Robert F. Kennon

Robert F. Kennon

Robert Floyd Kennon, Sr. (born August 12, 1902 in Minden , Webster Parish , Louisiana ; †  January 11, 1988 in Baton Rouge , Louisiana) was an American politician and governor of the state of Louisiana from 1952 to 1956 .

Early years and political advancement

Robert Kennon attended by the Minden High School , the Louisiana State University , where he earned his law degree in 1925th In the same year he was elected mayor of his home town of Minden, an office he held until 1928. Between 1930 and 1940 he was a district attorney in the 26th Judicial District of Louisiana. In 1942 he was briefly appointed judge on an appeals court. During the Second World War he was first in the National Guard and later a lieutenant colonel in the US Army . Between 1945 and 1947 he was an associate judge on the Louisiana Supreme Court . In 1948, after the death of US Senator John H. Overton in Louisiana, there was a by-election for the vacant mandate, in which Kennon was narrowly defeated by Russell B. Long . Thereupon he was passed by the faction of the Long opponents as the leading candidate of the Democratic Party for the next gubernatorial elections and elected on April 22, 1952 in this office.

Louisiana Governor

Robert Kennon took up his new office on May 13, 1952. During his four-year tenure, he supported the city of New Orleans by promising not to interfere, or at least less than his predecessors, in their internal affairs. Voting machines have now been introduced and prison reform in preparation across Louisiana. Governor Kennon fought organized crime and banned gambling and prostitution. His term in office was the first in a long time not to come under suspicion of corruption. Governor Kennon was also a racist . He advocated segregation in schools even after the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. The road to overcoming this institution began in Louisiana under Kennon's successors.

Another résumé

After the end of his tenure on May 8, 1956, he ran a law firm in Baton Rouge. In 1963, he reapplied for governor of Louisiana. This time he failed in the primaries. One reason could have been his criticism of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy . Since the primary took place only a few days after the assassination of President Kennedy, Kennon harmed his criticism, because almost everywhere in the US sympathy for the Kennedys was very high. Incidentally, Kennon was inwardly distancing himself more and more from his party. He supported Dwight D. Eisenhower , Barry Goldwater and Gerald Ford , all of whom ran for the presidency between 1952 and 1976 as Republican Party candidates. Robert Kennon died in 1978. He had three children with his wife, Eugenia Sentell.

Web links

• Kennon at the National Governors Association (English)
• The governors of Louisiana (English)
• Robert F. Kennon in the database of Find a Grave (English)