Earl Kemp Long

Earl Long governed Louisiana in three separate terms, 1939 to 1940, 1948 to 1952 and 1956 to 1960. In 1948 he pushed through bigger pensions, school lunches, higher teacher pay, new roads and public hospitals, paid for with sales, sin and severance taxes, and he quietly encouraged thousands of Black citizens to register to vote. In May 1959 a rambling speech to the legislature led to his commitment, first in Texas and then at Mandeville, and he won release and fired the hospital director. He died on September 5, 1960, before taking a seat in Congress.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — 28 mi
  Oakland and Magnolia, two Cane River cotton plantations kept as they stood, told through the enslaved families who worked them, the 1864 and 1804 freedom seekers and the tenant farmers who stayed into the 1960s.
• Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site — 29 mi
  A reconstruction of the 1716 French fort beside the Natchitoches village, with a palisade of nearly 2,000 pine logs, a chapel and storeroom, and living-history programs, open Wednesday to Sunday.
• Melrose Plantation — 30 mi
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 31 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.

More markers nearby

• Long Home Site — steps away
• Bank of Winnfield & Law Office of Huey P. Long — 0.4 mi
• Huey Pierce Long — 0.5 mi
• Gum Springs Bombing Range Accident Memorial — 9.1 mi