I expected the Thompsons, but the Browning (or is it a Maxim?) is a little over the top.
Worthwhile reading. Thanks for posting.
Partial martial law, eh? Charges of voter fraud, former political allies literally going to war against each other, government officials being arrested...spooky parallels.
Huey Long was widely regarded as a populist.
Interesting that the Times-Pic is revisiting this event now.
A chicken in every pot - Free college for all - things haven’t changed much in eighty years.....
Ah, those lovely bits of history they never taught us about.
Betting there wasn’t a registration or license in the bunch.
The Kingfish was a tyrant. He hated my great uncle, who was president of Standard Oil Company of Louisiana. Long blamed Standard Oil for all of the woes of the poor in the state. Long would pay LSU students $5 each and give them a ride on a chartered train from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to support the LSU football team against Tulane. One year my cousin, son of the Standard Oil executive, snuck out and went on the train to the game. His father forbade him to keep the $5 from Long, saying it was blood money. My cousin deposited it in a savings account and promised that he would never use it but would donate it to a Catholic charity on his death, which occurred at age 93 in 2011.
My grandfather also despised Long. Long had shown up to campaign at my grandfathers hunting club dinner. Long sat next to my grandfather at dinner...after Long had eaten all of the duck on his plate, he reached over to take a piece off of my grandfathers’ plate. My grandfather stabbed Long in the hand with his fork. Long was so shocked that he didn’t have the balls to try to have my grandfather arrested.
Great photos!