By Garry Blanson
The White Louisiana Bourbon Democrats, the 1898 Louisiana State Constitution, and the Voting Disenfranchisement of Colored Citizens in Louisiana
“History is being repeated before our very eyes, and the saddest thing about it is that most of the Black citizens in Louisiana are too blind to see it!” — Garry O’Dell Blanson
In case anyone has forgotten, about two and a half years ago, Governor Jeff Landry made a big push to “rewrite the Louisiana State Constitution!” Interestingly, all the while, Governor Jeff Landry vehemently argued that he wasn’t trying to “rewrite the entire Louisiana State Constitution.” He said that he merely wanted to “move some of the provisions into statute,” so that it would be easier for the state Legislature to change any of the provisions that it didn’t like or want.
If the governor had been successful, it would have been the “12th Louisiana State Constitution” for the state since it was first admitted to the Union as the 18th U.S. state on April 30, 1812.
Well, I feel that out of all the Louisiana State Constitutions, “it appears that the Louisiana State Constitution of 1898 was one of the most detrimental documents ever penned by Louisiana State Legislature members to disenfranchise colored citizens in Louisiana!”
By the way, since some of this information would be considered “critical race theory,” it’s not even allowed to be taught in any of the schools in Louisiana!!! Nevertheless, I have chosen to include the information in this week’s ORBH article.
Moving along, it seems that in 1896, a group of white former Confederates, who were a part of the Democratic Party and were known as “Bourbon Democrats,” but were also called “Redeemers,” had gained a great amount of political power in Louisiana and had called for a Louisiana Political Convention, “with their sole intention being to restore white rule in Louisiana!”
Incidentally, one of the most notable “Bourbon Democrats” was none other than Louisiana Governor Murphy J. Foster, who just happened to be the grandfather of Louisiana Governor Murphy James “Mike” Foster Jr., who served as Louisiana’s 53rd governor from 1996 to 2004.
Also, it may interest everyone to know that it was Governor Murphy J. Foster “who was the person in charge during this brutal process of disenfranchising at least half of the entire state of Louisiana’s voting-age population, as well as instituting harsh and impractical Jim Crow racial segregation laws in Louisiana!”
Here are a few of the laws that Governor “Governor Murphy J.” and the Louisiana legislators put into effect and were deemed race-neutral:
- An annual poll tax of one dollar for every registered voter.
- A literacy test.
- An exceedingly complicated voter registration form that had to be filled out “without assistance”—meaning no illiterate person would be able to do it.
- A property qualification that allowed an adult male to register if he could prove that he owned at least $300 of taxable property.
- A “grandfather” clause that was designed to enfranchise propertyless and illiterate white people.
In closing, I would like to point out something that “Governor Murphy J.” and the White Louisiana State Legislature did back then that is similar to what Governor Jeff Landry and the current Louisiana State Legislature have done in 2026.
In 1898, “the 15th Amendment prohibited states from preventing people from voting based on their race.” Therefore, “Governor Murphy J.” and the Louisiana legislators at the Louisiana Convention instituted methods that, on their face, were race-neutral, “just like the new redistricting voting maps that Governor Jeff Landry recently had approved in Louisiana,” but that would disproportionately affect Louisiana’s Colored Citizens.
You see, as far as I can tell, some of the same things that were done to our Black ancestors are now being done to this generation of Black people in Louisiana. Furthermore, similar laws are starting to get passed by majority White Louisiana legislators, “and sadly, White citizens in Louisiana have garnered most of the political power in the state of Louisiana!”
NOTE: To read more about the 1898 Louisiana State Constitution and Governor Murphy J. Foster, simply Google: 64 Parishes, Louisiana Constitution of 1898.
