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The Poisoning of Louisiana (1984)

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Excerpt from The Cover Story:
The state's most popular politician since Huey Long, Edwards was a conservative congressman in the 1960s. A more liberal Edwards first won the governor's office in 1971 and was re-elected in a landslide four years later. Ineligible for a third consecutive term, Edwards left office in 1980 with the highest approval rating of any outgoing governor since public opinion polls were invented.
Campaigning as a born-again New Dealer last fall, Edwards told voters, "You that are elderly and have seen your funds cut, you that are crippled, poor or disabled, take heart. Take heart for the great healer shall returneth and he shall make you well." Edwards spent $14.6 million in the course of this campaign — more than any other victorious gubernatorial candidate in U.S. history.
Beneath the colorful persona, however, is a different Edwin Edwards, and his hands are dirty. In the 1970s his administration opened Louisiana to massive chemical waste dumping by disposal firms and oil companies. The results have been devastating: concentrations of oil sludge and toxic waste have built up in bayous, tropical marshes, and farm soil throughout Edwards's Cajun homeland.

Stories by Maxine Alexander, Christina Davis, Ben Fewel, Bob Hall, Marc Miller, Joycelyn Moody, Joe Pfister, Dee-Dee Risher, Linda Rocawich  

 

DEPARTMENTS

2 READERS CORNER How I Remember by Sandra Lake Miller

3 SOUTHERN NEWS ROUNDUP Klan/Nazi trial, Death 

penalty update, Elvis, and more

8 FACING SOUTH Working the Night Shift, by Sharon Watkins

9 RESOURCES Military contracts and the South, school desegregation, 

and more

10 VOICES OF OUR NEIGHBORS Pentagon satellites, guards 

bring suit, world priorities

63 REVIEWS Brothers in Clay, Don West Reader, Tell About the South, 

Womenfolks, Don't Send Me Flowers

72 VOICES FROM THE PAST Romantic Appalachia, by Don West

FEATURES

12 THE HELMS ATTACK ON KING Senator "No" resurrects 

old ploy to raise money, by David J. Garrow

16 THE POISONING OF LOUISIANA Lax regulation of 

chemical dumping threatens state, by Jason Berry

24 TO BUILD A FREE SOCIETY: NINETEENTH 

CENTURY BLACK WOMEN Commentary and documents 

from We Are Your Sisters, by Dorothy Sterling

31 THE QUIET DEATH OF BLACK COLLEGES Will 

black centers of higher education survive? by Manning Marable

40 MOUNTAIN MUSICIAN AT THE CROSSROADS 

David Holt keeps tradition alive while bringing Appalachian music to 

millions, by Arthur Menius

47 WINNING THE BATTLE AT BARNWELL Citizens win 

fight to close nuclear reprocessing plant, by Stephen Hoffius

50 CLINCH RIVER BREEDER REACTOR BAGGED 

Taxpayers Coalition scores a victory, by Jan Pilarski

54 DANIEL'S GARDEN a short story, by Andrew Borders

59 THE WANDERER: FROM RACING YACHT TO 

SLAVE SHIP The history of one of America's last slavers, 

by Gene Gleason

 

View this Southern Exposure issue on the Institute for Southern Studies' website, SouthernStudies.org

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