FERRIDAY &8212; Like many small Southern towns, Ferriday saw its heyday with the arrival of the railroad companies in 1904 and the incorporation of the area to a town two years later.

But later events caused Ferriday to become what it is today, an economically deprived and struggling town.

Frogmore Plantation owner, Lynette Tanner, said one major hit to Ferriday&8217;s economy came in the early 60s when the motorized two-row cotton picker was invented.

According the book, &8220;Agriculture in the Old Southwest&8221; by John Hebron Moore, the motorized cotton picker could pick 20 acres of cotton per day. The average manual laborer could only pick 10 acres in three months.

&8220;Ferriday has always been an agriculturally- driven town,&8221; Tanner said. &8220;When that cotton picker was introduced, it put a lot of people out of work.&8221;

Tanner said statistics show Ferriday has always had a ratio of blacks to whites of four to one.

So-called &8220;white flight,&8221; Tanner said, took place in 1968 when Concordia Parish schools were integrated.

Tanner was a senior in high school.

&8220;I remember integration because when it happened, private schools like Huntington were built,&8221; Tanner said.

But Tanner said &8220;white flight&8221; only happened on a small scale.

&8220;If you&8217;re talking about strictly within the ity limits, then yes, it happened,&8221; Tanner said. &8220;But whites just moved to subdivisions within or just outside the town like Panola, Woodland or the lake communities.&8221;

According to Ferriday Chamber of Commerce member Liz Brookings, downtown Ferriday declined even further when two chain stores came to town.

The first was the Howard Brothers store in 1978.

Then, in July 1987, Wal-Mart was built in Ferriday.

Brookings and Tanner agree that Ferriday&8217;s downtown was thriving before Wal-Mart opened.

&8220;Wal-Mart probably shut down 25 businesses in Ferriday, including three drug stores, several dress shops and two automotive stores,&8221; Tanner said.

However owners of some of the stores don&8217;t credit Wal-Mart for closing their businesses.

Judy Vogt Green&8217;s mother owned Vogt Drug Store on Louisiana Avenue until 1990, Green said.

&8220;Mom decided to retire in 1990 and so I bought it from her and merged it with Concordia Drug Company,&8221; Green said. &8220;Wal-Mart had nothing to do with us closing.&8221;

Joe Pasternack Jr. owned Pasternack&8217;s Hardware until he sold the store in 1983.

&8220;When I sold the store it was thriving,&8221; Pasternack said. &8220;I can&8217;t buy that Wal-Mart had a lot to do with it closing down. I just wanted to move to Metairie.&8221;