The Ends of the Earth: Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana; Part 1

<v Speaker>Our next contestant, Contestant, number 29. <v Speaker>Hi. The various activities of our own, Plaquemines Parish, are the hobbies of this 17 <v Speaker>year old high school senior. College plans are being made to further my education <v Speaker>with the expectation of using this education to help the citizens of our area. <v Speaker>I enjoy all sports, I play softball and basketball. <v Speaker>I'm co-captain of the varsity cheerleaders. <v Speaker>And this past summer I was chosen by my high school to represent them at Louisiana Girls <v Speaker>State program where I learned just how our state and local government is run. <v Speaker>I'm one of seven children and I also have a twin sister. <v Speaker>My plans for the Future is to attend a Louisiana College, and major in zoology. <v Speaker>With a minor speech and theater. <v Speaker>And that is why I would love to become a ?inaudible? <v Speaker>Parish Orange Queen. <v Speaker>But most of all, to represent this wonderful parish in which I live. <v Speaker>Thank you. <v Speaker>Thank you.

<v Speaker>Thank you. <v Speaker>Thank you. <v Speaker>[music plays]. <v Speaker>[wind blowing]. <v Priest>Glory be to the father and to the side and to the Holy Ghost.

<v Parishioners>As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. <v Priest>Oh, Jesus. Forgive us our sins and save us from the fire of hell. <v Priest>Lead all souls to have an especially those who have most need of thy mercy. <v Priest>Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. <v Priest>Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. <v Speaker>Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen. <v Speaker>[speaking foreign language] <v Speaker>How you doing? Oh yes fine yes fine. <v Speaker>[woman singing in foreign language]

<v Speaker>

<v Speaker>Located along the banks of Old Man River below the city of New Orleans, we find Blackham <v Speaker>and Parish, a delta land more cradled than any land on earth, which today can <v Speaker>be considered one of the richest 100 miles on the North American continent, abounding <v Speaker>with natural resources such as fur, fish, oil, citrus fruit and <v Speaker>sulfur. <v Speaker>[boat motor] <v Speaker>Even in Louisiana, where people are used to the exotic, they think <v Speaker>that Plaquemines Parish is unusual. <v Speaker>The narrow strips of high land one hundred and twenty miles long flanked the <v Speaker>Mississippi River as it meets the Gulf of Mexico. <v Speaker>The Delta marsh land that stretches endlessly to the horizon, punctuated <v Speaker>only by the grass fires set by fur trappers hunting muskrat. <v Speaker>The mix of Cajuns, Creoles, Yugoslavians and other

<v Speaker>nationalities. That is its population. <v Speaker>This parish, which is what they call a county in Louisiana, is <v Speaker>different. <v Speaker>What could be a suitable symbol of Plaquemines Parish, an oil derrick? <v Speaker>There is more oil under this parish than almost anywhere else in America. <v Speaker>[Helicopter bades]. <v Speaker>An alligator, they outnumber people in Plaquemine, keeping to <v Speaker>themselves in the swamps beyond the back flood levees or the <v Speaker>Yugoslavian fishermen of Empire like the alligators, keeping their own company, <v Speaker>enjoying the eternal cycle of fishing oysters, seeding them <v Speaker>and fishing them out again a few years later. <v Speaker>Perhaps the proper symbols of Plaquemine are towns like Grand Bayou and Pilot <v Speaker>Town-villages in the marsh where no roads go, places

<v Speaker>where people live a less frenetic life. <v Speaker>More of the past than of the present. <v Speaker>Because in many ways, Plaquemine is an anachronism, a remnant <v Speaker>of a forgotten Louisiana, a place where boats are more useful than cars, <v Speaker>and where people depend on the land and the water for their existence. <v Speaker>But to most Louisianans, the true symbol of Plaquemines Parish is its freewheeling <v Speaker>brand of politics, epitomized by the late Judge Leander H. <v Speaker>Perez colorful and charismatic for 50 years, <v Speaker>the unquestioned leader of Plaquemines, a man whose strong racial views <v Speaker>brought him controversy far beyond the South. <v Speaker>[applause] <v Speaker>?inaudible? go somewhere else. <v Speaker>Is that the American way?

<v Speaker>Is that showing a real interest in promoting educational opportunities for our white <v Speaker>youth. I tell you, my friends, without fear of contradiction, <v Speaker>that anyone who contradicts it has no respect for the truth <v Speaker>that all the candidates are doing <v Speaker>is carrying out the communist conspiracy to distort public educational opportunities <v Speaker>for our white youth. <v Speaker>Judge Perez ruled Plaquemine virtually unchallenged, controlling every aspect <v Speaker>of public life and making his parish with its striking landscape <v Speaker>and diverse people, a political environment unique in America. <v Speaker>The people are really the salt of the earth. <v Speaker>They will break their backs for you. They will if you're sick. <v Speaker>If you're down and out, if your boat has sunk, if your house is on fire or if you. <v Speaker>No matter what happens, they will go to the wall for you.

<v Speaker>And yet at the same time, I don't mean to sound critical. <v Speaker>The people here Andy tend to be pliable. <v Speaker>And acquiescent. <v Speaker>I can't imagine a New Hampshire man putting <v Speaker>up with the tyranny that exists here for five <v Speaker>minutes, anyone that's used to having a town meeting and <v Speaker>once a year deciding on what the business of the town is going to be and what we're going <v Speaker>to spend this money on. I can't imagine anyone like that accepting <v Speaker>the uh supinely the uh way in which <v Speaker>government has been administered down here over the years because the people have no <v Speaker>say. <v Speaker>Well, let's say in Orleans Parish you have a system of election. <v Speaker>You may have 100 people run for office and the masses <v Speaker>would elect who they so desire.

<v Speaker>Whereas in Plaquemines Parish during the uh preceding World War 2 <v Speaker>and followin the World War 2 for a number of years, you didn't have any candidates to <v Speaker>mount anything opposing the administration. <v Speaker>If you were elected to an office, well you stay there until you die or uh <v Speaker>get tired of it and just move out. <v Speaker>There was no open election way anybody could participate in. <v Speaker>We used to go to every oh every political rally that the parish had <v Speaker>because it was always a big family affair with barbecue chicken, beer, hot dog, soft <v Speaker>drinks, a band playing Dixie and the judge giving speeches and as <v Speaker>kids we used to, you know, sit in the trees and watch and listen to the <v Speaker>political rhetoric. And we never knew what it was all about. <v Speaker>Most of the time. <v Speaker>What would he talk about - the judge? Do you know what these speeches. <v Speaker>Oh he would give some some typical Tennessee Williams <v Speaker>political rhetoric? Looking back on it, everybody had Confederate flags. <v Speaker>The bandstand was sitting there with the Confederate flags.

<v Speaker>The band would play Dixie. The judge would walk up with his hat and his cigar, and he'd <v Speaker>start cursing the bureaucrats in Washington. <v Speaker>And everybody would ch- clap and cheer. <v Speaker>The band would play Dixie and then he'd curse them some more. <v Speaker>And it was great fun. <v Speaker>I mean, and then and then they'd open up the place for being a barbeque. <v Speaker>And all of the politicians in the parish would be seated on a branch, stand behind him, <v Speaker>and everyone would get up and say, good evening. <v Speaker>It's a great day. Glad to be with you and Sam. <v Speaker>Okay. And that's how it was. <v Speaker>Judge Leander Perez is the undisputed boss of Plaquemine Parish, south of New Orleans <v Speaker>work horse. <v Speaker>And Plaquemine Parish is the undisputed repository of some of the densest accumulations <v Speaker>of oil and sulfur deposits from which we can infer the obvious. <v Speaker>The Judge Perez, in addition to being a very successful politician, is a very wealthy <v Speaker>one. <v Speaker>Mr. Perez was born in 1891 and took a law degree from Tulane University in 1914. <v Speaker>He was appointed judge in 1919, but resigned in 1924

<v Speaker>to serve as district attorney of the Twenty Fifth Judicial District, a job he <v Speaker>retained for 35 years. <v Speaker>Perez, Jed- I mean people don't know Perez generally. <v Speaker>I'm in elected office but ?inaudible? Without opposition. <v Speaker>I've never made a political promise. <v Speaker>I understand one [talking over each other] [Guest]: police were upset [Host]: Zazu <v Speaker>Pearson, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth voted for ya and <v Speaker>you got some fantastic electors. [crowd laughter] <v Speaker>No, no that was not in my parish, sir that was in Saint Bernard. [Host]: Yes, sir. <v Speaker>[Guest]: Not at Plaquemine Parish that parish is Plaquemine. <v Speaker>[music plays] <v Speaker>This is a tribute to a great statesman, Judge Leander H. <v Speaker>Perez. He's the father of Plaquemine

<v Speaker>Parish. And he'll always have his place. <v Speaker>Now there's a judge in Plaquemine Parish, a <v Speaker>man we all know well. <v Speaker>He's a-fightin for his people for this land oil or shell. <v Speaker>He's always in there fighting, fighting <v Speaker>with all his might. <v Speaker>He's a father of Plaquemine Parish. <v Speaker>And folks here think he's right. <v Speaker>He's a father, of Plaquemine Parish, and he'll <v Speaker>always tell his place. <v Speaker>Well, the first time I ran for all that, I had a close race [Host]: that was in what <v Speaker>year? [Senator]: that was 1948 and he was for me

<v Speaker>and uh I carried those two parishes, <v Speaker>and undoubtedly he was the key to it. <v Speaker>And I carried them big. I carried them about 90 percent. <v Speaker>I got about 90 percent of the Uh vote. The opposition got 10 percent. <v Speaker>uh I won the race during the first couple of years I served there. <v Speaker>I think I made a mistake. Looking back on it, I've said a thing or two about here's kind <v Speaker>of democracy down there. That word which had been described as <v Speaker>one man rule to some extent, which got back to his ear. <v Speaker>I think he resented it very much. And the next time he was opposed to me. <v Speaker>So the next time around, I lost it ten to one. <v Speaker>But he was a very effective politician from the old fashioned <v Speaker>point of view. I used to have certain political leaders, or you could call them bosses if <v Speaker>you want to, who were dominant in their area, but who had a lot of <v Speaker>people around them who find it very much to those people's advantage uh to <v Speaker>support his position. <v Speaker>And that included a great number of people right down to a level of being an ordinary

<v Speaker>fisherman. Do you had a job? <v Speaker>Because he had a friend of Mr. Pratt and he supported Mr Perez's leadership. <v Speaker>The old man was a little man, and he was a lgood old man. <v Speaker>And they can accuse him of the that and that old men knew what he was doing. <v Speaker>And if he wouldn't have known what he was doing, he wouldn't have done it in legal way. <v Speaker>I say if that man wanted to run for governor, he'd have been governor. <v Speaker>He might've even had a crack at being president. <v Speaker>Now, that's down in history. <v Speaker>That's a fact. <v Speaker>You think you think he could've ?inaudible? parish? Well, of course. <v Speaker>How do you think this parish was developed? <v Speaker>This parish was nothing but swamp and strips of land before. <v Speaker>That's why I say, plenty of people talk bad about the man, but they don't know the whole <v Speaker>story, isn't it? Some things are good and some things are bad. <v Speaker>But hell, he'd done it for the benefit of this parish and for the residents in his <v Speaker>parish. People say that he also got rich. <v Speaker>Well, some got good comes with the good, and the bad comes with the bad.

<v Speaker>That's it. <v Speaker>Well, any time a man has a little honey, you'll lick his fingers. <v Speaker>You know that. Well of course <v Speaker>Well, of course. Well if a man's in a chicken business and if he's dressed in <v Speaker>poultry, you know damn well he must eat chicken. So there you go <v Speaker>Well, that's it. <v Speaker>[bird cawing] <v Speaker>[speaking in foreign language]. <v Speaker>This is a game that's being played in Europe in a country way back in

<v Speaker>7th century <v Speaker>So we really proved that in Yugoslavia almost every day people <v Speaker>play it. Oh, yeah. <v Speaker>My heart still beats for the the country over there. <v Speaker>But it's a long time. I'm 56 years now here and uh, <v Speaker>46 years married. <v Speaker> And were people constantly <v Speaker>coming over from the old country? <v Speaker>Always. Yeah. Yeah, I can. <v Speaker>He's a young coming here. Yeah. Not too long ago I came - four years ago. <v Speaker>Did you have relatives here? Yeah. <v Speaker>I had my aunts and cousins. <v Speaker>Are there a lot of Slavonians in the oyster business down here. <v Speaker>Lots of Slavonias here, biggest majority. <v Speaker>Every now and then there's a lot of American get in.

<v Speaker>But they don't stay long. <v Speaker>It's hard work who made some point. <v Speaker>That was good at it, though. <v Speaker>My dad said seven. Come on. <v Speaker>Huh? seven. They made seven <v Speaker>No, <v Speaker>[speaking foreign language] <v Speaker>The judge had an excellent relationship with <v Speaker>the Slavonians. There are very few Slavonian people who didn't like the judge. <v Speaker>He left them alone a lot. <v Speaker>They would fight back if if they were abused. <v Speaker>He knew that character in me. <v Speaker>He never want to be that. I don't know of any slaveowner that he's abused. <v Speaker>uh uh The Slavonians all they want is to be let alone. <v Speaker>Many of them were not well educated. They had three or four years of education at the <v Speaker>most. They were laborers.

<v Speaker>The fishermen are-are laborers and they came into the land with the golden <v Speaker>door. If they got in some foray or oyster boundaries <v Speaker>or uh poaching of oysters or uh problems with <v Speaker>the state in connection with health. <v Speaker>They talked to the judge about it see he was district attorney. <v Speaker>He was the arbiter. He was the power he would be would he would arbitrate, you see, and <v Speaker>he would he had a way of-of pleasing them. <v Speaker>Ya see? <v Speaker>Basically, the people simply looked up to him because he was considered their leader. <v Speaker>It didn't take a great deal of education to have an advantage there. <v Speaker>It was a very rural parish. <v Speaker>Perez could not have become a leader and in a more sophisticated area such <v Speaker>as New York or Washington or London. <v Speaker>People would have laughed at him, but instead in Plaquemine he was greatly admired. <v Speaker>So what does that say about the people? It says that the people were poor <v Speaker>and desperate, and very dependent and knew very little <v Speaker>about politics.

<v Speaker>Were apathetic. <v Speaker>And he used them. <v Speaker>You look at the jail even doing it before the council parish <v Speaker>at Plaquemine Parish administration. uh Under the leadership of Leander H. <v Speaker>Perez look at the ferry. <v Speaker>President of the council Leander H. Perez. <v Speaker>Look at every uh uh Public improvements <v Speaker>such as drainage pump stations, buildings, schools. <v Speaker>Even when the schools the school board get credit, but legal adviser Leander H. <v Speaker>Perez Big pitbull. <v Speaker>District attorney. So it seemed like it was a way of continuing his his power. <v Speaker>No question about it- good politics. <v Speaker>And uh people had a tendency to relate to that and say, well, yeah the judge gave <v Speaker>us that, not a school board or the council. <v Speaker>Well, as I said, Plaquemine was a poor parish with very few resources. <v Speaker>But in the 1930s, something happened.

<v Speaker>They discovered oil. <v Speaker>[music begins playing] Beneath the homes of these animals in the marsh lies the black <v Speaker>gold of the Golden Parish. <v Speaker>In 1933, the name Plaquemine Parish was echoing throughout the United States <v Speaker>as black gold was discovered. <v Speaker>Now, not many people knew that there was oil beneath all that marsh, <v Speaker>but Leander Perez knew. And he took advantage of it. <v Speaker>Much of the oil was under marsh land, which once belonged to the state. <v Speaker>It was now controlled by parish levee boards to whom Leander Perez was <v Speaker>legal adviser. He was legal adviser to the Polish jury, which also <v Speaker>dealt with the lands. He was also attorney for the people who leased the lands. <v Speaker>In other words, he was playing both sides of the street. <v Speaker>He made himself a millionaire in the process. <v Speaker>There were millions and millions of dollars of oil beneath Plaquemines Parish.

<v Speaker>And it's still it's still there today. It's still producing <v Speaker> Plaquemine this year will receive more than 11 million dollars in <v Speaker>oilfield royalties, which is equivalent to the entire operating budget of St. <v Speaker>Bernard Parish, which is right adjacent and more than twice as large. <v Speaker>Now, I've looked at the budget than you have, and there's a number by every <v Speaker>name and there's an accounting for every penny. <v Speaker>But um it boggles the mind to think that Plaquemines Parish <v Speaker>has existed for all these many years with that much money. <v Speaker>Had Orleans Parish been able to run a little pipe down the road and pick up an extra <v Speaker>11 million dollars, just think of the difference that uh life in the city <v Speaker>would be uh like today. Because of that, the idea always has been in Louisiana <v Speaker>populist politics. You give everybody something, you've you give them something that they <v Speaker>need. The parish sheriff's department will give you all sorts of part <v Speaker>time commissions. And uh there are all kinds of little jobs that people can do in the <v Speaker>parish. Government has a hefty payroll and that.

<v Speaker>A la Henry Ford, they're in the system how do they knock it down when they're part of it. <v Speaker>So tell me about your job uh uh the alligator nusiance. What's that called again? <v Speaker>Nusiance alligator control agent, that's just in case somebody has an alligator that's <v Speaker>botherin em in their carport or in their yard <v Speaker>maybe eating their chickens or ducks and I go in to move it off the premises. <v Speaker>[interviewer:] That happen a lot? <v Speaker>Quite a few times a year. About two weeks ago, this woman was down there washing her car <v Speaker>at a carwash and a 9 foot out of it came up through the drain and came under her <v Speaker>automobile. <v Speaker>So she had a nuisance alligator. <v Speaker>It's interesting because Perez was an adamant follower of socialism or <v Speaker>the welfare state. <v Speaker>He opposed Lyndon Johnson, for example, because of a welfare state, people <v Speaker>working for the government, but Plaquemine itself as a miniature welfare state, people <v Speaker>hired for every conceivable job paid by the parish. <v Speaker>They, in turn, were indebted to the parish, which was run by Perez.

<v Speaker>People in short owed their jobs to Judge Perez. <v Speaker>And how did he collect this these favors that he gave, he collected politically mainly <v Speaker>by their votes on Election Day, which kept the Perez machine in power. <v Speaker>These are the skilled laborers, who with the help of expensive equipment, transported <v Speaker>daily to the outlying oil rigs make it possible to bring black gold <v Speaker>precious product of our modern world to the Earth's surface. <v Speaker>Black gold- So essential to everything that travels by land, air, <v Speaker>and sea. [music plays] <v Speaker>[gun shots] I genuinely love it, I genuinely love it.

<v Speaker>Look at that shit. Alright Hold on. Hold on a minute. <v Speaker>We got a winner here. [people chattering] <v Speaker>[speaking foreign language] <v Speaker>Get in there Andrew, son. Yeah <v Speaker>Right. Yeah, you're right. <v Speaker>Get on there Andrew. Get on there Andrew. Let's get on that cake walk. Is that 10 dollars? Yeah that's 10 dollars. <v Speaker>You want - uh ok That's for the ticket. All right. <v Speaker>Let's see who can I trust. I don't know [laughter] <v Speaker>That was an awful thing to say. <v Speaker>Most of these people have French backgrounds uh

<v Speaker>mixed er mostly with Indian most of our people in this vicinity. <v Speaker>A few were obviously of African descent, but they speak French too. <v Speaker>Like like natives in Paris of all. <v Speaker>All things are really remarkable when you think back on it. <v Speaker>They had a school for blacks. They had a school for whites and they had a school for <v Speaker>mixed. They call it em mixed. Or-or uh what did they call them? <v Speaker>The mulatto. Yeah, they call them mulattoes, which really in many instances <v Speaker>was not corrected, just that they were not completely black or completely white. <v Speaker>And that was the simplistic way of saying it, I suppose. <v Speaker>But that's what they called it. The school for mulattos, a school for blacks and the <v Speaker>school for whites. <v Speaker>[speaking foreign language] <v Speaker>.

<v Speaker>They you know, they had this statement years ago. <v Speaker>They used to say, if you're black, stay back. <v Speaker>If you're brown, stick around. If you're white All right. <v Speaker>Now, we heard that up to five or six years ago. <v Speaker>And I'm sure that all of my parishioners are familiar with that statement. <v Speaker>And uh that was pretty much the way things were in years gone by. <v Speaker>[speaking Louisiana French] <v Speaker> So what was he like? <v Speaker>[Louisiana French] <v Speaker>

<v Speaker>Have you been very widely misquoted? For instance, you're quoted as having said, quote, <v Speaker>Yes, the Negro is inherently immoral. <v Speaker>Yes, I think it's the brain capacity. <v Speaker>Is that a misquotation? <v Speaker>It's not a misquotation. It's truth because I know negros. <v Speaker>We have a number of Negroes in our community. <v Speaker>And I know that basically, fundamentally they are immoral. <v Speaker>They are unmoral. I know that to be a fact. <v Speaker>Why should I try to hide it or I'd be untrue to myself <v Speaker>if I tried to deny it out of cowardice? <v Speaker>[host]: Of course [Perez]: I wouldn't. I would plead guilty to that. <v Speaker>[Host]: Correct. It's been it's been said of you that you have uh uh that you <v Speaker>begrudgingly admire his blunt talk. <v Speaker>He is honest about his bigotry. <v Speaker>[Perez]: And I'm not a bigot son I'm not a bigot at all. <v Speaker>But look uh uh, whatever you are, Judge Perez, and I'm sure you're a good many things, <v Speaker>but you don't have the sovereign power over the English language. <v Speaker>I'm just a good American. <v Speaker>Regardless of what one would say.

<v Speaker>I mean, the intelligence of the black. <v Speaker>I mean, it's obvious that they have not progressed as far as they should have. <v Speaker>And uh. <v Speaker>In the short time, relatively short time 200-300 years is nothing in our time of <v Speaker>evolution and they have just not acquired the-the same rate <v Speaker>of civilization as the white race has that's all. <v Speaker>In his speeches, the judge said that blacks were used by other people. <v Speaker>Oh definitely we-well, we we we <v Speaker>had our private FBI agents. <v Speaker>If you want to call it here, we would collect the data and information on people like <v Speaker>Martin Luther King or Martin Luther King was in Commerce Training School, Monteagle, <v Speaker>Tennessee in 1958. <v Speaker>We have a folder right here in this office right today showing pictures of him, said he <v Speaker>is sitting seated by Abner Berry, who is a known communist, and he was <v Speaker>attending this school. Learn how to cause trouble like he did. <v Speaker>So that basically what I guess what the Judge was was thinking then was that <v Speaker>the whole civil rights issue was communist backed and communist promoted and

<v Speaker>communist controlled. Yes. <v Speaker>Oh, he was he was a segregationist. <v Speaker>You know what I mean? Well, we all- who is not <v Speaker>a segregation. <v Speaker>I always said there's two kinds of people. <v Speaker>Integrationism and atheism, Neither exist. <v Speaker>They're both liars and hypocrite. <v Speaker>Because if you get an atheist <v Speaker>out on a boat and it starts sinking, he begins to holler for Jesus Christ. <v Speaker>And if you ask us, say integrationists, how many niggas he's got in his family <v Speaker>he'll want to kill you. <v Speaker>What you're looking for -that stockade area? <v Speaker>I guess- I don't know what do they got out there. <v Speaker>Now, the old fort is over here.

<v Speaker>And uh in 1895, the Spanish-American <v Speaker>War, they built additional officers quarters and <v Speaker>troops quarters, and then in <v Speaker>uh World War One they used it as a post. <v Speaker>The Western part that Judge made notorious that was the stockade. <v Speaker>Yeah that's it right over here. <v Speaker>[boat horn] She will get a little sticky here. <v Speaker>I should've brought ma boots. <v Speaker>Death for us.

<v Speaker>This year, the idea of having a. <v Speaker>Solve the problem, what to do with uh. <v Speaker>500 or 600 demonstrators, if they come down in a small community of <v Speaker>maybe a 1000-2000 people. <v Speaker>So this uh stockade was built, I haven't visited this area in oh <v Speaker>fifteen years. <v Speaker>Since Hurricane Betsy in 65. <v Speaker>But uh we'll walk up to uh together, this <v Speaker>would have been the compound area it was wired off here and <v Speaker>fenced off and you could see the the uh post with the light. <v Speaker>Some would call it a medieval fort, the doctor farmer <v Speaker>with a group [cameraman]: Congress of Racial Equality. <v Speaker>[Perez]: Yeah, uh huh. This is where people would be housed, you see?

<v Speaker>Judge tell me something about the living quarters down here. <v Speaker>You mean in this compound? <v Speaker>Well. First it's uh <v Speaker>8 foot hall is 7 feet long. <v Speaker>We have four compartments, ?inaudible? Feet squared, four other compartments. <v Speaker>15 by 30. <v Speaker>We have a lower pin blocked off for our juveniles. <v Speaker>This three quarters section of this part of the fortress will be used for ?inaudible?. <v Speaker>How many people do you think you could accommodate in here? <v Speaker>How many could you incarcerate? <v Speaker>Well, that depends on how many people come into Plaquemine Parish to try and break down <v Speaker>our local government and uh cause trouble.

<v Speaker>There's no limit and no bound. <v Speaker>If they choose to come in 10s and 20s, <v Speaker>we'll take care of them if they choose to come in 100s. <v Speaker>We'll pack em in here just see. <v Speaker>If you might recall, there was a tremendous amount of violence in the civil rights <v Speaker>activities and movement throughout the country. <v Speaker>Not only in just the south. <v Speaker>Uh hopefully that's always avoided, but sometimes it can't be. <v Speaker>We've tried to avoid it here. This was one of the deterring factors. <v Speaker>Whether it had any effect on it or not. I don't know. <v Speaker>The fact is that it was here and it was well-publicized. <v Speaker>It was not his intent because I was listening in his early 60s of causing <v Speaker>anybody harm physically. <v Speaker>But I think he-his intention and it was the intention of the public officials at that <v Speaker>time to simply discourage anybody from causing any violence. <v Speaker>I remember when we were criticized severely by Archbishop Cordie,

<v Speaker>but I pointed out to the archdiocese and to the people <v Speaker>that we had been taught by our government <v Speaker>and by the news media and even by our church, <v Speaker>that segregated was a proper and accepted thing. <v Speaker>Segregation. And that uh uh for the church or for anybody <v Speaker>to make an overnight change in a policy that they taught us for centuries <v Speaker>must be taken with extreme caution and rationality. <v Speaker>Or rather, since. <v Speaker>Well now, down below here is a sort of a safety wire mesh, <v Speaker>but barbed wire above it. <v Speaker>And uh then too, there are six exposed copper wires <v Speaker>highly charged with electricity. <v Speaker>They aren't charged right now are they? <v Speaker>Oh, uh unless they turned the switch on. <v Speaker>This is a- I think best described <v Speaker>in the words of Toulouse-Lautrec as as fossils

<v Speaker>of a bygone age. <v Speaker>And let's hope this will remain that way. <v Speaker>There are, in my opinion, easier ways to settle differences. <v Speaker>But at that time, this was one of em.