Huey Long's Potlikker Recipe

 

In Louisiana history and folklore, Huey Pierce Long occupies a very special niche.  To be depressingly brief, he was born and reared in north-central Louisiana’s hardscrabble Winn Parish where, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contrariness, populism and socialism were dominant.  Charismatic and unscrupulous but unquestionably brilliant, Huey secured a law degree and entered politics.  With a knack for selling himself to the embittered rural population of one of the South’s poorest states, he enjoyed rapid success and in 1928, at age 35, was elected governor on his second attempt.  Ignoring the state constitution, he established a remarkably well-oiled political machine that he used for the benefit of the “country folk” who were the backbone of his support and to intimidate the aristocratic elite who, correctly, viewed him as a threat to tradition.    In 1930, Huey was elected to the United States Senate but refused to take his seat until he had ensured that Louisiana state government was firmly in the hands of his chosen successors.  While in the Senate, he maintained an iron grip on events at home.

More @ The Abbeville Institute