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  Chapter Seven

  1. Alexandria Branch of the NAACP to Nora Windon, August 1946, frame 0592, reel 8, pt. 4, PNAACP—Micro.

  2. See, e.g., Wynn, Afro-American, 129–36. Wynn suggests that scholars have overstated the significance of World War II and that “some views may now need modification and qualification” (p. 129). David H. Onkst (“ ‘First a Negro’”) reaches a similar conclusion.

  3. Burran, “Racial Violence in the South”; Norrell, “One Thing We Did Right,” 68–70.

  4. Arthur G. Klein, quoted in Ruchames, Race, Jobs, and Politics, 95.

  5. For participation by black war veterans in the civil rights movement in other states, see Mills, This Little Light of Mine, 27; Dittmer, Local People, 1–18; Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 24, 29–31, 47–49, 56–61, 66, 136–37, 181–82, 299, 404; and Tyson, “Robert F. Williams,” 547–48.

  6. Zelma Wyche, Harrison H. Brown, T. I. Israel, F. W. Wilson, and Moses Williams, interview by Miriam Feingold, MFP; Harrison and Earnestine Brown, interview by author, THWC—LSU; A. Z. Young, interview by Miriam Feingold, MFP; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 395–98. See also Dittmer, Local People, 1–18, and Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom, 29–66.

  7. Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Decennial Census . . . Population: 1950, Volume 2, Part 18, 225, and Census of Agriculture: 1959, Volume 1, Part 35, 6; Norvel E. Thames, Annual Narrative Report, County Agent, Tensas Parish, 1947, 2, vol. 392, AESP. See also “The Problem,” n.d. [ca. 1930s], 1–3, file “LU-1 184-047 Farm Tenancy,” box 1, RCFT, RG 83.

  8. Bartlow, Louisiana Study, 50; “Louisiana Ideal for Many Industries, States Gov. Davis,” Madison Journal, 27 June 1947, 4; “La. Industrial Leaders to Meet in New Orleans on December 16th,” Pointe Coupee Banner, 4 December 1952, 1; “La. Matching Agricultural with Industrial Expansion,” Opelousas Daily World, 1 April 1955, 3; “Third Annual La. Industrial Development Conference Slated November 17th,” Pointe Coupee Banner, 27 October 1955, 13.

  9. “President's Message,” La. Delta Council News, October 1948, 2; “Objectives of the Louisiana Delta Council,” ibid., October 1948, 3. For analyses of the Mississippi Delta Council and its efforts to preserve white supremacy in the face of the economic transformation of the South, see Woodruff, “Mississippi Delta Planters,” and Woods, Development Arrested, 121–82.

  10. Bureau of the Census, Census of Manufactures 1954, Volume 3, 117–3, 117–4; Myrtle D. Anderson, Annual Narrative Report, Home Demonstration Agent, Iberville Parish, 1956, 2, vol. 184, AESP; LeRoy Barton, Annual Narrative Report, Negro Agent, Iberville Parish, 1957, 1, vol. 184, AESP; Prince H. Lewis, Annual Narrative Report, Negro Agent, East Feliciana Parish, 1957, 1, vol. 149, AESP.

  11. “Sweet Potato Becomes an Industry,” St. Francisville Democrat, 27 March 1942, 1; “Canning Plant to Locate Here,” ibid., 23 March 1945, 3; “Paper Mill to Build Plant Here,” ibid., 28 December 1956, 1, 4; W. D. Magee, Annual Narrative Report, County Agent, West Feliciana Parish, 1957, 4, vol. 457, AESP.

  12. “Lumber and Logging Industry Increases,” Madison Journal, 24 May 1946, 2; “Louisiana's Timber Industry Ranks High in Nation,” ibid., 12 March 1948, 6; Bureau of the Census, Census of Manufactures 1954, Volume 3, 117-12–117-14; John C. Howard, Negro in the Lumber Industry, 12–13.

  13. R. J. Courtney, Annual Narrative Report, Assistant State Agent for Work with Negroes, 1959, 3, vol. 525, AESP.

  14. Accommodation to white supremacy was a feature of industrial development throughout the South. See Cobb, Industrialization and Southern Society, 83–85, and Greenberg, Race and State in Capitalist Development, 209–35.

  15. Ronnie M. Moore to National CORE, memorandum, n.d. [ca. September 1964], 2, file 9, box 7, CORE—SROP; “St. Francisville Yam Canning Plant Charged by Labor Dept.,” Opelousas Daily World, 14 December 1958, 44; “West Feliciana (St. Francisville),” [Summary Report, April 1965], file 10, box 7, CORE—SROP; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 349; Miriam Feingold to Parents, 3 December 1963, frame 00738, reel 25, COREP.

  16. State Department of Education of Louisiana, Facilities for Veterans’ Education, 9; “G.I. Bill of Rights and What It Means,” Louisiana Weekly, 16 September 1944, 10; Wynn, Afro-American, 15.

  17. “G.I. Bill of Rights Amounts to Nothing More Than So [Many] Empty Words in Louisiana,” Louisiana Weekly, 27 July 1946, 1. See also Onkst, “ ‘First a Negro,’” 519–23.

  18. “The Veteran's Institute,” Louisiana Weekly, 16 March 1946, 12; Secretary, Veterans Affairs, to Alphonce Williams, 23 May 1947, frame 0214, reel 1, ser. C, pt. 9, PNAACP—Micro; Record, Race and Radicalism, 137; “SRC Pushing 3 Point Program to Aid Veterans,” Louisiana Weekly, 7 September 1946, 7.

  19. “GI Education Bill Key to La. Vet's Success Story,” Louisiana Weekly, 7 August 1954, 7.

  20. Statement of Harrison H. Brown in “Trial Fact Book, Hearing on Voting, Shreveport, La., July 13, 1959,” file “Trial Fact Book, Louisiana Hearings,” box 7, SS, RG 453; Brown interview.

  21. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Parade of Progress, 6.

  22. “Louisiana's Farm Family Pioneer Vegetable Growers,” Louisiana Weekly, 24 January 1959, 12; “Louisiana Man Top Sweetpotato Farmer,” ibid., 5 November 1960, 12.

  23. Martin Williams, interview by author, THWC-LSU.

  24. Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census . . . 1910, Volume 2, 774, Thirteenth Census . . . 1910, Volume 4, 465–66, and Seventeenth Decennial Census . . . Population: 1950, Volume 2, Part 18, 28, 35.

  25. Transcript of Oral History Interview, spring 1967, 43, file “Oral History Interview with John H. Scott and Related Material,” John Henry Scott Papers, Archives, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Department, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans, New Orleans; Roland Prejean to A. P. Tureaud, 7 April 1942, file 15, box 3, APTP; Dugas Theirry to Tureaud, 22 September 1943, and Tureaud to Theirry, 2 October 1943, both in file 18, box 8, APTP; Speech Delivered by Daniel E. Byrd at the [NAACP] National Convention, 27 June 1946, 5, additions file, box 8, DEBP; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 69–71; Martin Williams interview; Brown interview; Moses Williams, interview by author, THWC-LSU; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 395–98.

  26. Brown interview.

  27. Application for Charter, Carville Branch, 10 March 1946, file “Charter Applications, Louisiana A–J” (box 242), Application for Charter, Pointe Coupee Parish Branch, n.d. [ca. February 1954], file K–W (box 242), “Notes on NAACP Regional Training Conference,” 6 October 1945, 6–7, file “Leadership Training Conference, Louisiana-Texas (Conference) Correspondence 1945” (box 375)—all in ser. C, pt. 2, PNAACP—LC. See also Bates, “New Crowd.”

  28. A comparison of names that appear in the records of the LFU and the NAACP suggests that several residents of Pointe Coupee Parish who were active in the 1930s were also involved in civil rights work in the 1950s (e.g., Siegent Caulfield and Leon Lafayette). Members of this group also assisted CORE workers in the 1960s. LFU leader Abraham Phillips later became involved in the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed self-defense group that was formed to protect civil rights activists in Louisiana. See Abraham Phillips, Siegent Caulfield, Leon Lafayette, and J. C. Prater to Mr. Baldwin, 21 October 1941, file “Pointe Coupee Parish, La. AD-510,” box 193, GCCO; Application for Charter, Pointe Coupee Parish Branch, n.d. [ca. February 1954], file K–W, box 242, ser. C, pt. 2, PNAACP—LC; “Told ‘No Order’ Received Yet to Register Negroes,” Louisiana Weekly, 26 January 1952, 1–2; Mimi Feingold, “Parish Scouting Report—Summer Project, Pointe Coupee Parish,” 14 April 1964, 2, file 20, box 1, CORE—SCDP; “Report for Pointe Coupee Parish,” n.d. [11 October 1963], 1, file 3, box 6, CORE—SROP; and Kelley, Hammer and Hoe, 169. Similar connections between the rural unions of the 1930s and civil rights organizations in the 1950s and 1960s are noted in Couto, Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round, 101–2, and Payne, “The Lady Was a Sharecropper,” 24.

  29. “Statewide Drive for Full Citizenship Launched by La. Branches of NAACP,” Louisiana W
eekly, 25 October 1947, 1, 3.

  30. NAACP, Teachers’ Salaries in Black and White: A Pamphlet for Teachers and Their Friends (New York: NAACP, 1941), frames 0397–0404, reel 7, ser. B, pt. 3, PNAACP—Micro.

  31. Memorandum, n.d. [ca. 1936], 2, file “Education—La. State Department of Education,” box 3, RWLP; Lola Stallworth, interview by author, THWC—LSU.

  32. See, e.g., J. K. Haynes to Sam H. Jones, 15 June 1943, file 6, box 4, SHJP. Haynes informed Governor Jones that many black teachers were abandoning their poorly paid profession to take higher-paying jobs in defense industries.

  33. A. P. Tureaud to J. K. Haynes, 12 May 1943, file 19, box 34, APTP.

  34. W. W. Harleaux to A. P. Tureaud, 12 February 1943, file 18, ibid.; W[illie] Franklin to A. P. Tureaud, 10 May 1943, file 19, ibid.

  35. “The Teachers’ Salary Issue,” Louisiana Weekly, 10 July 1943, 10; “Principal Brings Suit to Equalize Salary; Paid $500 a Year by Board,” newspaper clipping, source unknown, n.d., 8, file 27, box 35, APTP; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 99–100.

  36. “School Board Files Brief in Salary Suit,” Louisiana Weekly, 8 April 1944, 1–2; “Iberville School Board Loses Teacher's Salary Case in Federal Court,” Shreveport Sun, 29 April 1944, 7, file 27, box 35, APTP; “The Iberville School Board Fails to File Answer; NAACP Seeks Judgment by Default,” Louisiana Weekly, 20 May 1944, 11.

  37. “Salary Schedule for Teachers and Principals,” Iberville Parish School Board Circular No. 776, n.d. [ca. July 1944], file 4, box 35, APTP; “Memorandum for Plaintiff, Civil Action No. 212, Baton Rouge Division, United States Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Wiley Butler McMillon vs. Iberville Parish School Board,” n.d., 1, file 19, ibid.; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 102.

  38. H. E. Jarvis to A. P. Tureaud, 4 December 1944, and Thurgood Marshall, Tureaud, and Joseph A. Thornton to Ferdinand C. Claiborne and J. Studebaker Lucas, 6 December 1944, file 22, box 34, APTP; Claiborne and Lucas to Marshall, 13 December 1944, and Tureaud to Claiborne and Lucas, 27 December 1944, ibid.; Marshall [to NAACP], memorandum, 23 January 1945, file “Teachers Salaries Louisiana Iberville Parish Correspondence 1943–45,” box 177, ser. B, pt. 2, PNAACP—LC; Tureaud to Marshall, 23 January 1945, file 23, box 34, APTP; “Meeting of Special Committee on Educational Planning,” 23 January 1945, 1, file 6, box 35, APTP.

  39. A. P. Tureaud to Thurgood Marshall, 25 February 1945, file 23, box 34, APTP; Tureaud to J. K. Haynes, 6 April 1945, file 24, ibid.; “11 Dismissed Iberville Parish Teachers Express Confidence in Lawyers,” Louisiana Weekly, 25 August 1945, 1, 7; L. P. Terrebonne to Wiley McMillon, 19 July 1945, and McMillon to Tureaud, 30 July 1945, file 25, box 34, APTP; Tureaud to Harold N. Lee, 17 October 1945, file 32, box 8, APTP.

  40. A. P. Tureaud to Iberville Parish School Board, 13 August 1945, and Tureaud to Edward Dudley, 14 August 1945, file 26, box 34, APTP.

  41. Thurgood [Marshall] to NAACP Office, 11 September 1945, frame 0482, reel 8, pt. 4, PNAACP—Micro.

  42. A. P. Tureaud to Willie Franklin, n.d. [September 1945], file 27, Tureaud to Edith M. Jones, 13 April 1946, file 28, and Tureaud to Thurgood Marshall, 29 [August], 30 August 1946, file 28—all in box 34, APTP.

  43. A. P. Tureaud to Thurgood Marshall, 14 March 1947, file 29, box 34, APTP; “Rules Dual Teacher Pay Is Illegal,” newspaper clipping, no source, 7 November 1947, 14, file 27, box 35, APTP; “Federal Judge Orders Jefferson Parish School Board Stop Salary Bias,” Louisiana Weekly, 7 August 1948, 1, 3.

  44. A. P. Tureaud to J. K. Haynes, 19 June 1948, file 16, box 19, APTP; “New Suit Charges School Inequality,” clipping, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 4 June 1948, 3, file 10, box 36, APTP; “Equal Facilities Suit Brings More Problems to Louisiana School Boards,” Louisiana Weekly, 2 April 1949, 1, 8.

  45. W. W. Harleaux to A. P. Tureaud, 1 August 1951, file 2, box 36, APTP; “Iberville Parish School Equalization Case to Be Tried May 1, 1952,” [news release], n.d., file 30, box 19, APTP.

  46. A. P. Tureaud to Thurgood Marshall, 4 August 1949, file 27, box 9, APTP; B. D. Donatto to Tureaud, 2 September 1949, file 15, box 56, APTP; “St. Landry School Board Asks Dismissal of Suit for Equal Facilities,” Louisiana Weekly, 21 January 1950, 1–2.

  47. Glenn Douthit, “Battles for Better Schools,” clipping, New Orleans Item, 17 November 1949, file 19, box 76, APTP; Daniel E. Byrd, Activity Report, July 1952, 1, file 1, box 4, DEBP; Robert and Essie Mae Lewis, interview by author, THWC—LSU; Kurtz and Peoples, Earl K. Long, 198; Cline, “Public Education in Louisiana,” 267; Clipping, Southern School News, 3 March 1955, 11, file 53, box 556, Russell B. Long Papers, HML.

  48. “Louisiana Branch of National Progressive Voters League Organized as South Plans Mobilization of an Intelligent Negro Vote,” Louisiana Weekly, 20 May 1944, 9.

  49. Lewis interview; Meg Redden (formerly Peggy Ewan), interview by author, THWC—LSU; Martin Williams interview.

  50. Speech Delivered by Daniel E. Byrd at the [NAACP] National Convention, 27 June 1946, 5, file “Additions,” box 8, DEBP; “Longshoremen to Compel Applicants to Register, Vote,” Louisiana Weekly, 12 July 1947, 4; “NAACP Drive Moves into High Gear,” Louisiana Weekly, 29 April 1950, 1, 3; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 69–71.

  51. Byrd speech at the [NAACP] National Convention, 6; Ernest J. Wright, “Negroes Seek Ballot in Iberville Parish,” Louisiana Weekly, 9 August 1947, 10.

  52. “NAACP Survey Reveals Negroes Registered in Many Louisiana Parishes,” Louisiana Weekly, 23 September 1944, 1, 8; “Enthusiasm High All over State in Registration Drive,” ibid., 30 August 1947, 1–2.

  53. Wyche et al. interview; [Report of Field Agents, Louisiana], 22–27 June 1959, 5, file “Louisiana Voting Case,” box 4, SS, RG 453; “Pistol-Packing Politician Terrorizes Negroes at Poll,” Louisiana Weekly, 9 August 1952, 1, 6; S. E. Briscoe to A. P. Tureaud, 28 July 1949, file 26, and Tureaud to M. O. Mouton, 12 December 1949, file 31, box 9, APTP; Junior Antoine to Tureaud, 20 February 1950, Hayward Dupre to Tureaud, 20 February 1950, and Carlton N. Frank to Tureaud, 20 February 1950, file 3, box 10, APTP; “Mob Slugs Educator,” Pittsburgh Courier, 17 June 1950, 1, 5; “FBI Probing La. Vote Case,” Pittsburgh Courier, 24 June 1950, 5; OPPVL's Silver Anniversary Celebration, 7–8 July 1974, 3, file 26, box 18, APTP; “Beating in Registrar's Office Thought to Be a ‘Contributing Factor,’” Louisiana Weekly, 3 November 1951, 1, 8.

  54. “Told ‘No Order’ Received Yet to Register Negroes,” Louisiana Weekly, 26 January 1952, 1–2; Wheaton, “Sheriff D. J. ‘Cat’ Doucet.”

  55. Perry H. Howard, Political Tendencies in Louisiana, 275–77; Kurtz and Peoples, Earl K. Long, 151, 197–98; Wheaton, “Sheriff D. J. ‘Cat’ Doucet,” 6–7; “Suit May End 36 Year Old Vote Drought,” Louisiana Weekly, 4 November 1961, 1, 7; Fairclough, Race and Democracy, 303, 306.

  56. Griffith, Crisis of American Labor, 64–66; Record, Race and Radicalism, 88–91; “Resolutions, National CIO,” 1950, frame 0354, reel 58, ODP.

  57. Griffith, Crisis of American Labor, 63–64, 72–74, 81; Honey, Southern Labor and Black Civil Rights, 135–41; Lucy Randolph Mason to E. T. Mollegen, 11 May 1945, frame 0110, reel 63, ODP.

  58. Quoted in Griffith, Crisis of American Labor, 72.

  59. Ibid., 72, 74.

  60. Percy Wyly II to Director, FBI, 29 December 1942, 3, 5, file “144-33-7,” box 17588, CSF, RG 60.

  61. John A. Ritter, [Notes on Past Organizing Efforts in Louisiana], n.d. [1953], file 298, box 196, IWAP.

  62. J. L. Baughman to R. W. Starnes, 3 March 1953, file 5, box 184, IWAP; “Officer's Report, Sixth Annual Convention, District Council No. 4 IWA-CIO,” 12 September 1953, 16, file 1648, box 255, IWAP; William O. Jones to E. L. Luter, 10 November 1952, file 1094, box 231, IWAP.

  63. A. C. Hudson, Weekly Report, 25 July 1953, 2, file 205, box 192, IWAP; A. M. Collins to Scott, 18 August 1953, file 1634, box 254, IWAP; A. M. Collins to Elizabeth H. Foster, 25 February 1956, file 1050, box 229, IWAP. The NAWU was the descendant of the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union, which ch
anged its name to the National Farm Labor Union in 1946 and became the National Agricultural Workers’ Union in the 1950s. The name changes reflected both an expansion in regional scope and the change in status of many agricultural workers in the South from tenant farmers to wage laborers after World War II. For more on the NAWU's organizing efforts in Louisiana's sugar parishes and planter reactions, see Galarza, Louisiana Sugar Cane Plantation Workers, 43–72, and Becnel, Labor, Church, and the Sugar Establishment, 43–48, 93–159.

  64. “Labor Relations,” AFBF News Letter, 14 December 1943, 3; “Union and Closed Shop,” ibid., 4 August 1952; “Labor Management Relations,” ibid., 22 December 1952, 5.

  65. H. L. Mitchell, Draft of pamphlet on Louisiana State Labor Council of the AFL-CIO's role in repeal of Louisiana Right-to-Work Law, 4, enclosed in Mitchell to Fay Bennett, 5 September 1956, reel 39, STFUP. The AFBF's weekly newsletter also credited the Louisiana Farm Bureau with spearheading the right-to-work effort and ensuring passage of the legislation. See “Dougherty Retains LFBF Post, Wins Acclaim of Press,” AFBF News Letter, 16 August 1954, 1, 4.

  66. “La. Farm Bureau Prexy to Lead Move for ‘Right to Work’ Law,” Pointe Coupee Banner, 15 April 1954, 12; “Farm Bureau Prexy Says ‘Right-to-Work’ Bill Response ‘Wonderful,’” ibid., 29 April 1954, 14; “Two Police Juries Endorse ‘Right to Work’ Legislation,” ibid., 29 April 1954, 19; Kurtz and Peoples, Earl K. Long, 184–85; “Comments on the ‘Special Convention Program’ of the Louisiana State Labor Council AFL-CIO, Baton Rouge, August 4–5, 1956,” 20 August 1956, reel 39, STFUP.

  67. John A. Ritter, Weekly Report, 17 July 1954, file 297, box 196, IWAP.

  68. Thurman Sensing, “Unionization in the South,” Opelousas Daily World, 24 February 1957, 25; Griffith, Crisis of American Labor, 62–87. One reason for the success of this technique was that large numbers of white workers were deeply racist. Many resented their union leaders’ support for black civil rights, and thousands of white members defected from their union locals in the wake of antiracism initiatives undertaken at the state and national levels. See Draper, Conflict of Interests, esp. 15–40, 105, and Halpern, “CIO and the Limits of Labor-Based Civil Rights Activism.”