If you've read this blog before you know I "love" to complain about lost history because those who lived the history don't record or share their memories. Well, I'm back at it tonight as I prepare for this week's classes.
Right now I'm in the midst of the "HueyLongathon" I have every semester. In my Louisiana History, Louisiana Government and American Government classes I have my students watch Ken Burns' "Huey Long" and write an essay on Huey's career. I sincerely believe that one cannot understand the history of Louisiana and its government without spending some serious time learning about Huey. He is the most transformational political figure in any state in American History. For my American Government students, the stated political goals that Long was advancing cut to the core of one of the two most consistently divisive issues in American politics -- the role of the state in the lives of individuals. We are seeing that battle played out in the streets today with the Tea Party movement and Huey's programs provide a wonderful chance to look at that issue in context. So, each semester I see the video at least four times. This semester I've seen it four times and this week will see it for a fifth time with my Louisiana History students.
Each time I "teach" Huey, I am reminded of probably the greatest single frustration in my local research. Starting in 1983, I began seeking to interview someone who was present on Thursday night, November 9, 1933, when Huey made a speech outside the Webster Parish Courthouse (the 1905 courthouse that was torn down in 1970) here in Minden. Huey was in the middle of a speaking tour attacking FDR and the programs of the New Deal, throughout the state he had been making charges about our local Judge Harmon Drew in each speech. According to T. Harry Williams, a plot had been hatched here in Minden to kill Long on that night. The plan was that when Long attacked Drew, the Judge would stand to answer the charges. Williams claimed that when Drew stood, there were armed men placed throughout the crowd who would open fire on Long.
Williams never identified his sources and the Drew family has long objected and labeled the story as false. Harmon Drew actually studied under T. Harry at LSU and discussed the issue with the Professor. Harmon believes that Williams only talked to those in the Long camp and also strongly believes his grandfather would not have been involved in such a plot. Having done my Master's Thesis on John Sandlin, a contemporary politician to Drew and Long, I agree with Harmon. I find it unthinkable that the Harmon Drew I came to know through research would have been involved in such a plot.
On the other hand, I think Williams was correct in one way. I think there was a plot hatched by local anti-Longites who were friends of Judge Drew to assassinate Senator Long on that night. I think the presence of Long aide, Louie Jones of Minden, at that speech was precisely as Williams' believed, to allow Long's bodyguards to be able to locate the men in the plot and neutralize them before they could take action. That is basically what happened as the events unfolded.
Anyway, over my 27 years of seeking I came up with precisely one person who remembered that night and was willing to discuss the events. She told me in detail about what made a great impression on her that evening. Her parents had bought her an ice cream cone at the drug store and just as Huey started to speak, the top scoop on her cone fell to the ground. She was crushed. I guess that's what one can expect from the memory of a 10-year old. Now, nearly 77 years after the speech, I am convinced I'll never get a first hand account, I can only hope that someone shared with their family and the story emerges one day.
On a positive note, I'm looking forward to tonight's premiere of "Treme" on HBO. I was impressed by the clip I have seen where John Goodman's character is so angered by the journalist who suggest New Orleans should not be rebuilt. It reminds me of how we discuss in my Louisiana History class the role New Orleans filled as the 2nd most important city in this country in the Antebellum years and how ridiculous it was to suggest it not be rebuilt. Can't wait to see this Louisiana story.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Healing Wounds to Tell the Story
I can still remember 42 years ago tonight, as I sat watching Gomer Pyle USMC the dreaded "special report" interruption of the conclusion of the show. One of my first clear memories is that of Walter Cronkite interrupting Momma watching As The World Turns to announce the Kennedy Assassination while I sat in front of the TV playing. Since that time, any interruption of programming -- even in this day of the 24-hour news cycle -- chillls me because of that first memory. Of course, on that night 42 years ago the announcement was the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In light of that anniversary and the death of Rodney Seamster, I felt I needed to express a problem that has bothered me for a long time. Perhaps this is a problem I shouldn't air publicly, but clearly I've not learned yet when to shut up. That problem is preserving the local record of the Civil Rights Era from the viewpoint of the black community.
I am a child of the Civil Rights Era. I grew up during the desegregation battles -- Blaine A. Gilbert et al v. Webster Parish School Board was filed during November of my 2nd grade year. As a result, in January, two months later, Beverly Hampton came to Mrs. Hortman's room at Richardson and sat across the aisle from me as one of the eight black children to first desegregate an all-white school in Webster Parish. (I even caught the Chicken Pox from her as a present for my 8th birthday.) More than 8 years later, as my 11th grade year at MHS began, we saw the merger of Minden High and Webster High as part of the "final act" of that law suit. My chosen field in graduate studies was the Civil Rights Era. Although I have shied away from writing about it much in the newspaper -- a mixture of cowardice and not wanting to "rock the boat" for the newspaper -- I have continued the research and am still wrestling with the process of writing a "real book" on the subject. Even if I never complete that project, the notes will be available for someone else to tackle that chore after I'm gone.
During my years of research I have become more and more troubled about how we will preserve the entire story locally. The "white" side can be written easily from the newspaper stories of the day, but the other side, the side of those fighting for their rights is not as easily ascertained. Until the late 1950s, the only mention of any news from the black community was Robert Tobin's column, "Negro News" that ran periodically in the local newspaper. I was made very aware of the total vaccuum of "black" news by two different situations that took place when I worked for the Webster Parish Library. The first was the problem that arose when contacted by descendants of black local residents seeking obituaries -- they simply didn't exist in local news until the 1970s. The second involved the athletic successes of Webster High School. I had a relative of Wilbert Frazier, the star Webster High basketball player who went on to Grambling and the ABA, contact me seeking information about Webster's back-to-back appearances in what was considered the national championship game for black high schools in 1961 and 1962. Scouring the Minden and Shreveport newspapers I was disappointed to tell him the only mention was a one-paragraph article in the local paper headlined -- "Wolves lose in Houston tournament."
Beyond the news blackout is another problem. Many of the senior citizens in the black community can still not bring themselves to trust a white researcher and black researchers have not really focused on our area. I understand the roots of that distrust. Personally I have run into problems because I have not taken a strong enough stance in my newspaper columns regarding those years. That creates doubts as to whether I will give the story a "fair shake" and whether it is worth sharing with me. Along with that is the idea that the "past is the past" and leave it buried. As a historian I cannot support that idea, all history, good or bad, if told fairly and factually is useful.
The depth of the problem was really driven home to me about three years ago when a historian from San Francisco State University contacted me as he researched a tragic historic event that took place here in Minden in 1946. At that time he planned to make a book-length manuscript totally about the Minden incident. I contacted several members of the black community and got them to agree to talk with the researcher. He came to town, talked to all of them, and essentially was given nothing to work with. Minden ended up being about a two-page discussion in his eventual book.
Every time I talked with Rodney Seamster, we discussed putting the past behind us and working toward combining local black and white history to tell the whole story. But Rodney had so many projects and I was frankly too lazy to push the issue. Now Rodney is gone. I am proud to report that through the work of Schelley Brown and the Dorcheat Museum we have made great strides in this area. Dr. Roy Phillips and Mr. James Smith worked for months compiling a black history project for the museum. Part of their research has already been used in exhibits at the musuem and more is to come. That project has done much to fill the void, but there is so much more that can be done.
The part that is most troubling is that we have a success story here in Minden. I know that many have felt I was being a trouble maker by wanting to discuss the subject. But in Minden we moved from a city that saw that horrible lynching in 1946, from being a commuity at the forefront of the investigations of the United States Civil Rights Commission, from being in a parish that was one of the first to be sued by the United States government for intentional voting discrimination, to becoming a community where today we have a "majority minority" City Council in a community without a "majority minority" population. Are we color-blind? Not yet, but we have made a quantum leap just in my lifetime.
Again, as I think of Rodney's death, I can't help but chide myself for not working harder and hoping that before I go I'll be able to help make progress in preserving the stories of our past in those pivotal years before all those who know the stories are gone.
In light of that anniversary and the death of Rodney Seamster, I felt I needed to express a problem that has bothered me for a long time. Perhaps this is a problem I shouldn't air publicly, but clearly I've not learned yet when to shut up. That problem is preserving the local record of the Civil Rights Era from the viewpoint of the black community.
I am a child of the Civil Rights Era. I grew up during the desegregation battles -- Blaine A. Gilbert et al v. Webster Parish School Board was filed during November of my 2nd grade year. As a result, in January, two months later, Beverly Hampton came to Mrs. Hortman's room at Richardson and sat across the aisle from me as one of the eight black children to first desegregate an all-white school in Webster Parish. (I even caught the Chicken Pox from her as a present for my 8th birthday.) More than 8 years later, as my 11th grade year at MHS began, we saw the merger of Minden High and Webster High as part of the "final act" of that law suit. My chosen field in graduate studies was the Civil Rights Era. Although I have shied away from writing about it much in the newspaper -- a mixture of cowardice and not wanting to "rock the boat" for the newspaper -- I have continued the research and am still wrestling with the process of writing a "real book" on the subject. Even if I never complete that project, the notes will be available for someone else to tackle that chore after I'm gone.
During my years of research I have become more and more troubled about how we will preserve the entire story locally. The "white" side can be written easily from the newspaper stories of the day, but the other side, the side of those fighting for their rights is not as easily ascertained. Until the late 1950s, the only mention of any news from the black community was Robert Tobin's column, "Negro News" that ran periodically in the local newspaper. I was made very aware of the total vaccuum of "black" news by two different situations that took place when I worked for the Webster Parish Library. The first was the problem that arose when contacted by descendants of black local residents seeking obituaries -- they simply didn't exist in local news until the 1970s. The second involved the athletic successes of Webster High School. I had a relative of Wilbert Frazier, the star Webster High basketball player who went on to Grambling and the ABA, contact me seeking information about Webster's back-to-back appearances in what was considered the national championship game for black high schools in 1961 and 1962. Scouring the Minden and Shreveport newspapers I was disappointed to tell him the only mention was a one-paragraph article in the local paper headlined -- "Wolves lose in Houston tournament."
Beyond the news blackout is another problem. Many of the senior citizens in the black community can still not bring themselves to trust a white researcher and black researchers have not really focused on our area. I understand the roots of that distrust. Personally I have run into problems because I have not taken a strong enough stance in my newspaper columns regarding those years. That creates doubts as to whether I will give the story a "fair shake" and whether it is worth sharing with me. Along with that is the idea that the "past is the past" and leave it buried. As a historian I cannot support that idea, all history, good or bad, if told fairly and factually is useful.
The depth of the problem was really driven home to me about three years ago when a historian from San Francisco State University contacted me as he researched a tragic historic event that took place here in Minden in 1946. At that time he planned to make a book-length manuscript totally about the Minden incident. I contacted several members of the black community and got them to agree to talk with the researcher. He came to town, talked to all of them, and essentially was given nothing to work with. Minden ended up being about a two-page discussion in his eventual book.
Every time I talked with Rodney Seamster, we discussed putting the past behind us and working toward combining local black and white history to tell the whole story. But Rodney had so many projects and I was frankly too lazy to push the issue. Now Rodney is gone. I am proud to report that through the work of Schelley Brown and the Dorcheat Museum we have made great strides in this area. Dr. Roy Phillips and Mr. James Smith worked for months compiling a black history project for the museum. Part of their research has already been used in exhibits at the musuem and more is to come. That project has done much to fill the void, but there is so much more that can be done.
The part that is most troubling is that we have a success story here in Minden. I know that many have felt I was being a trouble maker by wanting to discuss the subject. But in Minden we moved from a city that saw that horrible lynching in 1946, from being a commuity at the forefront of the investigations of the United States Civil Rights Commission, from being in a parish that was one of the first to be sued by the United States government for intentional voting discrimination, to becoming a community where today we have a "majority minority" City Council in a community without a "majority minority" population. Are we color-blind? Not yet, but we have made a quantum leap just in my lifetime.
Again, as I think of Rodney's death, I can't help but chide myself for not working harder and hoping that before I go I'll be able to help make progress in preserving the stories of our past in those pivotal years before all those who know the stories are gone.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
LSU Libraries to Digitize Selected Louisiana Newspapers
While I am disappointed that no Minden newspapers made the grade, I am very excited to see this project underway. As I've mentioned before the only thing that partially makes up for the loss of almost all Minden newspapers from the 19th Century is the occasions when other newspapers quoted Minden papers. Nearly every paper in those years had a page for news from other areas and I am certain many "lost" events in Minden history will now be easier to find. I look forward to the one paper from Homer, the several papers from Shreveport and all the other Louisiana papers that will soon be available in a digital form. Particularly as I grow older and my eyes get worse, having a search engine makes using these resources so much easier and you can't beat the ease of searching from your own home computer. Can't wait until next year when this project is finished.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Dead Ends and Dead Links
In preparation for next month's program at the Dorcheat Historical Association's Night for the Museum, I've been playing with Civil War topics. The Civil War is a "lost love" of sorts for me. I actually taught myself to read as a child reading about the war during those days of the Civil War Centennial celebration. However, as I tell my students, I probably knew more about the war at age 10 than I do today. My interests shifted to the 20th Century South and the Civil Rights Era and my knowledge of the Civil War years didn't keep up and as I get older I forget things I once knew.
Going back to that research reminded me of so many nagging questions and the realization that many answers are truly "gone with the wind." This morning, as I was preparing to teach the first part of Reconstruction to my Louisiana History classes, I decided to see if anything "new" had popped up on the Internet about the troops that occupied Shreveport, Minden and Northwest Louisiana at the close of the war, beginning in late May 1865. Sadly, what I found was no new sources and one very good source that had disappeared.
To make a long story short -- which is something I am VERY poor at doing -- our area was occupied by the 61st United States Colored Troops commanded by Lt. Col. John Foley of Illinois. The detachment of troops in Minden, most likely Company I of the 61st, were commanded by Capt. Charles Graff, also of Illinois, who had been a Sgt. serving under Foley, when Foley was a Major in the Illinois Infantry. When Foley was offered the command of the 61st he brought Graff along and steered him to an officer's commission.
The troops arrived in Minden during the last week of May 1865 and remained until December of that year. Based on local tradition and the few written accounts that survived it was an interesting time. The black troops were camped along the area surrounding the Berry Plantation, basically the north side of the first couple of blocks of the Homer Road. There were clashes between the local residents and the black troops, at least two trials of white citizens for insulting black soldiers and two court martials of black soldiers for disturbances among the troops took place. In the end, some of the black troops, most notably Private Eli Bobo, remained in Minden. (Bobo became a Minden town Alderman in the 1870s.)
The historical record of those times has always been sketchy at best. The regimental histories of the 61st actually don't show the unit ever coming to Northwest Louisiana, yet I have in hand court martial papers that prove that as local accounts indicated, the 61st did occupy our area. Lt. Col. Foley moved to Kansas after the war and died before reaching the age of 50, never writing about his time in North Louisiana. Graff went to Little Rock after the war and was killed in his early 30s. A few years back when I last checked, there was a wonderful web site established by a researcher who was descended from Eli Bobo's sister. He had so much history about his ancestor's (and Eli's) journey from slavery to freedom. This morning when I checked, the web site is gone. I do have the researcher's e-mail address on my home computer, so I can be in touch. But, once again, I am so frustrated in seeing our history being lost or untraceable.
Bringing me back to my recurrent theme in this blog. Please, write down what you know and let it be saved for future generations.
UPDATE: The web page I mentioned about the family of Eli Bobo's sister has not disappeared. Mr. Collier, the researcher, merely finished his book and relocated his website under a new URL that reflected the name of his book.
http://www.mississippitoafrica.com/blackrootsseeker/
Going back to that research reminded me of so many nagging questions and the realization that many answers are truly "gone with the wind." This morning, as I was preparing to teach the first part of Reconstruction to my Louisiana History classes, I decided to see if anything "new" had popped up on the Internet about the troops that occupied Shreveport, Minden and Northwest Louisiana at the close of the war, beginning in late May 1865. Sadly, what I found was no new sources and one very good source that had disappeared.
To make a long story short -- which is something I am VERY poor at doing -- our area was occupied by the 61st United States Colored Troops commanded by Lt. Col. John Foley of Illinois. The detachment of troops in Minden, most likely Company I of the 61st, were commanded by Capt. Charles Graff, also of Illinois, who had been a Sgt. serving under Foley, when Foley was a Major in the Illinois Infantry. When Foley was offered the command of the 61st he brought Graff along and steered him to an officer's commission.
The troops arrived in Minden during the last week of May 1865 and remained until December of that year. Based on local tradition and the few written accounts that survived it was an interesting time. The black troops were camped along the area surrounding the Berry Plantation, basically the north side of the first couple of blocks of the Homer Road. There were clashes between the local residents and the black troops, at least two trials of white citizens for insulting black soldiers and two court martials of black soldiers for disturbances among the troops took place. In the end, some of the black troops, most notably Private Eli Bobo, remained in Minden. (Bobo became a Minden town Alderman in the 1870s.)
The historical record of those times has always been sketchy at best. The regimental histories of the 61st actually don't show the unit ever coming to Northwest Louisiana, yet I have in hand court martial papers that prove that as local accounts indicated, the 61st did occupy our area. Lt. Col. Foley moved to Kansas after the war and died before reaching the age of 50, never writing about his time in North Louisiana. Graff went to Little Rock after the war and was killed in his early 30s. A few years back when I last checked, there was a wonderful web site established by a researcher who was descended from Eli Bobo's sister. He had so much history about his ancestor's (and Eli's) journey from slavery to freedom. This morning when I checked, the web site is gone. I do have the researcher's e-mail address on my home computer, so I can be in touch. But, once again, I am so frustrated in seeing our history being lost or untraceable.
Bringing me back to my recurrent theme in this blog. Please, write down what you know and let it be saved for future generations.
UPDATE: The web page I mentioned about the family of Eli Bobo's sister has not disappeared. Mr. Collier, the researcher, merely finished his book and relocated his website under a new URL that reflected the name of his book.
http://www.mississippitoafrica.com/blackrootsseeker/
Sunday, March 21, 2010
MHS Football "Wall of Honor"
On Facebook, in the light of the death of Raymond Tate, a 3-time All-State and Parade All-American football player at Minden High School in the early 1980s, about a proper way to remember the most outstanding players at MHS over its football history.
As a first step I'm going to post here a list of the All-State players from Minden High School between 1916 and 2000, taken from Jerry Byrd's book: Louisiana's Best in High School Football.
Some of the players lack first names. I am going to get out the old Grigs and research the names for some of them, I work with a relative of the McCollum who was twice All-State during the 1920s and I'll get his first name from that co-worker.
I'd like anyone who reads this to offer suggestions and corrections. Jerry might have missed some and I might have missed some from Jerry's list. We need some parameters as to which players we honor and it seems All-State selection might be a good first step in the process. (Although it is true, particularly years ago, an amazing player on a losing team got skipped.) Someone may have a better idea for deciding a qualifying standard.
Here's the list:
All-State Football Players from Minden High School
1916 – John Dutton T
1917 – Prentiss Hough QB
1920 – Connell G
1921 – Charlie Dutton FB
1923 – Simpson T
1924 – Connell C
1925 – McCollum G
1926 – McCollum T
1938 – Charles Lewis G
1939 – Charles Lewis G
1940 – Sam Harper G
1941 – Luke Grigsby G
1949 – Marvin Selby G
1952 – Ken Beck T
1954 – Bobby Hudson T James McCabe QB
1955 – Roger Reeves T
1956 – Paul Robinson E Ken McMichael RB
1958 – Sammy Odom T
1960 – David Lee E Ed Greer QB
1963 – Mike Brewer E Dennis McClure C - Outstanding Lineman Fred Haynes RB* (Played QB but lost that vote to Bobby Duhon and was added as a RB)
1977 – James Britt DB – Outstanding Defensive Player
1979 – Raymond Tate RB
1980 – Raymond Tate RB Anthony Douglas LB
1981 – Raymond Tate RB Anthony Douglas LB
1985 – Roger West DB
1986 – Darryl Moore – T Taurus Williams G Sammy Seamster RB – Outstanding Offensive Player Marc Woods NG Billy Flournoy KR
As a first step I'm going to post here a list of the All-State players from Minden High School between 1916 and 2000, taken from Jerry Byrd's book: Louisiana's Best in High School Football.
Some of the players lack first names. I am going to get out the old Grigs and research the names for some of them, I work with a relative of the McCollum who was twice All-State during the 1920s and I'll get his first name from that co-worker.
I'd like anyone who reads this to offer suggestions and corrections. Jerry might have missed some and I might have missed some from Jerry's list. We need some parameters as to which players we honor and it seems All-State selection might be a good first step in the process. (Although it is true, particularly years ago, an amazing player on a losing team got skipped.) Someone may have a better idea for deciding a qualifying standard.
Here's the list:
All-State Football Players from Minden High School
1916 – John Dutton T
1917 – Prentiss Hough QB
1920 – Connell G
1921 – Charlie Dutton FB
1923 – Simpson T
1924 – Connell C
1925 – McCollum G
1926 – McCollum T
1938 – Charles Lewis G
1939 – Charles Lewis G
1940 – Sam Harper G
1941 – Luke Grigsby G
1949 – Marvin Selby G
1952 – Ken Beck T
1954 – Bobby Hudson T James McCabe QB
1955 – Roger Reeves T
1956 – Paul Robinson E Ken McMichael RB
1958 – Sammy Odom T
1960 – David Lee E Ed Greer QB
1963 – Mike Brewer E Dennis McClure C - Outstanding Lineman Fred Haynes RB* (Played QB but lost that vote to Bobby Duhon and was added as a RB)
1977 – James Britt DB – Outstanding Defensive Player
1979 – Raymond Tate RB
1980 – Raymond Tate RB Anthony Douglas LB
1981 – Raymond Tate RB Anthony Douglas LB
1985 – Roger West DB
1986 – Darryl Moore – T Taurus Williams G Sammy Seamster RB – Outstanding Offensive Player Marc Woods NG Billy Flournoy KR
Saturday, March 20, 2010
What a Country!
This weekend as we hear so many negative things and so much bloviation from both ends of the political spectrum I had a momentary flash that made me realize how true Yakov Smirnoff's punch line is when used to describe our nation.
I drove up this morning to make sure some of my Southern Arkansas relatives had "stayed put" and are still buried where they are supposed to be buried. (Came across some contradictory information online this week.) They were in place, hadn't moved on me, so I headed back home.
I guess several things were fresh in my mind, lots of basketball all over the television. The thoughts of lost potential sparked by the death of Raymond Tate. But for whatever reason as I was headed south on Highway 167, I came through the Lillie community and my mind flashed to Madison Square Garden and the 7th game of the 1970 NBA Championships. That amazing moment when Lillie's own Willis Reed limped onto the floor to start that game and how his appearance stunned that famed arena in the heart of our nation's largest city. He became the focus of so much media attention as his mere presence seemed to spark the Knicks to victory over the Lakers. My, what a long way to come for a black child reared in a tiny North Louisiana community during the heart of segregation all the way to the center of the spotlight in New York City.
Where else but the United States can someone based on their talent, intelligence or just plain hard work rise from Lillie to Madison Square Garden?
What a country!!!
I drove up this morning to make sure some of my Southern Arkansas relatives had "stayed put" and are still buried where they are supposed to be buried. (Came across some contradictory information online this week.) They were in place, hadn't moved on me, so I headed back home.
I guess several things were fresh in my mind, lots of basketball all over the television. The thoughts of lost potential sparked by the death of Raymond Tate. But for whatever reason as I was headed south on Highway 167, I came through the Lillie community and my mind flashed to Madison Square Garden and the 7th game of the 1970 NBA Championships. That amazing moment when Lillie's own Willis Reed limped onto the floor to start that game and how his appearance stunned that famed arena in the heart of our nation's largest city. He became the focus of so much media attention as his mere presence seemed to spark the Knicks to victory over the Lakers. My, what a long way to come for a black child reared in a tiny North Louisiana community during the heart of segregation all the way to the center of the spotlight in New York City.
Where else but the United States can someone based on their talent, intelligence or just plain hard work rise from Lillie to Madison Square Garden?
What a country!!!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Footnote to Local History - Updated
Received my copy of Hounded a few moments ago and was plesantly suprised about the local aspect of the book. The story is told in a series of e-mails sent by the author, a South Texas pastor, to a friend of his in California telling the story of Truman Mahoney. There are several chapters, totalling nearly 40 pages of the 300 or so page book, dealing with the Minden robbery. The planning, set-up and execution of the robbery are fully discussed. I found it particularly interesting to see the places where the robbers "side" of the story matched in detail the "side" of the story I had heard from victims of the crime. One story about a female employee who found rolls of nickels left behind by the robbers in her purse had a slightly different spin in Truman Mahoney's account of events.
There are a few details of actions taken by the local Sheriff's office in this case that have some bearing on a story I've been working on behind the scenes for years. I will need to apply those facts to that other story as it gives a better perspective to explain some things that took place about 8-years later in Webster Parish. The new details in this story complete part of the picture in that later story.
All-in-all, it seems to be a worthwhile read including details of an event in local history. I will have to set it aside for a while before I read the whole story, but I'm going to recommend that the Webster Parish Library add this book to their collection since the mentions of Minden are so frequent and the local story is given such detailed treatment.
There are a few details of actions taken by the local Sheriff's office in this case that have some bearing on a story I've been working on behind the scenes for years. I will need to apply those facts to that other story as it gives a better perspective to explain some things that took place about 8-years later in Webster Parish. The new details in this story complete part of the picture in that later story.
All-in-all, it seems to be a worthwhile read including details of an event in local history. I will have to set it aside for a while before I read the whole story, but I'm going to recommend that the Webster Parish Library add this book to their collection since the mentions of Minden are so frequent and the local story is given such detailed treatment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
