Son of Indian immigrants is new La. governor

[younggiftedandblack]

BATON ROUGE, La. - U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal won the Louisiana governor's race Saturday, becoming the nation's youngest governor and the first non-white to hold the state's post since Reconstruction.

Jindal, the Republican 36-year-old son of Indian immigrants, carried more than half the vote against 11 opponents. With about 92 percent of the vote in, Jindal had 53 percent with 625,036 votes — more than enough to win outright and avoid a Nov. 17 runoff.

"Let's give our homeland, the great state of Louisiana, a fresh start," Jindal said to cheers and applause from a crowd that began chanting his name at his victory party.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21397966/

[yoMAMA]

the previous governor was clearly incompetent from the katrina debacle.

[Yeahman]

Is this coverage racist? He is an American citizen, born and raised. Frankly, I don't care if the media emphasizes the fact that he's the son of Indian immigrants. But if it was a negative, rather than a positive, story, I'm sure many here would be calling the coverage racist. I may have been one of them.

But this story is making me realize that yes, we are interested in race when it comes to non-whites. And that means we're interested whether it's positive or negative and it's not the media's fault.

[SunWuKong]

BATON ROUGE, La. - U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal won the Louisiana governor's race Saturday, becoming the nation's youngest governor and the first non-white to hold the state's post since Reconstruction.

since Reconstruction? were there non-white Louisiana governors before Reconstruction?

[lethal]

Maybe there were black governors during Reconstruction? Or maybe there were no governors at all during Reconstruction?

[Craig]

Maybe there were black governors during Reconstruction? Or maybe there were no governors at all during Reconstruction?Historically in Louisiana, there were people in power of Creole & Cajun ancestry. While far from black, they certainly don't qualify as white via the one-drop rule. Also, they seem to openly acknowledge their ancestry (i.e. take offensive at being called white, etc.).

[yoMAMA]

Mississippi had a black senator during reconstruction, too.

shocking, i know.

[raacluse]

What I'd like to know is whether he should be considered following in the footsteps of someone like Harry Lee (Chinese American sheriff of Jeff. Parish who died Oct. 1) in terms of the racialized politics of Louisiana.

[yoMAMA]

holy shit, he died?

he was quite a character.

[LaiSteve66]

Maybe he's Dravidian or a descendant of the ancient Aryans.

[Geese]

I can't find the information I am looking for right now, in regards to Blacks and politics in Louisiana, but I used to have a book of information since my family is originally from New Orleans. It will take me a bit of time to find it for verification so I won't speak on the main issue that I wanted to regarding Blacks governing the state of LA till I can find what I am looking for, however... I will post this since I could clearly remember it and knew it probably had a wiki entry right off the bat. This will give a bit of history on the lovely state of Louisiana and tie-in to many things that are taking place currently in Jena, LA, as well as elsewhere in the Black communities of America. It is amazing how someone can lose their humanity over extended periods of uncertainty and instability both without, as well as within...


The Colfax Massacre occurred on April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, in which a group of white men (including members of the White League the Ku Klux Klan) clashed with members of Louisiana's almost all-black state militia at the local courthouse. The cause of the battle was ostensibly a contested local election, though racism and partisan politics were significant factors. The massacre would show that much work still needed to be done with Reconstruction, and eventually led to a Supreme Court case, United States v. Cruikshank.

"The bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era, the Colfax massacre taught many lessons, including the lengths to which some opponents of Reconstruction would go to regain their accustomed authority. Among blacks, the incident was long remembered as proof that in any large confrontation, they stood at a fatal disadvantage. "The organization against them is too strong. ..." Louisiana black teacher and legislator John G. Lewis later remarked. "They attempted (armed self-defense) in Colfax. The result was that on Easter Sunday of 1873, when the sun went down that night, it went down on the corpses of two hundred and eighty negroes." (p. 437 Foner Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 and KKK Hearings, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Report 693 and Joe G. Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (Baton Rouge, 1974), p. 268-70.)

The problems began in the November 1872 elections. Columbus C. Nash ran for parish sheriff as a Fusionist. Alphonse Cazabat, Nash's attorney, ran for local judge. James Hadnot, a Democrat and Knights of the White Camelia leader, ran for parish recorder. The Republican candidates were R.C. Register (an African-American) for sheriff and Daniel Shaw (a white man) for judge.

The election results were inconclusive, and both sides claimed victory. During the last weeks of his term, Governor Henry C. Warmoth commissioned the Fusionist candidates for all offices. In January 1873, Nash, Cazabat, and Hadnot entered the Colfax courthouse and took office. After the new Republican Governor Kellog took office, Fusionist officials sent two Republican attorneys to New Orleans to confirm Nash's, Cazabat's, and Hadnot's positions. At first Kellogg accepted the Fusionist candidates but changed his mind suddenly and without explanation and put the Republicans Register and Shaw into office. Shortly thereafter, Register, Shaw, and William Ward (a leader of a local group of black carpetbaggers) led a group of blacks and climbed into an open window of the courthouse and began their occupancy.

Local whites responded immediately. They began to mobilize and spread rumors that local blacks had initiated a "reign of terror" and were roaming the countryside with the intent to "exterminate" all white people they found. A recent event was used to justify these rumors; on April 1, 1873, a group of blacks sacked the home of attorney William Rutland (who was, in fact, one of the attorneys sent to talk with Governor Kellogg). Nobody was hurt, but the body of Rutland's dead daughter (who had recently drowned) was dumped out of her casket. This event only gave more support to local whites who wanted to prove that blacks were dangerous.

However, the ones really in danger were blacks. During the first days of April, stories began to spread of the group of whites marching towards the Colfax courthouse and hassling blacks in the surrounding countryside. As these stories spread, black people left their homes and converged on the courthouse for safety. On April 5, J.R. Payne, a special deputy from a nearby community, attempted to negotiate a peace with Ward and the others. However, word had reached Ward that a black farmer was shot dead while innocently mending his fence. Ward decided that negotiations would be impossible. He returned to the courthouse and prepared for the inevitable confrontation.

The fighting began shortly after noon on April 13. The number of armed white men was over three hundred, and they were led by Nash. He began by ordering those in the courthouse to leave; that failed, so he gave the women and children camped outside of the courthouse thirty minutes to clear out. After they left, the shooting began. The fighting continued for several hours with few casualties. Nash eventually managed to maneuver a cannon behind the building, which put even more pressure on the defenders and caused some to panic. About sixty defenders ran into the nearby woods and river. Nash sent men after these fleeing blacks, and most were killed on the spot. Later on, the besiegers convinced an elderly black captive to sneak into the courthouse and set it on fire. After this occurred, the defenders displayed white flags: one made from a shirt, the other from a page of a book. The shooting stopped.

Nash's group approached and called for the defenders to throw down their weapons and come outside. According to reports of some whites, the delegation's leader, James Hadnot, was shot and wounded. More credible reports, however, suggest that Hadnot was shot from behind by an overexcited member of his own force. There is no disagreement on the results. The blacks were massacred. Unarmed men trying to hide in the courthouse were butchered. Those who attempted to flee were hunted down and killed. Some bodies were hidden or dumped into the Red River; many of the recovered bodies had been mutilated. About fifty blacks survived the afternoon's killing and were taken prisoner. The prisoners were told they were going to be taken to a local jail, but they were murdered later that night. Only one man, Benjamin Brimm, survived; he was shot in the head but lived and managed to crawl away unnoticed. He later served as one of the government's chief witnesses against those who were indicted for the massacre.

The next day police and federal troops arrived from New Orleans. They calculated the death toll at 105, though an exact number will never be known because many of the bodies were buried or hidden. Many of the men responsible for the deaths fled or hid, and various government forces spent weeks trying to round them up. In the end, only nine men were arrested, and they were charged with the murder of only one man. Among those arrested was William J. Cruikshank.
----------------------------------------------------------

The above number of 105 killed has already been refuted, as some work done in 1995, I believe, has the number at 4x's that amount because of the fact that Blacks not even near there, but within the path of the Whites HEADED to the courthouse, were killed and then dumped in the river. Having lived here in Philadelphia my whole life, and been unlucky enough to have lived in the 39th district for over a year before having enough money to move out. Rampant abuse of power and being able to get away with actually killing a Black person on the street was all too easy and still is, especially when all that is ever shown is how much more criminal and violent you are... never mind when fools buy into it so they can get money from an audience that is all too eager to see them live up to their low expectations.

I could really care less who the new governor is, not like they have a high bar to jump over after the failures with the Katrina/New Orleans disaster where this country had the nerve to send in cameramen, while keeping out much needed help. And the very quietly told stories of Blacks fleeing the area being shot or driven off by police of the nearby counties as they fled into those surrounding counties after New Orleans was left to rot by our beloved Emperor. I will say that the new governor has his work cut out for him, but unless he is totally inept, he should be able to do far better than the last governor. I wonder what his views have been on the Jena-6?

[KHANartist]

Great to see an Asian become a US governor.

[haplesshobo]

With a divided, reeling Republican party, Jindal seems like the logical choice to unite the different factions of the Republican Party. With his strong religious views(some might call him bat-shit crazy), the Evangelicals will love the guy. Yet, at the same time, he's crazy smart and competent so those in the middle who recoiled from Palin won't have that same visceral reaction.

Already, people are speculating about Jindal preparing for a run in 2012 with his upcoming visit to Iowa.

[SunWuKong]

With a divided, reeling Republican party, Jindal seems like the logical choice to unite the different factions of the Republican Party. With his strong religious views(some might call him bat-shit crazy), the Evangelicals will love the guy. Yet, at the same time, he's crazy smart and competent so those in the middle who recoiled from Palin won't have that same visceral reaction.

Already, people are speculating about Jindal preparing for a run in 2012 with his upcoming visit to Iowa.

i had no idea he was Evangelical-like religious.

[LaiSteve66]

i had no idea he was Evangelical-like religious.

He's a creationist who supports "teaching" "intelligent design" in public schools.

[SunWuKong]

He's a creationist who supports "teaching" "intelligent design" in public schools.

but he looks like a terrorist! oh what a dilemma for the Republican party.

[VV o n g B a]

rush limbaugh loves him. i'd say if limbaugh can get over how he looks, others could too.

[haplesshobo]

i had no idea he was Evangelical-like religious.

Oh, he's more than just Evangelical-like religious...

When McCain made his VP pick, this is the guy he should have picked. He's the darling of the Religious Right and Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys in the Republican Party who would have united the Republican Party, but didn't bring the same baggage Palin did. Jindal is a prodigy who's had tons and tons of executive experience when he was still in his 20s, and he's crazy smart that he could have succeeded in a field he wanted to. (He got accepted into Harvard Medical School and Yale Law school, but ended up studying at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar.) Although, his speech at the RNC wouldn't have topped the one Sarah Palin gave, which was the best speech this election cycle.

[Paradox]

He's a creationist who supports "teaching" "intelligent design" in public schools.

This is pretty much a good reason not to support him ever.