When Hurston embarked on her trip Down South to discover the “cosmic secrets” within its African American communities, she may have known nothing of Bogalusa or its legendary conjure man, Doctor Redmond. Yet, once in the “Magic City of the Deep South,” she discovered a great deal of cultural significance through the lives and experiences of its residents. Her time in Bogalusa demonstrates how her fastidious research effectively illuminated people, places, and topics preserved within Southern African American communities but typically neglected in scholarship and the national memory.

As she creatively bypassed the “featherbed resistance” of her subjects, she also understood the need to protect Black folks and their cultural products. Therefore, while conducting and writing about her ethnographic fieldwork, she withheld information about many of the cities and towns she visited, as well as the African Americans residing within those areas. The historical record reveals this praxis as her approach in documenting Bogalusa, mentioning it numerous times in scholarly publications and personal correspondence but omitting other interesting or clarifying details.

Bogalusa 1925

Bogalusa 2025

Today, Bogalusa appears quite different from the city Hurston visited in 1928. According to 2020 census data,¹ the population is under 11,000 residents, and despite the wealth and opulence of its heyday, the median income is $39,213, nearly $40,000 less than the national average.² The sawmill changed ownership several times over the years, but still exists and now operates as International Paper. Some of Bogalusa’s historic buildings still stand, but many streets have been rerouted and renamed over the decades as the city expanded. Even Redmond himself is forgotten, although a thoroughfare and housing community still bear his name—Redmond Street and Redmond Heights. Despite its decline, none of these unfortunate circumstances can erase the city’s sensational past or the great culture its African American community created against all odds. Hurston understood Bogalusa’s relevance, and scholarship about her should bear witness to her work and findings there.