Huey long biography for kids
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Huey Long
s Louisiana was a powder keg of injustice, and Huey Long was a lightning bolt. The unique influences of his background collided with the oppressive social conditions of his times to producera an explosion of change.
Huey Long grew up on a farm in the poorest part of Louisiana. He came from a large, comfortable family in a small, close-knit community. It was the perfect combination to foster self-confidence and compassion in a precocious boy. His home was a haven of security, faith, and education, which provided him with all the fundamentals to succeed. Meanwhile he was sadly aware that many of his poor friends and neighbors had no opportunity at all.
His brilliant mind and boundless energy caused Huey to hopscotch through life, skipping every other step. With a modicum of formal education, a dab of experience, and a sense of urgency, Huey charged into politics on a uppdrag to help the poor. He began by cutting train fares and utility rates in his first public office and r
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Huey Long
From an early age, it was evident that Huey Long was a true original. A bright, inquisitive, and feisty child, he would grow to become the most famous – and audacious - public figure ever produced by the state of Louisiana.
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. was born on August 30, , in Winnfield, a small rural community in the piney woods of north central Louisiana. He was the seventh of nine surviving children born to Caledonia Tison Long and Huey Pierce Long, Sr., a livestock farmer.
An Early Injustice
At age 8, Huey was deeply affected when he witnessed a neighbor lose his farm at a sheriff’s auction, a sale organized to pay the debt a farmer owed to a store.
Standing on the steps of the courthouse before the sale, the farmer begged the crowd not to bid on his home, promising to pay the store if given enough time to harvest another crop. No one in the crowd offered a bid.
Just as the sheriff was ready to declare “no sale,” the creditor made a bid and won
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Born in , Huey Long of Louisiana worked as a traveling salesman, earned a law degree in a single year, and then entered public life as a railroad commissioner in Drawing on a political power base that he built among Louisiana’s small towns and rural districts, he became governor in Fearlessly, he took on the moneyed interests of Baton Rouge and Wall Street, calling for a massive redistribution of wealth. In , amidst the Great Depression, Long was elected to the Senate, where he gained a national following with his “share-our-wealth” plan and his “Every Man a King” philosophy. Once described as the “most colorful, as well as the most dangerous, man to engage in American politics,” Long was known in the Senate for his filibustering and his flamboyant oratorical style. Nicknamed the “Kingfish,” his ambitions soon turned to the White House. In , at the height of his popularity, Huey Long was assassinated in Baton Rouge.
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