John McKeithen (28 May 1918-4 June 1999) was Governor of Louisiana (D) from 12 May 1964 to 9 May 1972, succeeding Jimmie Davis and preceding Edwin Edwards.
Biography[]
John McKeithen was born in Grayson, Caldwell Parish, Louisiana in 1918, and he graduated from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge in 1942 with a law degree. McKeithen served in the 77th Infantry Division of the US Army during World War II, serving in the Pacific at Guam, in the Philippines, and on Okinawa. He became a lawyer after the war's end, and he was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1948 as the representative from District 20 (Caldwell Parish), serving as a member of the Democratic Party. McKeithen consistently voted for tax increases, and he served on the Public Service Commission from 1955 to 1964. McKeithen was a follower of Huey Long's brand of populism, and he defeated a segregationist school superintendent, a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, and the former Governor of Louisiana to win the 1964 gubernatorial election. However, McKeithen criticized John F. Kennedy's meddling in state politics and supported segregation, and he also promised to "clean up the mess in Baton Rouge" and to establish drug and alcohol treatment groups.
Governorship[]
McKeithen in court
In 1963, McKeithen defeated Republican Party challenger Charlton Lyons in the first gubernatorial election in the state to be seriously contested since Reconstruction, and he antagonized organized labor with his tax concessions given to businesses seeking to expand into Louisiana. In 1966, he abolished the law that forbade Governors to have two consecutive terms in office, leading to his re-election. McKeithen defeated Ku Klux Klan-backed Democratic nominee John Rarick during his 1967 re-election campaign, and he pushed for the construction of the famous Superdome. McKeithen refused George Wallace's suggestion for McKeithen to become the new leader of the anti-Civil Rights movement cause, as McKeithen said that he did not feel strongly about the issue. In 1965, however, he sent $5,000 to the Ku Klux Klan and $5,000 to a civil rights group to keep the peace during Washington Parish racial demonstrations, with the FBI revealing this in 2016. McKeithen was nevertheless credited with instituting the beginning of the end of segregation in the state, building the Superdome, passing the law that allowed for governors to hold two consecutive four-year terms, and the emergence of consensus politics. He left office in 1972 and served on the LSU Board of Supervisors from 1983 to 1988 after a failed independent US Senate run. McKeithen died in Columbia, Louisiana on 4 June 1999 at the age of 81.