Historic Louisiana

The decade of the 1890s witnessed the
flowering of reform. Unfortunately reform was
rooted in racism. Its dark underside was
segregation. In 1890 the murder of D. C.
Hennessy, New Orleans chief of police, revealed
a serious flaw in the reformers mentality. For
ten years Hennessy had waged an effective war
against an Italian “mafia” organization. His
murder the night of October 15, 1890, was
quickly traced to the Mafia and a dozen
suspects were arrested and tried. The trial led to
a hung jury, however, and the following day the
“better” element of the community organized
and armed themselves to enforce justice. A
crowd of armed men seized parish prison and
summarily executed eleven Italians. The leader
of this movement was none other than W. S.
Parkerson, the president of the Young Men’s
Democratic League.
The same year the Louisiana legislature
required railroads to provide separate railroad
cars for blacks and whites. Segregation had
existed before and during the Civil War. It
was the attack on this act by the Creole blacks
of New Orleans that led to the Plessy v.
Ferguson lawsuit decided by the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1896. The French heritage of much
of Creole New Orleans provided the rationale
for equal rights that sparked Creole protest up
to 1896. Yet white Creoles were notably
silent. Their silence merely continued an attitude
that had originated with the Louisiana
Purchase and was reinforced by the oppression
of the Civil War. White Creoles accepted
the American victory and recognized there
was nothing to be gained from protesting the
central tenant of American power—segregation
of the races. White Creoles knew that the
Americans could just as easily suppress
French culture and language should they
chose, an eventuality quickly reached in the
twentieth century.
Statewide, the election of 1896 was crucial
to the reformers. The fusion candidate of the
farmers and the Republicans made a concerted
effort. Yet, when the election was over, it
turned out that many black votes had been
counted for the Democratic Party, giving it a
sweeping victory. Within days the legislature
went to work changing the election laws.
Through literacy and property requirements
the voting rolls were chopped. The number of
white voters was cut by more than half, from
164,000 to 74,000. The number of black
voters was cut ninety percent, from 130,000 to
13,000. So Louisiana became a one-party state
even before the Constitution of 1898 ratified
these voting restrictions.
After Governor Murphy Foster’s departure
from office in 1900, the reformers stayed out
of office for twenty years. With the
cooperation of leaders of the political ring in
New Orleans, notably Martin Behrman, many
reforms were consolidated during that
interval. Reformer John Parker flirted with
Progressivism and third parties, but the
insistence on a one-party state forced him
back into the Democratic Party. There his
charisma won him the governorship in 1920.
It seemed to be another chance for reform.
But times were different. In the 1890s
Louisiana had started the only leprosarium
(Carville) in America. In 1920 the state
turned it over to the Federal Government. In
1912 the state had created a minimum
severance tax. Parker had the opportunity to
make it a real source of state income. He
missed the opportunity. Yet business leaders
in the twenties accomplished a number of
long-range benefits for Louisiana. In
Shreveport the business community led a
✧
Above: Martin Behrman (1864-1926)
served as mayor of New Orleans from 1904
until 1920, and again from 1925 until his
death in 1926. He brought the great
institutions created by the reformers to
fruition—drainage, port facilities, a public
belt road, and school reform. These
institutions carried New Orleans throughout
the twentieth century.
Below: Elmer Candy Factory in 1917.
Notice the women workers and their
sanitary clothing.
COURTESY OF THE LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM.
CHAPTER VI
73