11,883 housing units averaged 277.6 per square mile (107.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.3% White, 24.8% African American, 3.1% Native American, 1.1% Asian, and 4.1% from other races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 8.2% of the population.

Of the 10,306 households, 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.8% were married couples living together, 19.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.6% were not families. About 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.01.

In the city, the population was distributed as 25.0% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.9 males.

2000 census data[]

In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $27,438, and for a family was $34,916. Males had a median income of $29,378 versus $20,080 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,137. About 16.5% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.0% of those under age 18 and 15.9% of those age 65 or over.

Economy[]

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In the past, Paris was a major cotton exchange, and the county was developed as cotton plantations. While cotton is still farmed on the lands around Paris, it is no longer a major part of the economy.

Paris' one major hospital has two campuses: Paris Regional Medical Center South (formerly St. Joseph's Hospital) and Paris Regional Medical Center North (formerly McCuistion Regional Medical Center). It serves as the center of healthcare for much of Northeast Texas and Southeast Oklahoma. Both campuses are now operated jointly under the name of the Paris Regional Medical Center, a division of Essent Healthcare. Paris Regional Medical Center South Campus has recently closed and only the North Campus remains open. The health network is one of the largest employers in the Paris area.^[30]

Outside of healthcare, the largest employers are Kimberly-Clark and Campbell's Soup.

#	Employer	# of employees
1	Essent-PRMC	1000
2	Campbell Soup	900
3	Kimberly-Clark	800
4	Turner Industries	700
5	Paris ISD	640
T-6	North Lamar ISD	500
T-6	Walmart	500
8	TCIM	480
9	City of Paris	320
10	We-Pack Logistics	300

^[31]

Note: PRMC is Paris Regional Medical Center.

Education[]

Elementary and secondary education is split among three main school districts:

• Paris Independent School District
• North Lamar Independent School District
• Chisum Independent School District

Prairiland ISD also serves a small portion of the town, along with Blossom ISD.

In addition, Paris Junior College provides postsecondary education. It hosts the Texas Institute of Jewelry Technology, a well-respected school of gemology, horology, and jewelry. The Industrial Technology Division offers programs in air conditioning technology, refrigeration technology, agricultural technology, drafting and computer-aided design, electronics, electromechanical technology, and welding technology.

Texas A&M University-Commerce, a major university of over 12,000 students, is located in the neighboring city of Commerce, 40 minutes southwest of Paris.

The Paris Public Library serves Paris, as does the Lamar County Genealogical Society Library.^[32]

Government[]

It is governed by a city council as specified in the city's charter adopted in 1948.

State government[]

Paris is represented in the Texas Senate by Republican Kevin Eltife, District 1, and in the Texas House of Representatives by Republican , District 3.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice operates the Paris District Parole Office in Paris.^[33]

Federal government[]

At the federal level, the two U.S. senators from Texas are Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Paris is part of Texas's 4th congressional district, represented by Republican John Ratcliffe.

The United States Postal Service operates the Paris Post Office.^[34]

Transportation[]

Major highways[]

• U.S. Highway 82
• U.S. Highway 271
• State Highway 19/State Highway 24
• State Highway Loop 286

According to the Texas Transportation Commission, Paris is the second-largest city in Texas without a four-lane divided highway connecting to an interstate highway within the state. However, those traveling north of the city can go into the Midwest on a four-lane thoroughfare via US 271 across the Red River into Oklahoma, and then the Indian Nation Turnpike from Hugo to Interstate 40 at Henryetta, which in turn continues as a free four-lane highway via US 75 to Tulsa.

Paris is served by two taxicab companies. Cox Field provides general aviation services.

Attractions[]

• Pat Mayse Lake
• Beaver's Bend Resort Park (Oklahoma)
• Evergreen Cemetery – Located on the south side of town, there are over 50,000 people interred. This is the site of a noted 12-foot (3.7 m) tall "Jesus with cowboy boots" statue and grave marker of Willet Babcock, as well as the resting place of banker/philanthropist William J. McDonald, Confederate General/U.S. Senator Sam Bell Maxey, rancher Pitts Chisum, and cotton magnate John J. Culbertson. Pitts Chisum's more famous brother, John Chisum, is also buried in the city.
• Sam Bell Maxey House – Maxey was a Confederate general and 2 time US Senator.
• Paris Eiffel Tower
• On October 4, 1955, early in his career, Elvis Presley performed at the Boys Club Gymnasium at 1530 1st Street Northeast in Paris as a member of the Louisiana Hayride Jamboree tour.
• Lamar County Historical Museum

Notable people[]

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References[]

External links[]

Media related to Paris, Texas at Wikimedia Commons

• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Paris (Texas)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 823.
  • "Paris, Tex.". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
• City of Paris
• Paris Texas Event Calendar
• Lamar County Historical Society
• Lamar County Courthouse
• Handbook of Texas Online entry
• Paris Texas information – Lamar County Station

Coordinates: 33°39′45″N 95°32′52″W / 33.662508°N 95.547692°W / 33.662508; -95.547692