Huey Long Biography Quotes 4 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Huey Pierce Long Jr. was born on August 30, 1893, near Winnfield in north-central Louisiana, a region known for its populist streak and modest farms. His father, Huey Pierce Long Sr., farmed and ran small businesses, and his mother, Caledonia Palestine Tison Long, had been a schoolteacher. The rhythms of rural life and the hardships he saw around him shaped his blunt, insurgent style. He was bright, talkative, and argumentative, but formal schooling was uneven; he left high school without a diploma. After working as a traveling salesman, he studied law intensively, spending time at Tulane University in New Orleans and reading for the bar. He was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1915. In 1913 he married Rose McConnell, a steady partner in public and private life who would later briefly fill his U.S. Senate seat. They had three children, including Russell B. Long, who would grow up to become a long-serving U.S. senator.

Climb to Statewide Power
Long began practicing law in north Louisiana, where his courtroom flair and willingness to challenge entrenched interests drew attention. In 1918, at age twenty-five, he won election to the Louisiana Railroad Commission, soon renamed the Public Service Commission. There he took on utilities and Standard Oil, forcing rate cuts and publicizing what he called corporate abuses. These fights built his reputation as a champion of ordinary people and taught him how to mobilize publicity, legal pressure, and patronage.

His first run for governor in 1924 fell short, but the campaign made his name statewide. In 1928 he won decisively on a platform that promised paved roads, bridges, free school textbooks, and charity hospitals. He would later be nicknamed The Kingfish, a moniker popularized on radio and adopted by Long himself as a badge of populist swagger.

Governor of Louisiana
As governor from 1928 to 1932, Long moved rapidly. He financed public works through new taxes, especially on oil and gas, and through aggressive bond programs. In a state with few paved roads, his administration oversaw the construction and improvement of thousands of miles of highways and scores of bridges, including the ambitious Mississippi River crossing that later bore his name. He secured free textbooks for schoolchildren, expanded the state charity hospital system, and poured money into Louisiana State University, helping to enlarge its campus and profile. These achievements won him fervent support among the poor and rural voters.

Long also concentrated power. He used patronage to build a disciplined political organization, leaned on legislators to pass sweeping statutes, and battled judges who tried to limit his program. In 1929, amid fierce disputes over his tax bills, opponents in the Louisiana House impeached him on charges ranging from abuse of power to misuse of funds. He survived when a group of state senators signed a "Round Robin" vowing to vote against conviction, a dramatic signal of the leverage he held. The episode deepened the divide between his supporters and critics, the latter denouncing him as a demagogue.

Feud with New Orleans and Control of the Statehouse
Long's most visible confrontation came with the political establishment of New Orleans, led by Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley. Long sought to wrest control of patronage and regulation in the city, using the legislature to curtail municipal authority and deploying state police and the National Guard at key moments to assert state power. He maintained an inner circle of loyalists, prominent among them Oscar K. (O.K.) Allen, who succeeded him as governor and helped keep the Long organization in control of the statehouse when Long moved to Washington. Other close allies included figures like Seymour Weiss, who managed operations and political strategy behind the scenes. Long's brother Earl K. Long, an able and colorful politician in his own right, became an important partner and later served multiple terms as governor.

Senator and National Ambitions
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930, Long actually took his seat in 1932, choosing to remain in Baton Rouge to consolidate his state machine and see his program through. In Washington, he initially supported Franklin D. Roosevelt but soon broke with him, arguing that the New Deal did not go far enough to redistribute wealth. In 1934 he announced the Share Our Wealth program, which proposed capping fortunes, guaranteeing a basic income, funding old-age pensions, and expanding access to education and health care. He built a national network of Share Our Wealth clubs and used radio addresses and newspapers to reach millions. His book Every Man a King spread the message; a second volume, My First Days in the White House, published after his death, outlined his plan to win the presidency and enact his program.

By 1935, Long was preparing for a 1936 presidential bid, either within the Democratic Party or as an independent populist challenge. His intent was to pressure Roosevelt or supplant him by mobilizing economic discontent. Allies across Louisiana, including O.K. Allen in the governor's office and family members such as Earl Long, ensured his base at home remained secure while he campaigned nationally. His wife, Rose McConnell Long, provided counsel and would later be appointed to serve out the end of his Senate term; his son Russell B. Long absorbed the craft of politics that would shape his own long Senate career.

Public Works, Patronage, and Controversy
Long's record was a blend of large-scale public investment and hard-edged machine politics. He was proud of highways, bridges, expanded hospital care, and the transformation of LSU, where he involved himself in budgets and even student life to build the university into a symbol of the new Louisiana. At the same time, opponents decried the "deduct box", a system in which state employees contributed a portion of their pay to his political fund, and they criticized his efforts to weaken independent local power centers, from courts to city hall. Business interests, notably Standard Oil, remained his foil, and reformers warned that the concentration of power around The Kingfish threatened civil liberties. The resulting polarization gave Long an unmistakable profile: adored by many small farmers and laborers, feared or loathed by much of the old elite.

Assassination and Aftermath
On September 8, 1935, in the Louisiana State Capitol he had championed, Long was shot. According to official accounts, the assailant was Dr. Carl A. Weiss, whose father-in-law, Judge Benjamin Pavy, had been targeted by Long's redistricting plans. Long's bodyguards immediately opened fire, killing Weiss. Long underwent emergency surgery but died on September 10, 1935. Controversy has persisted over the exact circumstances of the shooting, but the political consequences were clear. His death halted an active presidential challenge and left his organization to be managed by allies like O.K. Allen and by family members. Rose McConnell Long served briefly in the Senate, and Russell B. Long later became a central figure in national fiscal policy. Earl K. Long returned to the governor's office in later years, keeping the Long name synonymous with Louisiana politics.

Legacy
Huey P. Long's legacy is one of paradox and magnitude. He permanently altered Louisiana by delivering infrastructure, education, and health services to people long left out of power, and he did so with an intensity few American politicians have matched. Nationally, he helped set the boundaries of Depression-era debate, pulling the political conversation toward redistribution and social guarantees. Yet his methods, relentless pressure on opponents, sweeping use of patronage, and a personalized political machine, fed accusations of authoritarianism. The important figures around him, from allies like O.K. Allen, Seymour Weiss, and his brother Earl, to antagonists like T. Semmes Walmsley and corporate opponents, defined the battleground on which he operated. His wife, Rose, and his son, Russell, extended the family's influence and helped translate the movement he built into longer-lasting institutions. The Kingfish remains a touchstone in American political history: a leader whose audacity inspired followers and alarmed critics, and whose abrupt death left an enduring question about what might have come next.

Our collection contains 4 quotes who is written by Huey, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Ethics & Morality - Freedom.