Truett T West

Louisiana Trouble Truett T West

In the fall of 1933 swindlers entered Union Parish, Louisiana, to implement a bizarre scheme that separated many Blacks from hard-earned money. Targeting Blacks only, the scheme played upon the resentments flowing from legally sanctioned segregation of the races and promised to them land, livestock and white wives. Leaving with their ill-gotten loot, they left behind them heartache and bloodshed. Based upon a research paper that is appended to the book, this work of historical fiction depicts the raw emotions and lawless reactions that followed the discovery of what a newspaper called "one of the weirdest racketeering schemes ever unearthed by local or government agents." The two white men running the scam swore Blacks into a supposed secret society and promised that the federal government would assist them in a forcible takeover from Whites. Membership fees were required, with the understanding that those who paid higher fees would receive more when the takeover came. Discovery of the scheme brought lawless reprisal by many Whites in a parish whose sheriff was out of favor with the Huey P. Long political machine. Being out of favor meant that he was not able to hire needed deputies. One of Blacks who lived through that period called it "trying times."