Word: parish
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Such a clime, and such a corner of the world, is likely to produce a special type of ruler, and in Plaquemines it did: Leander Perez, cigar-chomping, white-suited boss of the parish for almost half a century. He ruled like an arrogant and protective plantation owner, although he preferred sowing oil leases to crops. He fought federal intervention with Faulknerian tenacity, a battle that began over control of oil reserves and evolved into a crusade against "forced integration," which he saw as the plot of an international Communist conspiracy. Taunted Governor Earl Long: "What are you going...
...almost ten years since Perez died. His old home, "Promised Land," serves as one of the parish's white, private academies, a testament to his failure to prevent integration of the public and parochial schools. Blacks, who constitute 25% of Plaquemines' 25,000 people, now hold many parish jobs; there are even black sheriffs deputies. And the wood shanty bars that dot the highways serve all comers...
...more ways than not, Perez's legacy dominates Plaquemines, an anachronism in the South and an affront to Southerners who like to think that racism has migrated North. Parish-owned Port Sulphur Hospital has segregated waiting rooms. There are two hurricane evacuation plans-one for whites and another for blacks. Joycelyn Mackey, a 29-year-old black, found that out during a hurricane threat in 1975 when she was refused admission to the refugee center at Belle Chasse School and sent to a nearby U.S. Navy station. There are even two bookmobiles, each serving primarily...
Leander Perez's power has passed down to one of his sons, 55-year-old Chalin, president of the five-man parish Commission Council. Unlike his flamboyant father, Chalin comes across as a dark-suited conservative lawyer. His is not the voice of a segregationist, but of a typical official with very rich constituents. "We are one of the most overemployed areas in the United States," he says. And it is true that there are plenty of jobs for blacks as well as whites in the oil and sulfur companies, in fishing and orange growing. "We try to maintain...
...sheriff of Plaquemines' daughter and moved down from Chicago. One of his clients is Merlis Broussard, 45, a barrel-chested black construction worker who once helped dig a crayfish pond behind Chalin Perez's new home. They have just won a federal court suit to end the parish's method of selecting council members, which has long kept blacks from exercising political power...