French Language in Louisiana

A clip from the "author's notes" in my middle grade novel, Nikki Landry and the Legend of Ghost Dog Island, a historical novel about a young girl growing up in the Louisiana bayous in 1956:

In 1921, the State of Louisiana’s new constitution included outlawing the speaking of French in the public schools. By the 1960’s the language had almost died out. In 1961, the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) was founded, putting French-language curricula in the public schools. Today, many Cajuns still speak the language of their ancestors. In the rural southwestern Louisiana parishes, nearly one third still speak French on a daily basis.1


1Bruce, Clint & Gipson, Jennifer. Cajun French, Dictionary and Phrasebook, Hippocrene Books, Inc. NY, 2002.