
John Milliken Parker (16 March 1863-20 May 1939) was the Democratic Governor of Louisiana from 11 May 1920 to 13 May 1924, succeeding Ruffin G. Pleasant and preceding Henry L. Fuqua.
Biography[]
John Milliken Parker was born in Washington, Louisiana in 1863, and he became president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange and the Board of Trade. In 1891, he joined the mob that lynched eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans to avenge the Mafia's murder of police chief David Hennessy, and he maintained throughout his life that the lynching was justified. In 1916, he won 38% of the vote as the Progressive nominee for Governor of Louisiana, and he won the 1920 election as a Democrat. He called in the FBI to help suppress the Ku Klux Klan during his tenure. He later ran an experimental farm near St. Francisville, and he was active in the opposition to Huey Long. Parker died in 1939.