An Exhibit from the University of Michigan Special Collections Library
spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer
Radical Responses to the Great Depression Radical Responses to the Great Depression
spacer
Exhibit Topics
spacer spacer
UMDL LINKS
spacer spacer
spacer
Voices from the Rightspacer spacerdividerspacer Next
NEXT
spacer
spacer
dotted line

An Open Letter! To the AFL and All Other Labor Unions: To All Labor and Fraternal Organizations, Negro and White: To the Socialist Party.
Signed Communist party, District 24. New Orleans, Louisiana: Trades Council Allied Printing, n.d.
The Unemployed Magazine Cover image
view image  VIEW

Of the radical right figures in the 1930s, Huey P. Long (1893-1935) was the only person to wield political power, becoming governor of Louisiana in 1928 and U.S. senator in 1932. During 1934 and 1935 the servile Louisiana legislature enacted without debate a series of laws that abolished local government and gave the Long machine control of the appointment of every policeman, fireman, and teacher in the state, while the "Kingfish's" control of the militia, the judiciary, the election officials, and the tax assessors put all citizens at his mercy with no possibility of redress. The end came only with his assassination in September 1935. The flamboyant oratory and populist vocabulary of this vulgar demagogue, his widely heralded "Share-Our-Wealth Society" and especially his slogan, "Every Man a King", made Long the idol of millions; his first name became popular for male infants. Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men (Pulitzer Prize, 1947) was based largely on Long's career, and with its very successful filming Long is perhaps more familiar to contemporary audiences than any other political figure of the Thirties except Franklin Roosevelt. The flyer shown complains of actions by Long and the Louisiana legislature.


dotted line
spacerprinter icon PRINTABLE
VERSION
spacer
footer
Radical Responses to the Great Depression   A product of the Scholarly Publishing Office       Contact: spo-help@umich.edu       Copyright 2004, University of Michigan