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Huey P. Long

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Huey P. Long
Huey P. Long
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  • Born: 30 August 1893
  • Birthplace: Winnfield, Louisiana
  • Died: 9 September 1935 (assassination)
  • Best Known As: The "Kingfish" of Louisiana's Depression-era politics

During the era of the Great Depression, Huey Pierce Long was a larger-than-life politician who gained national attention as Louisiana's "Kingfish" -- a nickname he gave himself. Long was a high school drop-out who taught himself law and became a member of the Louisiana bar in 1915. In 1918 he moved to Shreveport and began a political career as a lively opponent of corporate wealth and privilege, targeting giants such as John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. From 1928 until 1932, Long served as Louisiana's governor and launched an ambitious and successful program of public works. Long also ruled over a statewide political machine whose corrupt methods caused critics to regard him as a demagogue and political thug. While still governor, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930; preferring to stay on as governor for a while, he didn't show up in Washington until January of 1932. Moderately a Democrat, Long was a radical populist with presidential ambitions who began a national campaign called "Share the Wealth," a campaign that included minimum salaries and caps on income and property. He openly opposed the economic policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a fellow Democrat, and railed against the influence of the wealthy few.

A month after announcing that he would run for president, Long was shot in the Louisiana statehouse in Baton Rouge on 8 September 1935. He died two days later at the age of 42. The official story is that Long was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss, who was then shot to death by Long's bodyguards. Weiss was the son-in-law of Louisiana Judge Benjamin Pavy, a long-time political foe of Long's. The absence of evidence in the matter has been fodder for conspiracy theories ever since, a minor part of Long's legacy in Louisiana.

Long was the basis for Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All The King's Men (1946).

 
 
Artist: Huey Long
  • Genre: Jazz
  • Instrument: Guitar

Biography

Huey Long's surname is tailor-made to describe all manner of phenomena, but in the case of this jazz instrumentalist it sums up the most remarkable aspect of his career. In 2004, at the age of 100, he was still manning a black history exhibit in Houston at an antique cooperative, selling photos, tapes, and his own guitar course. R&B listeners will have heard Long on guitar with the Ink Spots; bebop hounds will have sniffed out his presence on sizzling Fats Navarro platters, doing innovative things with bebop guitar. His involvement in jazz shows him to be the master of a variety of genres, switching back and forth between banjo and guitar depending on stylistic requirements.

He is of course not to be confused with the governor and songwriter Huey P. Long; in some references the jazzman's initial is brought into play in order to distinguish the two: Huey C. Long. There was also a long list of musical relatives in the latter Long's family, including his three brothers, Jewell Long, Herbert Long, and Sam Long. Starting out on piano, Huey Long was within two years longing for something different, mainly a banjo. By the mid-'20s he was featured on such in Frank Davis' Louisiana Jazz Band and Dee Johnson's Merrymakers. Long moved to Chicago in 1926, beginning a freelance period in which he was involved with a long list of bandleaders, Willie Hightower and Mack Swain among them. Chicago was one musical scene in which a heavier rhythm section sound dictated a switch from banjo to guitar.

Long's recordings follow this pattern from the early '30s, continuing in the ensuing decade with better-known leaders such as Fletcher Henderson and Earl Hines. His company in the Hines outfit included some of the jazz genre's most noted dignitaries, including Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. He was also involved with musicians who were more interested in rocking than swinging, playing in 1933 with Jesse Stone, who would later write the hit "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Mastering these diverse influences and polishing his formal musical skills, Long by the end of the decade was assistant arranger and conductor for concert bands as well as swing big bands.

He had his own three-piece combo together in 1944, enjoying a long residency at the Three Deuces Cafe on 52nd Street in New York City. This was where he was approached by Bill Kenny, on the prowl for a guitarist to replace Charlie Fuqua in the Ink Spots. Actually, since it was the Ink Spots, the history is actually a bit more complicated. Fuqua's parts in the arrangements were already being filled in by Ink Spot Bernie Mackey. Long was needed to do what Mackey was doing before he had to fill in for Fuqua. To hear just what that is, check out sides such as "I'm Gonna Turn Off the Teardrops" and "The Sweetest Dream." One night in 1945, Fuqua got out of the Army and simply returned to the Ink Spots on-stage in Kentucky, shorting Long.

This isn't the end of his involvement with the Ink Spots, however. Meanwhile, bebop was catching on and Long showed his mastery of the idiom, as far from the Ink Spots as a freshly dry-cleaned vest, in a studio session with trumpeter Navarro, tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and a rhythm section consisting of Al Haig, Gene Ramey, and Denzil Best. Long was back as a sideman in the early '50s with Snub Mosley, the Ravens, and others. He briefly tried returning to college studies, freelanced in New York City, and wound up in one of many spinoffs of the Ink Spots, groups that included at least someone who had been in the Ink Spots at some point, or perhaps had waved at the Ink Spots from a passing car. Not official, these groups tended to hide out at venues where big music business types such as agents, managers, or lawyers would not notice them. Long apparently worked with one such Ink Spots at a lodge in California for more than two years.

Following another freelance period in New York City, the elderly Long moved back to Houston in the mid-'90s, seeking closer companionship with younger family members. One of the key individuals in this plan, the son he was going to live with, died unexpectedly soon thereafter. Long is a true marvel of black music. His haunt as of 2004 was the Heights Antique Co-op on 19th Street in Houston. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
 
Political Biography: Huey Pierce Long

(b. Winnfield, Louisiana, 30 Aug. 1893; d. 10 Sept. 1935) US; Governor of Louisiana 1928 – 32; US Senator 1932 – 5Long received a state education at grammar and high schools and at the age of 16 became a travelling salesman. He was admitted to the bar and built up a practice in small towns attacking public utility corporations. By the age of 25 he had a gained place on the state Railway Commission. He made an unsuccessful bid to become state Governor in 1924 but was elected in 1928 by a minority vote in a three-cornered fight. In 1932 he relinquished the governorship to a henchman, having himself been elected to represent Louisiana in the US Senate.

Long was a populist. He delighted in the nickname "Kingfish" — a title borrowed from a popular radio series, Amos 'n' Andy. But his enemies and critics described him as a "spurious Hitler", a "bullyragging hypocritical swashbuckler", "the dictator of Louisiana".

Initially he was a supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, but he nursed presidential aspiration himself. To this end he created the "Share Our Wealth" movement. Propaganda clubs were established in every state in the Union to whip up existing resentment about the maldistribution of wealth and to win support for the movement's programme. This included: the liquidation of all personal fortunes above $3,000,000; a $1,000,000 limit on personal incomes; the abolition of poverty by guaranteeing every deserving family $5,000 income; redistribution of wealth to provide every citizen with a job, a car, a radio, and "two chickens in the pot" generous old-age pensions; free university education and shorter working hours.

Long was popular. He brought material benefits to many groups in the community. Within the state of Louisiana he improved the roads, abolished tolls on bridges and ferries, introduced mobile libraries to rural areas, forced the utilities to lower their charges, and relieved 70 per cent of the state's population of direct taxation. There was of course a price. In monetary terms it was reflected in the state public debt which had mounted to $145,000,000 at the time of Long's death. The cost was also reflected in the ruthless and undemocratic regime Long established in Louisiana. He centralized the whole state administration under his control including the bar, the police, and the fire department. The State Legislature was in his pocket. In 1934, for example, it passed forty-four of "his" (the Governor being his creature) bills through all their stages in two-and-a-half hours. The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation was in effect a secret police force engaging in political espionage and suppression of opposition. Had he lived Long would have faced a congressional inquiry into "whether Louisiana has the Republican form of government guaranteed by the Constitution".

On 10 September 1935 opposition caught up with Long. He was assassinated by Dr Carl Austin Weiss, who had been outraged by Long's attempt to dislodge a judge, Weiss's father-in-law.

 
Biography: Huey Pierce Long

The career of the American politician Huey Pierce Long (1893-1935) grew out of and fed upon the violence, ignorance, and frustration that plagued the lives of southern poor white people in the early 20th century.

The seventh of nine children, Huey Long was born on Aug. 30, 1893, in Winnfield, a poor parish in Louisiana. Huey toiled on the farm until he was 13. He excelled as a school debater and read widely in the Bible, Shakespeare, and Victor Hugo. He worked as a typesetter and an itinerant salesman and briefly attended the University of Oklahoma. In 1913 Long married Rose McConnell, and he soon enrolled in the Tulane University Law School. After 7 months of study he was admitted to the bar.

Long established his law practice in Winnfield. Within 6 months he was elected to the state railroad commission. Cultivating a reputation as champion of the common people, he successfully attacked the utilities industries and the privileges of corporations. In 1928, after his earlier unsuccessful bid, Louisiana voters elected him governor by the largest margin in the state's history.

The Governorship

Long's beliefs were conditioned by his environment. Winnfield parish historically had fostered political dissent. Its residents had voted against secession in 1861, refused to fight for the planter aristocracy, and staunchly endorsed the Populist movement of the late 19th century. Unlike other southern politicians, Long did not use the Confederate legend in his speeches and rarely indulged in race baiting. He brought a realism to southern politics by focusing upon the social and economic ills of the common people.

A shrewd lawyer, Long tried to give the impression of being ignorant. Yet he approached politics as a power game and, like other Louisianians, accepted corruption as necessary to political life. He condemned the state's ruling hierarchy of planters and business groups and the New Orleans big-city political machine as an elite. He became the first southern leader of the masses to set out, not to bring the established machine to terms, but to replace it with his own.

Political leaders of the 1930s accused Long of being a dictator. Indeed, although he gave Louisiana badly needed reforms, he also flouted the processes of parliamentary democracy. However, T. Harry Williams, his biographer, views Long as within the tradition of American bossism. Williams states that Long possessed the qualities of the mass leader as described by political analysts. Besides audacity and single-mindedness, Long brought an abnormal, combative energy to his tasks. He knew which enemies to destroy and which to retain as symbols of the continuing evil against which he fought.

The basis of Long's political machine was patronage, but in the final analysis his triumph was ensured by his ability to deliver on his promises. Under Long the state actually improved the lot of the common people. Between 1928 and 1935 it constructed a modern highway system, provided free school textbooks, increased appropriations for the state university, and offered free nightschool courses for adult illiterates of both races. It also enlarged and modernized state hospitals and institutions. The money for this far-reaching social program came partly from increased taxes, bearing largely on corporate interests, but mostly from bonds and increased state indebtedness. In the process, Long revitalized state politics. He created a new political consciousness among the masses and gave Louisianians a Democratic party exhibiting many of the attributes of a two-party system.

Facing a hostile legislature, Long jammed through several valuable bills. But his lobbying tactics, raids on gambling houses, and building of a personal political machine alienated him from the ruling oligarchy and regular Democrats. Their hostility peaked when Long summoned a special session of the legislature to enact a tax on the oil industry. The House threw out the bill and impeached the governor. But the Senate failed to convict by two votes, and the matter was dropped amid accusations that Long had bribed legislators.

Senatorial Period

Fresh from this victory, Long announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. He was elected in 1930. He refused, however, to surrender the gubernatorial post to his lieutenant governor, who was an avowed political enemy. Summoning the national guard, Long installed Alvin O. King, president of the state senate, to act as governor. In fact, it was during his senatorial period that Long extended his power structure in Louisiana to its widest limits. He returned to Louisiana in 1934, convened a special session of the legislature, and pushed through bills placing the electoral machinery in the governor's hands, outlawing interference by the courts with his use of national guardsmen, and creating a secret police. He followed with a crackdown on New Orleans gambling places and nightclubs.

Always the flamboyant and active senator (though one whose name was not perpetuated by important legislation), Long served a period in Washington that coincided with the first presidential administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1932 Long disclosed his "Share Our Wealth" program, whereby the government would limit the income of all citizens through taxation. He quickly found flaws in Roosevelt's New Deal program and was soon in open revolt. More important than ideology was the fact that Roosevelt stood in the way of Long's national ambitions. In 1934 Long broke with the President and demanded that the Federal government furnish every family with a $5, 000 allowance and an annual income of $2, 000 plus benefits. Roosevelt responded by denying Long Federal patronage in Louisiana.

At the time of his death, Long was preparing to curtail New Deal programs in Louisiana drastically and was moving, with right-wing leader Father Charles Coughlin, toward a third-party challenge to the President. The "Kingfish" was assassinated in Baton Rouge on Sept. 8, 1935, by a political foe.

Further Reading

T. Harry Williams's Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Huey P. Long (1969), brilliantly researched and written, is the definitive study. Long's autobiography, Every Man a King (1933), an interesting comtemporary document, should be read in conjunction with the Williams study. Critical of Long, especially for his neglect of labor, is Allan P. Sindler, Huey Long's Louisiana (1956).

 

Huey Long
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Huey Long (credit: UPI)
(born Aug. 30, 1893, near Winnfield, La., U.S. — died Sept. 10, 1935, Baton Rouge, La.) U.S. politician. Despite an impoverished background, he managed to obtain enough formal schooling to pass the bar in 1915. Politically ambitious, he was elected state railroad commissioner at 25. His call for state regulation of the utilities and his attacks on the Standard Oil Company won him widespread popularity. As governor (1928 – 31) of Louisiana, he became nationally famous for his fiery oratory and unconventional behaviour, and his nickname, "Kingfish," became widely known. He implemented public works projects and education reform but used autocratic methods to control the state government. Elected to the U.S. Senate (1932 – 35), he sought national power with a Share-the-Wealth program. In 1935 he was assassinated by Carl A. Weiss, whose father Long had vilified. His brother Earl K. Long (1895 – 1960) later served as governor (1939 – 40, 1948 – 52, 1956 – 60).

For more information on Huey Pierce Long, visit Britannica.com.

 

(1893-1935), governor of Louisiana and U.S. senator. Long had two political careers, both of them extraordinary. The first was in his native Louisiana. There he rose from modest beginnings in the poor hill country to become a successful lawyer, a public service commissioner, and, in 1928, the most powerful governor in the history of the state, perhaps in the history of any state. Capitalizing on widespread public discontent with years of corrupt, myopic, conservative rule, Long developed a fervent popular following. He used it to build a power structure through which he dominated virtually every institution of government. In time, the legislature, the state bureaucracy, the courts, even local governments fell firmly under his control. He used that power to expand the state's underdeveloped infrastructure and social services, building bridges, roads, hospitals, and schools. He also revised the tax codes to place a larger burden on corporations. But power was for him an end in itself--a point made particularly vivid in Robert Penn Warren's 1946 novel All the King's Men, whose central character, Willy Stark, was inspired by Long. Within a few years, Long had developed a national reputation as the "dictator" of Louisiana. At home, he was known simply as the "Kingfish."

Beginning in 1932, when he resigned the governorship to enter the U.S. Senate, Long began a national political career that at times appeared boundless. He took little interest in the Senate, using it principally to advance his larger national ambitions. At first, he was an energetic supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt. But by the middle of 1933, he had broken with the president and struck out on his own. Long voiced populist resentments that many depression-era Americans felt toward "wealthy plutocrats" and "bloated fortunes." He promised, through his implausible Share-Our-Wealth Plan, a radical redistribution of wealth: confiscatory taxes would scale down large fortunes, and the revenue would be used to guarantee everyone a minimum annual income of twenty-five hundred dollars. By 1935, he had launched his own national political organization (the Share-Our-Wealth clubs) and was talking openly of running for president the next year against Roosevelt. The crude public opinion polls of the time indicated that he could not win, but that he might tip the balance in a close race. In fact, the "Long threat," as Democratic politicians described it, was probably less serious than it appeared. Long's national organization was flimsy and decentralized, and he showed no ability to form effective alliances with the many other dissident leaders of the time, whose support he would have needed for an effective national campaign.

In any case, Long never had a chance to demonstrate his national potential. In September of 1935, he returned to Baton Rouge to supervise a special session of the state legislature (which, like the rest of the Louisiana government, he continued to control as completely while serving in the Senate as he had while governor). As Long walked down a marble corridor in the new state capitol he had built several years before, the son-in-law of one of his ruined political opponents stepped from behind a pillar and shot him. He died several days later, talking politics to the end.

Bibliography:

Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest (1982); T. Harry Williams, Huey Long (1969).

Author:

Alan Brinkley


 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Long, Huey Pierce,
1893–1935, American political leader, b. Winnfield, La.; brother of Earl Long. Originally a farm boy, he was an extremely successful traveling salesman before studying law at Tulane Univ. He was admitted to the bar in 1915 and practiced in Winnfield and Shreveport. Long was elected to the Louisiana railroad commission in 1918; in 1921 it became the public service commission. He was reelected to the commission in 1924, served as chairman, and was attorney for the state in public utility litigation.

Narrowly defeated for governor of Louisiana in 1924, Long was swept into office four years later. When the state legislature obstructed his program of economic and social reform, he severely lessened the influence of the moneyed oligarchy that had dominated Louisiana government since Reconstruction and established his own control of the state through extensive use of patronage. Long was responsible for the building of badly needed roads and bridges, the expansion of state-owned hospitals, and the extension of the school system into remote rural regions. He also increased the taxes of large Louisiana businesses, especially the oil companies. The state legislature was bludgeoned or bought into passing his laws. In 1929, Long was impeached on charges of bribery and gross misconduct, but he was not convicted.

“The Kingfish,” as Long was called, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930, but he did not take his seat until Jan., 1932, after he had assured the succession as governor of one of his own supporters. From Washington, Long continued to direct the Louisiana government. In 1934 he began a reorganization of the state, which virtually abolished local government and gave Long the power to appoint all state employees. As a senator, Long was at first a supporter of the New Deal, but soon became one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's most vociferous critics.

A presidential aspirant, Long gained a steadily increasing national following. Early in 1934 he introduced his plan for national social and economic reform, the “Share-the-Wealth” program; it proposed a guaranteed family annual income and a homestead allowance for every family. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Long continued to expand his powers. In Sept., 1935, on a trip to the state, Long was assassinated. The assassin, Dr. Carl A. Weiss, was slain by Long's bodyguards. Long's political machine flourished for several years after his death, and the Long family remained important in the state.

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Every Man a King (1933, repr. 1964, 1996) and his My First Days in the White House (1935, repr. 1972); H. M. Christman, ed., Kingfish to America, Share Our Wealth: Selected Senatorial Papers of Huey P. Long (1985); biographies by T. H. Williams (1969, repr. 1981), W. I. Hair (1991), S. LeVert (1995), and D. R. Collins (2003); G. Boulard, Huey Long: His Life in Photos, Drawings, and Cartoons (2003); studies by H. T. Kane, (1941, repr. 1971), H. C. Dethloff, ed. (1967), A, P. Sindler (1972), A. Brinkley (1982), G. Jeansonne (1993), R. C. Cortner (1996), O. Handlin and G. Jeansonne, ed. (1997), and R. D. White, Jr. (2006).

His son, Russell Billiu Long, 1918–2003, b. Shreveport, La., was also a politician. A graduate of the Louisiana State University (1941) and its law school (1942), he served (1948–87) as U.S. senator from Louisiana. A Democrat, he was the longtime chairman of the Senate's finance committee and was important in the creation of tax laws. His last significant accomplishment was helping to write simplified national income tax legislation in 1986.

Bibliography

See biography by R. Mann (1992).

 
History Dictionary: Long, Huey

A political leader of the 1920s and 1930s who served as governor of Louisiana and represented that state in the Senate. He promised every family enough money for a home, car, radio, pension, and college education. A demagogue, Long dominated Louisiana's politics and pushed aside opposition. He planned to run for president but was assassinated before he could do so.

  • Long was nicknamed the “Kingfish.”
  • Members of Long's family played a prominent role in Louisiana and national politics for some time.

  •  
    Wikipedia: Huey Long
    Huey Long
    Huey Long

    35th Governor of Louisiana
    In office
    May 28, 1928 – January 25, 1932
    Lieutenant(s) Paul Narcisse Cyr
    Preceded by Oramel H. Simpson
    Succeeded by Alvin Olin King

    United States Senator
    from Louisiana
    In office
    January 25, 1932 – August 30, 1935
    Preceded by Joseph E. Ransdell
    Succeeded by Rose McConnell Long

    Born August 30 1893(1893--)
    Flag of Louisiana Winnfield, Louisiana
    Died September 10 1935 (aged 42)
    Baton Rouge, Louisiana
    Political party Democratic
    Spouse Rose McConnell Long
    Profession Lawyer, U.S. Senator, Governor

    Huey Pierce Long, Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed The Kingfish, was an American politician from the U.S. state of Louisiana. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. He served as Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a U.S. senator from 1932 to 1935. Though a backer of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election, Long split with Roosevelt in June 1933 and allegedly planned to mount his own presidential bid.

    Long created the Share Our Wealth program in 1934, with the motto "Every Man a King," proposing new wealth redistribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on large corporations and individuals of great wealth to curb the poverty and crime resulting from the Great Depression. He was an ardent critic of the Federal Reserve System.

    Charismatic and immensely popular for his social reform programs and willingness to take forceful action, Long was accused by his opponents of dictatorial tendencies for his near-total control of the state government. At the height of his popularity, the colorful and flamboyant Long was shot on September 8, 1935, at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge; he died two days later at the age of 42. His last words were reportedly, "God, don't let me die. I have so much to do."[1]

    Early life and legal career

    Long was born on August 30, 1893, in Winnfield, the seat of Winn Parish, a rural community in the north-central part of the state. He was the son of Huey Pierce Long, Sr. (1852-1937), and the former Caledonia Palestine Tison (1860-1913) of French descent. He was the seventh of nine children in a farm-owning middle-class family. He attended local schools, where he was an excellent student and was said to have a photographic memory. In 1910, Long was expelled from school for distributing a petition against adding a twelfth year of schooling as a graduation requirement. After World War II, the twelve grades became standard in education.

    Long won a debating scholarship to Louisiana State University, but he was unable to afford the textbooks required for attendance. Instead, he spent the next four years as a traveling salesman, selling books, canned goods and patent medicines, as well as working as an auctioneer.

    In 1913, Huey Long married the former Rose McConnell. She was a stenographer who had won a baking contest that he promoted to sell "Cottolene," one of the most popular of the early vegetable shortenings to come on the market. It should also be noted that Huey was suspected of rigging the contest in McConnell's favor. The Longs had a daughter, also named Rose, and two sons, Russell and Palmer.

    When sales jobs grew scarce during World War I, Long attended seminary classes at Oklahoma Baptist University at the urging of his mother, a devout Baptist. However, he concluded he was not suited to preaching.

    Long briefly attended the University of Oklahoma School of Law in Norman, Oklahoma, and later Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. In 1915, he convinced a board to let him take the bar exam after only a year at Tulane. He passed and began private practice in Winnfield and later in Shreveport, where he spent 10 years representing small plaintiffs against large businesses, including workers' compensation cases. He often said proudly that he never took a case against a poor man.

    He won fame by taking on the powerful Standard Oil Company, which he sued for unfair business practices. Over the course of his career, Long continued to challenge Standard Oil's influence in state politics and charged the company with exploiting the state's vast oil and gas resources.

    Political career and rise to power

    Long was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission in 1918 at the age of twenty-five on an anti-Standard Oil platform. (The commission was renamed the Louisiana Public Service Commission in 1921.) His campaign for the Railroad Commission used techniques he would perfect later in his political career: heavy use of printed circulars and posters, an exhausting schedule of personal campaign stops throughout rural Louisiana, and vehement attacks on his opponents. He used his position on the commission to enhance his populist reputation as an opponent of large oil and utility companies, fighting against rate increases and pipeline monopolies. In the gubernatorial election of 1920, he campaigned prominently for John M. Parker, but later became his vocal opponent after the new governor proved to be insufficiently committed to reform; Long called Parker the “chattel” of the corporations.

    As chairman of the commission in 1922, Long won a lawsuit against the Cumberland Telephone Company for unfair rate increases, resulting in cash refunds of $440,000 to 80,000 overcharged customers. Long successfully argued the case on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, prompting Chief Justice William Howard Taft to describe Long as one of the best legal minds he had ever encountered.

    Election of 1924

    Long ran for governor of Louisiana in the election of 1924, attacking Parker, Standard Oil and the established political hierarchy both local and state-wide. In that campaign he became one of the first Southern politicians to use radio addresses and sound trucks in a campaign. Around this time, he also began wearing a distinctive white linen suit. He came in third, due perhaps in part to his unwillingness to take a stand either for or against the Ku Klux Klan, whose prominence in Louisiana had become the primary issue of the campaign. Long cited rain on election day as suppressing voter turnout in rural north Louisiana, where voters were unable to reach the polls on dirt roads that had turned to mud. Instead, he was reelected to the Public Service Commission.

    Election of 1928

    Long spent the intervening four years building his reputation and his political organization, meanwhile supporting Catholic candidates in an effort to build support in Catholic south Louisiana. In 1928 he again ran for governor, campaigning with the slogan, "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown," a phrase adopted from populist presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. [2]Long's attacks on the utilities industry and corporate privileges were enormously popular, as was his depiction of the wealthy as "parasites" who grabbed more than their fair share of the public wealth while marginalizing the poor.

    Long crisscrossed the state, campaigning in rural areas disenfranchised by the New Orleans-based political establishment, known as the "Old Regulars," who controlled the state through alliances with sheriffs and other local officials. At the time, the entire state had roughly 500 km (300 miles) of paved roads and only three major bridges. The illiteracy rate was the highest in the nation (25 percent), as most families could not afford to purchase the textbooks required for their children to attend school. A poll tax hindered the poor from voting.

    Long won by tapping into the class resentment of rural Louisianians and by giving them hope for a better future in the form of government services long ignored by Louisiana's traditional political leaders. He won by the largest margin in Louisiana history, 126,842 votes compared with 81,747 for Riley J. Wilson and 80,326 for Oramel H. Simpson. Long's support bridged the traditional north-south, Protestant-Catholic divide of Louisiana politics, and replaced it with a class-based schism between poor farmers and the wealthy planters, businessmen and machine politicians who supported his opponents.

    Long as governor, 1928-1932

    As governor, Long inherited a dysfunctional system of government tainted by influence peddling. Corporations often wrote the laws governing their practices and rewarded part-time legislators and other officials with jobs and bribes. Long moved quickly to consolidate his power, firing hundreds of opponents in the state bureaucracy, at all ranks from cabinet-level heads of departments and board members to rank-and-file civil servants and state road workers. Like previous governors, he filled the vacancies with patronage appointments from his own network of political supporters. Every state employee who depended on Long for a job was expected to pay a portion of his or her salary directly into Long’s political war-chest; these funds were kept in a famous locked “deduct box” to be used at his discretion for political purposes.

    Once his control over the state’s political apparatus was strengthened, Long pushed a number of bills through the 1928 session of the Louisiana State Legislature fulfilling some of his campaign promises, including a free textbook program for schoolchildren, an idea advanced by John Sparks Patton, the Claiborne Parish school superintendent. He also supported night courses for adult literacy and a supply of cheap natural gas for the city of New Orleans. Long began an unprecedented building program of roads, bridges, hospitals and educational institutions. His bills met opposition from many legislators and the media, but Long used aggressive tactics to ensure passage of the legislation he favored. He would show up unannounced on the floor of both the House and Senate or in House committees, corralling reluctant representatives and state senators and bullying opponents. These tactics were unprecedented, but they resulted in the passage of most of Long’s legislative agenda. By delivering on his campaign promises, Long achieved hero status among the state's majority rural poor population.

    When Long secured passage of his free textbook program, the school board of Caddo Parish (home of conservative Shreveport), sued to prevent the books from being distributed, saying they would not accept "charity" from the state. Long responded by withholding authorization for the location of a nearby Air Force base[(sic)Army Base] until the parish accepted the books.

    Impeachment

    In 1929, Long called a special session of both houses of the legislature to enact a new five-cent per barrel "occupational license tax" on production of refined oil, in order to help fund his social programs. The bill met with a storm of opposition from the state’s oil interests, and opponents in the legislature, led by freshman Cecil Morgan of Shreveport, moved to impeach Long on charges ranging from blasphemy to corruption, bribery, and misuse of state funds. Long tried to cut the session short, but after an infamous brawl that spilled across the State Legislature known as "Bloody Monday," the Legislature voted to remain in session and proceed with the impeachment. Long took his case to the people, using his trademark printed circulars and a speaking tour around the state to argue that the impeachment was an attempt by Standard Oil and other corporate interests to prevent his social programs from being carried out. Several of the charges passed in the House, but once the trial began in the Senate, Long produced the “Round Robin,” a document signed by over one-third of the state senators, stating that they would vote "not guilty" no matter what the evidence, because the charges did not merit removal from office and they considered the trial to be unconstitutional. With a two-thirds majority required to convict now impossible, Long’s opponents halted the proceedings. The Round Robin signers were later rewarded with state jobs or other favors; some were alleged to have been paid in cash.[3]

    Following the failed impeachment attempt in the Senate, Long became ruthless when dealing with his enemies, firing their relatives from state jobs and supporting candidates to defeat them in elections. "I used to get things done by saying please," said Long. "Now I dynamite them out of my path." With all of the state’s newspapers financed by his opposition, in March 1930 Long founded his own: the Louisiana Progress, which he used to broadcast his achievements and denounce his enemies. In order to receive lucrative state contracts, companies were first expected to buy advertisements in Long's newspaper. He also attempted to pass laws placing a surtax on newspapers and forbidding the publishing of “slanderous material,” but these efforts were defeated. After impeachment, Long received death threats and began to fear for his personal safety, surrounding himself with armed bodyguards at all times.

    1930: Defeat in the Legislature, campaign for U.S. Senate

    In the 1930 legislative session, Long planned another major road-building initiative as well as the construction of a new capitol building in Baton Rouge. The State Legislature defeated the bond issue necessary to build the roads, and his other initiatives failed as well. Long responded by suddenly announcing his intention to run for the federal U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary of September 9, 1930. He portrayed his campaign as a referendum on his programs: if he won he would take it as a sign that the public supported his programs over the opposition of the legislature, and if he lost he promised to resign. Long defeated incumbent Senator Joseph E. Ransdell 149,640 (57.3 percent) to 111,451 (42.7 percent).

    Despite having been elected to the Senate for the 1931 session, Long intended to fill out his term as governor until 1932. Leaving the seat vacant for so long would not hurt Louisiana, Long said; "with Ransdell as Senator, the seat was vacant anyway." By delaying his resignation as governor, Long kept Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, a dentist from Jeanerette in Iberia Parish, an early ally with whom Long had since feuded, from succeeding to the top position.

    1930-1932: Renewed strength

    Having won the overwhelming support of the Louisiana electorate, Long returned to pushing his program with renewed strength. Bargaining from an advantageous position, Long entered an agreement with his longtime New Orleans rivals, the Regular Democratic Organization and their leader, New Orleans mayor T. Semmes Walmsley; they would support his legislation and his candidates in future elections in return for a bridge over the Mississippi River, a Lakefront Airport for New Orleans, and money for infrastructure improvements in the city. Support from the Old Regulars allowed him to pass an increase in the gasoline tax used to pay for his programs, new school spending, a bill to finance the construction of a new Louisiana State Capitol and a $75 million bond for road construction. Long's road network, including the Airline Highway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, gave Louisiana some of the most modern roads in the country and helped form the state's highway system. Long's opponents charged that Long had concentrated political power in his own hands to the point where he had become a virtual dictator of the state.

    Long retained the architect Leon C. Weiss of New Orleans to design the capitol, a new governor's mansion, Charity Hospital in New Orleans, and many Louisiana State University and other college buildings throughout the state.

    As governor, Long was not popular among the "old families" of Baton Rouge society. He instead held gatherings of his leaders and friends from across the state. At these gatherings, Long and his group liked to listen to the popular radio show "Amos 'n' Andy." One of Long's followers dubbed him the "Kingfish," the leader of the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge to which Amos and Andy belonged. Other accounts claim Long gave the nickname to himself. During an argument, Long shouted down everyone by yelling, "Shut up, you sons of bitches, shut up! This is the Kingfish talking!"."[4]

    As governor, Long became an ardent supporter of LSU in Baton Rouge, the state's primary public university. He greatly increased LSU funding and expanded its enrollment from 1,600 to 4,000. Long instituted work scholarship programs that enabled poor students to attend LSU, and he established the LSU Medical School in New Orleans. But he intervened directly in its affairs, choosing its president, infringing on the academic freedom of students and faculty,[citation needed] and even sometimes trying to coach the LSU football team himself [citation needed].

    In October 1931, Lieutenant Governor Cyr, by then an avowed enemy of Long, argued that the senator-elect could no longer remain governor. Cyr declared himself to be the legitimate governor. Long surrounded the State Capitol with state National Guard troops and fended off the illegal "coup d'etat." Long then went to the Louisiana Supreme Court in order to have Cyr ousted as lieutenant governor. He argued that the office of lieutenant-governor was vacant because Cyr had resigned his office when he attempted to assume the governorship. The suit was successful, and under the state constitution, Senate president and Long ally Alvin Olin King became lieutenant-governor.[5] Long chose his childhood friend Oscar Kelly Allen as the candidate to succeed him in the election of 1932 on a “Complete the Work” ticket. With the support of Long's own voter base and the Old Regular machine, Allen won easily. With his loyal succession assured, Long finally resigned as governor and took his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932.

    Long in the Senate, 1932-35

    Long arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932, although he was absent for more than half the days in the 1932 session, having to commute to and from Louisiana. With the backdrop of the Great Depression, he made characteristically fiery speeches which denounced the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. He also criticized the leaders of both parties for failing to adequately address the crisis, most notably attacking Senate Democratic leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas for his apparent closeness with President Herbert Hoover. Ironically, Robinson was the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in 1928 on the ticket opposite Hoover and his running-mate, Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas.

    In the presidential election of 1932, Long became a vocal supporter of the candidacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, believing him to be the only candidate willing and able to carry out the drastic redistribution of wealth that Long felt was necessary to end the Great Depression. At the Democratic National Convention, Long was instrumental in keeping the delegations of several wavering states in the Roosevelt camp. Long expected to be featured prominently in Roosevelt's campaign, but was disappointed with a speaking tour limited to four Midwestern states.

    Long managed to find other venues for his populist message. He campaigned to elect underdog candidate Hattie Caraway of Arkansas to her first full term in the Senate by conducting a whirlwind, seven-day tour of that state, raising his national prominence (and defeating the candidate backed by Senator Robinson). With Long's help, Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. Carraway told Long, however, that she would continue to use independent judgment and not allow him to dictate how she would vote on Senate bills. She also insisted that he stop attacking Robinson while he was in Arkansas.

    After Roosevelt's election, Long soon broke with the new President. Increasingly aware that Roosevelt had no intention of introducing a radical redistribution of the country's wealth, Long became one of the only national politicians to oppose Roosevelt's New Deal policies from the left, considering them inadequate in the face of the escalating economic crisis. Long sometimes supported Roosevelt's programs in the Senate, saying that "whenever this administration has gone to the left I have voted with it, and whenever it has gone to the right I have voted against it." He opposed the National Recovery Act, calling it a sellout to big business. In 1933, he was a leader of a three-week Senate filibuster against the Glass-Steagall Banking Act.

    Roosevelt considered Long a radical demagogue. The president privately said of Long that along with General Douglas MacArthur, "he was one of the two most dangerous men in America." Roosevelt later compared Long to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. In June 1933, in an effort to undermine Long's political dominance of the state, Roosevelt cut Long off from any consultation on the distribution of federal funds or patronage in Louisiana. Roosevelt also supported a Senate inquiry into the election of Long ally John H. Overton to the Senate in 1932, charging the Long machine with election fraud and voter intimidation; however, the inquiry came up empty, and Overton was seated.

    In an effort to discredit Long and damage his support base, Roosevelt had Long’s finances investigated by the Internal Revenue Service in 1934. Though they failed to link Long to any illegality, some of Long’s lieutenants were charged with income tax evasion, but only one had been convicted by the time of Long’s death.

    Long’s radical rhetoric and his aggressive tactics did little to endear him to his fellow senators. Not one of his proposed bills, resolutions or motions was passed during his three years in the Senate. During one debate, another senator told Long that “I do not believe you could get the Lord’s Prayer endorsed in this body.”

    In terms of foreign policy, Long was a firm isolationist, arguing that America’s involvement in the Spanish-American War and the First World War had been deadly mistakes conducted on behalf of Wall Street. He also opposed American entry into the World Court.

    Share Our Wealth

    As an alternative to what he called the conservatism of the New Deal, Long proposed federal legislation capping personal fortunes, income and inheritances. He used radio broadcasts and founded a national newspaper, the American Progress, to promote his ideas and accomplishments before a national audience. In 1934, he unveiled an economic plan he called Share Our Wealth. Long argued there was enough wealth in the country for every individual to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, but that it was unfairly concentrated in the hands of a few millionaire bankers, businessmen and industrialists.

    Long proposed a new tax code which would limit personal fortunes to $5 million, annual income to $1 million (or 300 times the income of the average family), and inheritances to $5 million. The resulting funds would be used to guarantee every family a basic household grant of $5,000 and a minimum annual income of $2,000-3,000 (or one-third the average family income). Long supplemented his plan with proposals for free primary and college education, old-age pensions, veterans' benefits, federal assistance to farmers, public works projects, and limiting the work week to thirty hours.

    Denying that his program was socialistic, Long stated that his ideological inspiration for the plan came not from Karl Marx but from the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. “Communism? Hell no!” he said, “This plan is the only defense this country’s got against communism.” In 1934, Long held a public debate with Norman Thomas, the leader of the Socialist Party of America, on the merits of Share Our Wealth versus socialism. Long believed that only a radical restructuring of the national economy and elimination of disparities of wealth, while retaining the essential features of the capitalist system, would end the Great Depression and stave off violent revolution. After the Senate rejected one of his wealth redistribution bills, Long told them "a mob is coming to hang the other ninety-five of you damn scoundrels and I'm undecided whether to stick here with you or go out and lead them."

    After the Senate proved unwilling to take his ideas seriously, Long, in February 1934, formed a national political organization, the Share Our Wealth Society. A network of local clubs led by national organizer Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith, the Share Our Wealth Society was intended to operate outside of and in opposition to the Democratic Party and the Roosevelt administration. By 1935, the society had over 7.5 million members in 27,000 clubs across the country, and Long's Senate office was receiving an average of 60,000 letters a week. Pressure from Long and his organization is considered by some historians as responsible for Roosevelt's "turn to the left" in 1935, when he enacted the Second New Deal, including the Works Progress Administration and Social Security; in private, Roosevelt candidly admitted to trying to “steal Long’s thunder.”

    Continued control over Louisiana, 1932-1935

    Long continued to maintain effective control of Louisiana while he was a senator. Though he had no constitutional authority to do so and grossly blurred his involvement in federal and state politics, he continued to draft and press bills through the Louisiana State Legislature, which remained in the hands of his allies. He made frequent trips back to Baton Rouge to pressure the Legislature into continuing to enact his legislation, including new consumer taxes, elimination of the poll tax, a homestead exemption and increases in the number of state employees. His loyal lieutenant, Governor Oscar K. Allen, dutifully followed Long’s policy proposals, though Long was known to frequently berate the governor in public and take over the governor’s office in the State Capitol when he was visiting Baton Rouge. Having broken with the Old Regulars and T. Semmes Walmsley in the fall of 1933, Long inserted himself into the New Orleans mayoral election of 1934 and began a dramatic public feud with the city’s government that lasted for two years.

    Huey Long and James A. Noe, an independent oilman and member of the Louisiana Senate, formed the controversial Win or Lose Oil Company. The firm was established to obtain leases on state-owned lands so that the directors might collect bonuses and sublease the mineral rights to the major oil companies. Although ruled legal, these activities were done in secret and the stockholders were unknown to the public. Long made a profit on the bonuses and the resale of those state leases, using the funds primarily for political purposes.

    By 1934 Long began a reorganization of the state government that all but abolished local governments in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Alexandria, and gave the governor the power to appoint all state employees. Long passed what he called “a tax on lying” and a 2% tax on newspaper advertising revenue, and he created the Bureau of Criminal Identification, a special force of plainclothes police answerable only to the governor. He also had the legislature enact the same tax on refined oil that had nearly gotten him impeached in 1929, but he refunded most of the money after Standard Oil agreed that 80% of the oil sent to its refineries would be drilled in Louisiana.

    1935: Long's final year

    Presidential ambitions

    Even during his days as a traveling salesman, Long confided to his wife that his planned career trajectory would begin with election to a minor state office, then governor, then senator, and ultimately election as President of the United States. In his final months, Long wrote a second book entitled My First Days in the White House, laying out his plans for the presidency after victory in the election of 1936. The book was published posthumously.

    According to Long biographers T. Harry Williams and William Ivy Hair, the senator had never, in fact, intended to run for the presidency in 1936. Long instead had planned to challenge Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination in 1936, knowing he would lose the nomination but gain valuable publicity in the process. Then he would break from the Democrats and form a third party using the Share Our Wealth plan as a basis for its program, along with Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest and populist talk radio personality from Royal Oak, Michigan, Iowa agrarian radical Milo Reno, and other dissidents. The new party would run someone else as its 1936 candidate, but Long would be the primary campaigner. This candidate would split the liberal vote with Roosevelt, thereby electing a Republican as president but proving the electoral appeal of Share Our Wealth. Long would then wait four years and run for president as a Democrat in 1940. Long undertook a national speaking tour and regular radio appearances in the spring of 1935, attracting large crowds and further increasing his stature.

    Increased tensions in Louisiana

    By 1935, Long’s most recent consolidation of personal power led to talk of armed opposition from his enemies. Opponents increasingly invoked the memory of the Battle of Liberty Place of 1874, in which the white supremacist White League staged an uprising against Louisiana’s Reconstruction-era government. In January 1935, an anti-Long paramilitary organization called the Square Deal Association was formed; its members included former governors John M. Parker and Ruffin G. Pleasant and New Orleans Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley. On January 25, two hundred armed Square Dealers took over the courthouse of East Baton Rouge Parish. Long had Governor Allen call out the National Guard, declare martial law, ban public gatherings of two or more persons, and forbid the publication of criticism of state officials. The Square Dealers left the courthouse, but there was a brief armed skirmish at the Baton Rouge Airport. Tear gas and live ammunition were fired; one person was wounded but there were no fatalities.

    In the summer of 1935, Long called for two more special sessions of the legislature; bills were passed in rapid-fire succession without being read or discussed. The new laws further centralized Long’s control over the state by creating several new Long-appointed state agencies: a state bond and tax board holding sole authority to approve all loans to parish and municipal governments, a new state printing board which could withhold "official printer" status from uncooperative newspapers, a new board of election supervisors which would appoint all poll watchers, and a State Board of Censors. They also stripped away the remaining powers of the mayor of New Orleans. Long boasted that he had "taken over every board and commission in New Orleans except the Community Chest and the Red Cross."

    Assassination

    Two months prior to his death, in July 1935, Long claimed that he had uncovered a plot to assassinate him, which had been discussed in a meeting at New Orleans’s DeSoto Hotel. According to Long, four U.S. representatives, Mayor Walmsley, and former governors Parker and Sanders had been present. Long read what he claimed was a transcript of a recording of this meeting on the floor of the Senate. [6]

    Long had called for a third special session of the Louisiana State Legislature to begin in September 1935, and he traveled from Washington to Baton Rouge to oversee its progress. Although accounts of the September 8, 1935, murder differ, most believe that Long was shot once or twice by medical doctor Carl Austin Weiss in the Capitol building at Baton Rouge. Weiss was immediately shot some thirty times by Long's bodyguards and police on the scene. The 28-year-old Dr. Weiss was the son-in-law of Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy, who, according to Pavy's only surviving child, Ida Catherine Pavy Boudreaux (born 1922) of Opelousas, had been gerrymandered out of his Sixteenth Judicial District because of his opposition to Long. Long died two days after the shooting of internal bleeding following an attempt to close the wounds by Dr. Arthur Vidrine. Visitors to the capitol building will find a plaque marking the site of the assassination in the hallway near what is now the Speaker's office and what was then the Governor's office. It is on the main floor hall, behind the elevators. There are several small cavities in the marble wall near the plaque which are, erroneously, believed to be bullet holes; they were actually caused by careless marble movers.

    An alternative theory suggests that Weiss was actually unarmed, and had punched Long, not shot him. Instead, the senator was struck by a stray bullet from his bodyguards, who shot Weiss because they mistakenly believed that Weiss was going to shoot Long.[7] One who takes this view is former Louisiana state police superintendent Francis Grevemberg.

    Long was buried on the grounds of the new State Capitol that he championed as governor, where a statue depicts his achievements. More than 100,000 Louisianians attended his funeral at the Capitol. The minister at the funeral service Gerald L. K. Smith, co-founder of Share Our Wealth and subsequently of the America First Party, later claimed that Long's assassination was ordered by "the Roosevelt gang, supported by the New York Jew machine."

    Legacy

    In his four-year term as governor, Long increased the mileage of paved highways in Louisiana from 331 to 2,301, plus an additional 2,816 miles of gravel roads. By 1936, the infrastructure program begun by Long had completed some 9,000 miles of new roads, doubling the state's road system. He built 111 bridges, and started construction on the first bridge over the lower Mississippi, the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, near New Orleans. He built the new