Huey Long speaking in Amite: photos by Louis Fajoni
There are several stories connected to these pictures and event. They are excellent examples of oral history, and the importance of saving these stories.
I have been spending some time reading Huey Long, by T Harry Williams. A tremendous oral history project actually started in 1955 and published in 1969 , 800+ pages.
To summarize the events leading up to this event. In 1930, upon facing a block by the Louisiana Legislature of his road and bridges programs, he took another angle, he announced his candidacy for US Senator and took the subject to the people. He delayed his speaking to the people by about a month. The public and his opponents could not understand. The reason then became obvious. He came out with his new sound trucks, which allowed him to speak to larger crowds in Parish Seats. This lines up with Robert Vernon’s story to me of a newspaper article describing his speaking in Amite, Greensburg, and Covington on the same day. The book dates this as happening in August, 1930. Note the sound truck is in the picture. He had at least two trucks, with the trucks traveling ahead of him to announce the event.
It appears the crowd was dressed for the occasion. The rest of the story is he is elected by a great margin and the Louisiana Legislature could no longer delay the will of the people: for the state to begin the great public works projects that Huey proposed. (He was still governor and would delay taking the United State Senator job until his term as governor ran out.)
An additional story, as told to me by Buddy Bel, is that Louis Fajoni climbed to third story of the bank building and took the picture of Huey speaking, with his big camera. Then, carrying that camera, he had to run down the stairs, thru the crowd and across the tracks to climb to the second floor of the Kophler Building for the second shot. I remind myself he was shooting glass negatives, so getting off those shots was not that easy. Bravo Louie.
To further the story, many years later, Louis Fajoni’s glass negatives were found by a young man at the Amite dump. He brought an example to Leo Lanier who helped him retrieve the others that were not destroyed, thus the comments in the paper. ( you can see the damage in the corner of the picture of Huey speaking)
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| News Digest 1972 |
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| Louis Fajoni 1965 |
