For All Those Men
In the summer of 1922, two tragic events occurred in Louisiana, one in the north, another in the south, that dramatically changed the state’s racial and political climate. In the south, Emile Hebert, a young Negro farmer, was tried for murder in a shooting that resulted in the death of a prominent resident of Rayne, Louisiana and the serious injury of the sheriff of Lafayette Parish.
Two months later, in north Louisiana, two white men, Filmore Watt Daniel and Thomas F. Richards, mysteriously disappeared in the plantation village of Mer Rouge and were found dead four months later. Louisiana Governor John M. Parker, half-way into his four-year term, got intensely involved in the Mer Rouge case in his seemingly one-man crusade to halt the growing power and influence of the KKK. The murders gained national attention and are largely credited with ending the stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan in north Louisiana.
On the confirmation of rumors that a mob of at least five hundred men led by the KKK were plotting to storm the jail or courthouse and hang Emile Hebert before the trial commenced, District Court Judge William Campbell asked Governor Parker to deploy the National Guard to camp out at the parish courthouse during the trial. Parker agreed, marking the first time that the military was involved in a criminal trial in Lafayette Parish.
Although Hebert’s trial might have helped to halt the Klan’s march into the state’s southern parishes, it remains a relatively obscure event in the annals of Lafayette Parish judicial history and Louisiana political history. As told in For All Those Men, Hebert’s story ttakes center stage, as does Louisiana Governor John M. Parker and the role he played in stopping the KKK’s rise to power.
In the summer of 1922, two tragic events occurred in Louisiana, one in the north, another in the south, that dramatically changed the state’s racial and political climate. In the south, Emile Hebert, a young Negro farmer, was tried for murder in a shooting that resulted in the death of a prominent resident of Rayne, Louisiana and the serious injury of the sheriff of Lafayette Parish.
Two months later, in north Louisiana, two white men, Filmore Watt Daniel and Thomas F. Richards, mysteriously disappeared in the plantation village of Mer Rouge and were found dead four months later. Louisiana Governor John M. Parker, half-way into his four-year term, got intensely involved in the Mer Rouge case in his seemingly one-man crusade to halt the growing power and influence of the KKK. The murders gained national attention and are largely credited with ending the stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan in north Louisiana.
On the confirmation of rumors that a mob of at least five hundred men led by the KKK were plotting to storm the jail or courthouse and hang Emile Hebert before the trial commenced, District Court Judge William Campbell asked Governor Parker to deploy the National Guard to camp out at the parish courthouse during the trial. Parker agreed, marking the first time that the military was involved in a criminal trial in Lafayette Parish.
Although Hebert’s trial might have helped to halt the Klan’s march into the state’s southern parishes, it remains a relatively obscure event in the annals of Lafayette Parish judicial history and Louisiana political history. As told in For All Those Men, Hebert’s story ttakes center stage, as does Louisiana Governor John M. Parker and the role he played in stopping the KKK’s rise to power.
In the summer of 1922, two tragic events occurred in Louisiana, one in the north, another in the south, that dramatically changed the state’s racial and political climate. In the south, Emile Hebert, a young Negro farmer, was tried for murder in a shooting that resulted in the death of a prominent resident of Rayne, Louisiana and the serious injury of the sheriff of Lafayette Parish.
Two months later, in north Louisiana, two white men, Filmore Watt Daniel and Thomas F. Richards, mysteriously disappeared in the plantation village of Mer Rouge and were found dead four months later. Louisiana Governor John M. Parker, half-way into his four-year term, got intensely involved in the Mer Rouge case in his seemingly one-man crusade to halt the growing power and influence of the KKK. The murders gained national attention and are largely credited with ending the stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan in north Louisiana.
On the confirmation of rumors that a mob of at least five hundred men led by the KKK were plotting to storm the jail or courthouse and hang Emile Hebert before the trial commenced, District Court Judge William Campbell asked Governor Parker to deploy the National Guard to camp out at the parish courthouse during the trial. Parker agreed, marking the first time that the military was involved in a criminal trial in Lafayette Parish.
Although Hebert’s trial might have helped to halt the Klan’s march into the state’s southern parishes, it remains a relatively obscure event in the annals of Lafayette Parish judicial history and Louisiana political history. As told in For All Those Men, Hebert’s story ttakes center stage, as does Louisiana Governor John M. Parker and the role he played in stopping the KKK’s rise to power.