Earl Long
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Earl Kemp Long (August 26, 1895 – September 5, 1960) was a colorful American politician and three-time Democratic governor of Louisiana, who termed himself the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, referring to his stump-speaking skills. He served from 1939-1940, 1948-1952, and 1956-1960.
He was also lieutenant governor, having served from 1936-1939, but he failed in three other bids to be elected lieutenant governor. In 1932, he lost to state House Speaker John B. Fournet of Jennings in Jefferson Davis Parish; in 1944, he was defeated in a runoff by J. Emile Verret of Iberia Parish, and in 1959, the position went to the conservative Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish. In that first defeat, Earl's brother, Huey Pierce Long, Jr., endorsed Fournet, but the rest of the Long family stood with Earl. The outraged Earl, at thirty-six, called Huey "the yellowest physical coward that God had ever let live." Huey Long said of Earl: "Earl is my brother but he's crooked. If you live long enough he'll double cross you. He'd double cross Jesus Christ if He was down here on earth." (Quoted in Richard D. White, Jr., Kingfish, Random House, p. 137)
In the 1944 contest, Earl Long lost to a man whose previous political position had been no higher than a school board presidency. In the latter contest, Aycock won a second primary over the mayor of Alexandria, W. George Bowdon, Jr., as Long failed even to secure a runoff berth.
At the time of his death, Long's last term as governor had expired, and he was the Democratic nominee in the now defunct Eighth Congressional District, based in central Louisiana.
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[edit] Early career
Long was born in Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish in north central Louisiana to Huey Pierce Long, Sr. (1852-1937), and the former Caledonia Palestine Tyson (1860-1913) of French descent but a native of neighboring Grant Parish, and was the younger brother of U.S. Representative George Shannon "Doc" Long and Governor and U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr. Long's younger sister was Lucille Long Hunt (1898-1985) of Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish in north Louisiana and the mother of future Louisiana Public Service Commissioner John S. Hunt, III (1928-2001), of Monroe.
Long became governor in 1939, after the resignation of Governor Richard Leche, but he failed to win a term of his own in 1940. During his brief term, Long appointed a cousin, Floyd Harrison Long, Sr., as the custodian of the Central State (Mental) Hospital in Pineville. Floyd Long was the father of future U.S. Representative Gillis William Long and U.S. Army Colonel Floyd H. Long, Jr.
Long was defeated in the Democratic primary by the conservative attorney Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles.
In 1944, Long did not run for governor though he wished to have done so. Instead he ran for lieutenant governor on an intraparty ticket with former U.S. Representative Lewis Lovering Morgan of Covington, the seat of St. Tammany Parish north of New Orleans. Long led the party balloting for the second position in state government, but he lost the runoff to Verret, whose only previous elected experience had been as a member and president of the Iberia Parish School Board. Had Morgan not entered the second primary against James Houston "Jimmie" Davis, Long would have become lieutenant governor without a runoff. At the time, Louisiana law provided that there would be no statewide constitutional runoffs unless there was also a contest for governor. Long blamed his failure to become lieutenant governor on Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., a former ally with whom he quarreled for many years thereafter.
In 1948, Long was elected governor to succeed Jimmie Davis, who had defeated Morgan in the 1944 runoff. To win the first of his two full terms from 1948 to 1952, Long defeated his old rival Sam Jones by a wide margin. Eliminated in the first primary was U.S. Representative James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison of Hammond, who made his third and final gubernatorial bid.
Term limited for the 1951-1952 elections, Long sat out the statewide elections but surfaced again in 1955-1956, when he scored an easy victory over a field that included New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr. (no relation to James H. Morrison), and former state police superintendent Francis Grevemberg.
Earl Williamson, a local politician in Caddo Parish became personally close to both Huey and Earl Long. Williamson's son, later State Senator Don W. Williamson recalls Earl Long coming into Vivian and picking up his father, Earl Williamson, as the Earl Long entourage headed on a buttermilk-drinking and horse racing trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas]]. Long demanded absolutely loyalty among his inner circle, often saying that he did not need them to back him when he is right but when he is wrong.
Governor Long became close to Margaret Dixon, the first woman managing editor of the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. She often advised him on political strategy. He appointed her to the LSU Board of Supervisors in 1951.
From 1948-1950, Long's executive secretary was former college president and state Senator A.A. Fredericks of Natchitoches. Long later recalled Fredericks as his secretary for the last two years of Long's last term as governor.
On three occasions, Long tapped Lorris M. Wimberly of Bienville Parish as Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. He also named Wimberly director of public works in Long's last term. In Louisiana, the powerful governor chooses the House Speaker despite the separation of powers.
In his last gubernatorial term, Long relied heavily on his legislative floor leader, state Representative Willard L. Rambo (1917-1984) of Georgetown in Grant Parish. Rambo was a Long by marriage, having wed the former Mary Alice Long.
In 1959, Long actually considered resigning as governor, a move which would have made his loyal lieutenant governor, Lether Edward Frazar of Lake Charles, the Louisiana chief executive for some seven months. Under the scenario, Long would then run for governor himself in the December 1959 Democratic primary and thereby avoid Louisiana's ban (at the time) on governors succeeding themselves. The plan never developed. Instead, the term-limited Long unsuccessfully sought the lieutenant governorship on a "ticket" headed by fellow Democrat and wealthy former Governor James Albert Noe, Sr. Jimmie Davis succeeded Long as governor in 1960. It was said that in 1948 Long followed Davis, and in 1960, Davis followed Long. Long was nevertheless a testament to the persistence and power of the Long brand of populism in southern politics. Frazar did not seek either the governorship or the lieutenant governorship in the 1959 primary, and he died at fifty-five on May 15, 1960.
The colorful "Uncle Earl" once joked that one day the people of Louisiana would elect "good government, and they won't like it!" He was an uncle of popular U.S. Senator Russell B. Long (1918-2003). Beneath his public persona as a simple, plain-spoken rural Louisianian of little education was an astute political mind of considerable intelligence. Earl Long was a master campaigner, who attracted large crowds when his campaign caravan crisscrossed the state. He would not allow a local person to introduce him or his ticket mates at a rally. Only out-of-parish people could do the honor. Long reasoned that nearly any local person would have made some political enemies who might reject Earl Long just because that person's "enemy" was pro-Long. Long was determined to get every vote possible even if that meant forbidding the local leadership to introduce him when he came to town on a campaign swing.
While not attempting to dismantle the Jim Crow laws of his state, he was notable for easing the governmental indignities placed on African-Americans and allowed a considerable number to vote. He also convinced the legislature to equalize teacher pay between the races. In 1959, in response to legislative attempts to restrict the suffrage even further, he called for full participation by blacks in Louisiana elections. He of course realized that he would get most of the black vote himself. He also quarreled with the state's leading segregationist in the 1950s, then state Senator William M. Rainach of Claiborne Parish in north Louisiana.
[edit] Bill Dodd analyzes Earl Long
Long's first lieutenant governor, the late William J. "Bill" Dodd, in his memoirs entitled Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics (named for Earl Long's "Peapatch Farm" in Winn Parish), assesses Long this way:
"He had no formal speech training, but he was a great, forceful, and effective speaker. He had no university background in psychology, yet he practiced psychology in his political life, which was his whole life. He had no training in either economics or governmental administration, yet as governor he was an expert in both. Somewhere along the line, Earl Long changed from an amateruish shoe-polish salesman and political camp follower into a sound businessman and excellent government administrator. Other governors . . . drew from their formal educational training and varied business and political experiences to operate the governor's office. But none of them surpassed old Earl in the politics of getting elected or handling the job after being elected."
Dodd said that Long "was as conservative as Ronald Reagan and as prejudiced as a Cyclops in the KKK about blacks, but he gave the state many liberal laws, was good to blacks, and strong for welfare. He called the women lobbyists in various groups "poor things who couldn't get enough at home" and "man-crazy nuts".
Dodd also repudiated the 1989 film Blaze about a stripper who has an affair with Earl Long, played by Paul Newman. Though fiction, many viewers thought the events were real. According to Dodd:
Blaze has done much to distort the truth about Earl Long. . . . He never loved Blaze or any of the many strippers and camp followers who came when he whistled . . . The vulgar language and lurid sex scenes are bad enough to get this movied rated too bad for young people. The unreality of the events and actions of Earl Long make it worthless as a true picture of Earl or Louisiana politics. On a scale of nothing to something, I would rate Blaze a perfect zero."
[edit] Eccentricity and hospitalization
Long was well known for eccentric behavior, leading some to suspect that he suffered from bipolar disorder. In his last term in office his wife, Blanche Revere Long (1902-1998), and others attempted to remove him on the grounds of mental instability. For a time, Long was confined to the Southeastern Louisiana State Hospital in Mandeville, but his legal advisor, Joseph A. Sims, was said to have "rescued" Long from the institution. Long was never formally diagnosed with any mental illness, and a large part of the motivation for this effort may have been political; his wife's involvement may have been related to his affair with stripper Blaze Starr.
Additionally, in his later years he was alleged to have suffered from strokes, resulting in further mental impairment. He also had a severe heart attack in 1951.
While confined in the mental hospital in Mandeville, Long kept his political machine running via telephone. His staff discovered that nothing in Louisiana law required him to relinquish power because he was confined to the mental hospital; so Long ordered Jesse Bankston, the head of the state hospital system fired and replaced him with a supporter, who had Long released. Bill Dodd, who experienced times of positive association with Long followed by alienation, defended Long over the mental hospital confinement. So too did long-time State Senator Sixty Rayburn of Bogalusa, a close personal and philosophical ally of Long's. Earl and Blanche separated, and he died before a divorce could be finalized.
Only a few months after his term as governor expired in 1960, Earl Long was nominated by Democratic voters to the United States House of Representatives, but he had suffered a fatal heart attack while in the Baptist Hospital (later Rapides General Hospital) in Alexandria. He is buried in the Earl K. Long Memorial Park in Winnfield.
The House seat that Long had sought once had been held by his late brother George Long. Earl Long had defeated incumbent Congressman Harold B. McSween for renomination. McSween had been elected after the death of George Long. After Earl Long's death, the Democratic State Central Committee gave the nomination to McSween anyway. McSween was hence unopposed in the 1960 general election for a second consecutive term in the U.S. House. McSween was, however, defeated in the 1962 primary by his fellow liberal Gillis William Long, who claimed to be the rightful heir to Earl Long.
The prominent American journalist A.J. Liebling wrote about Long's unusual career in a series of the articles for The New Yorker which were published in 1961 as The Earl of Louisiana.
Morgan D. Peoples and Michael Kurtz, in Earl K. Long: The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics, noted that the only thing certain about Long was his "unpredictability, for no one, and probably not even Long himself, knew what he would say or do next. Yet, whatever he did or said, Long acted from political motives -- he was a political animal through and through. 'While the rest of 'em are sleeping,' he once told his rivals, 'I'm politicking.'"
The Earl K. Long Medical Center in Baton Rouge is named in his honor, as is the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans.
[edit] Trivia
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In the alternate history strategy game, Hearts of Iron II, Earl Long is one of the few options, for head of state of the Confederate States.
One of Long's dedicated followers, John Kenneth Snyder, Sr., became a controversial mayor of Alexandria, a city that Earl Long humorously called "Aleck". Snyder attempted to govern in the Long style and repeatedly met the opposition of the city's business establishment.
Long appointed John Sparks Patton, a Claiborne Parish school administrator, as superintendent of the Louisiana School for the Deaf. It was Patton who had worked for taxpayer-funded school textbooks, an idea implemented by Huey Long.
Hollywood: Blaze (1989 film) starring Paul Newman as Gov. Earl Long & Lolita Davidovich as Blaze Starr.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- State of Louisiana - Biography
- Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries
- EARL KEMP LONG NOTES
| Preceded by Robert F. Kennon |
Governor of Louisiana 1956–1960 |
Succeeded by Jimmie H. Davis |
| Preceded by Jimmie H. Davis |
Governor of Louisiana 1948–1952 |
Succeeded by Robert F. Kennon |
| Preceded by Richard W. Leche |
Governor of Louisiana 1939–1940 |
Succeeded by Sam H. Jones |
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