Earl Long

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Earl Long

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. He was also lieutenant governor from 1936-1939, but he failed in two other bids to be elected lieutenant governor, in 1944, when he lost in a runoff to J. Emile Verret of Iberia Parish, and in 1959, when the position went to Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock of Franklin in St. Mary Parish. Ayock won a second primary, but Long failed to secure a runoff berth. At the time of his death, Long had vacated the governorship and was the Democratic nominee in the now defunct Eighth Congressional District based in central Louisiana.

Long was born in Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish in north central Louisiana to Huey Pierce Long, Sr., and the former Caledonia Tison, and was the younger brother of U.S. Representative George Shannon "Doc" Long and Governor and U.S. Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr., the latter of whom preceded him into politics.

Long became governor in 1939, after the resignation of Governor Richard Leche, but he failed to win a term of his own in 1940. He was defeated in the Democratic primary by the attorney Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles. In 1948, Long was elected governor to succeed James Houston "Jimmie" Davis. To win a full term from 1948 to 1952, Long defeated his old rival Sam Jones by a wide margin. Term limited for the 1951-1952 elections, he ran for governor again in 1955-1956 and won an easy victory over a field that included New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., and former state police superintendent Francis Grevemberg.

In 1959, term-limited again, he unsuccessfully sought the lieutenant governorship on a "ticket" headed by fellow Democrat and former Governor James A. Noe, Sr., a Kentucky native. 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 a testament to the persistence and power of the Long brand of populism in southern politics.

He was a colorful character, often known as "Uncle Earl". And he was an uncle of popular U.S. Senator Russell B. Long. 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.

1 Bill Dodd analyzes Earl Long
2 Eccentricity and hospitalization
3 Trivia
4 Related stories
5 See also

[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. He 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 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. Long 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 had once 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. The Democratic State Central Committee gave the nomination to McSween any way after Long's death. McSween was hence unopposed in the 1960 general election for a second consecutive term in the U.S. House. McSween was in turn 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

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. Patton unsuccessfully sought the state education superintendency in 1928 and 1932.

[edit] Related stories

[edit] See also

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Earl Long

List of Governors of Louisiana

Preceded by: Richard W. Leche (D)	Governor of Louisiana 1939–1940	Succeeded by: Sam Houston Jones (D)
Preceded by: James Houston "Jimmie" Davis (D)	Governor of Louisiana 1948–1952	Succeeded by: Robert Floyd "Bob" Kennon (D)
Preceded by: Robert Floyd "Bob" Kennon (D)	Governor of Louisiana 1956–1960	Succeeded by: James Houston "Jimmie" Davis (D)