Coleman Lindsey

Isaac Coleman Lindsey, known as Coleman Lindsey (October 2, 1892 – November 15, 1968), was a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate, a district judge, and from 1939 to 1940, the lieutenant governor under Governor Earl Kemp Long.​

Background[edit]

Lindsey was born to Rufus B. Lindsey, a native of Webster Parish, when it was part of Claiborne Parish, and the former Lydia Hamilton in Dry Creek in Calcasieu Parish (now Allen Parish) near Lake Charles in southwestern Louisiana. He grew up on a farm and was reared by his maternal grandparents, the Reverend Isaac Hamilton and the former Lydia Eliza Simmons. He lived for a time in DeRidder in Beauregard Parish, and attended the "Ten Mile School" and Oakdale High School in Oakdale in Allen Parish. Lindsey taught school for a time and was assistant state treasurer under Howell Morgan. He was also a former clerk of the Allen Parish Police Jury (the parish governing body akin to the county commission in other states).^[1]​

In 1921, Lindsey received his LL.D. from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. That same year he represented Allen Parish in the Louisiana Constitutional Convention.^[2]

At this time, Lindsey was already married for seven years to the former Cora Herring (April 8, 1894 — December 1973), a native of Rosebud in Falls County near Temple, Texas, and he was then the father of two sons, Rufus Jason Lindsey (born 1916) and Douglas Hamilton Lindsey (1919–2006). Rufus Lindsey became a playwright in London, England, and a friend of numerous Hollywood stars.^[3] Douglas Lindsey was the salutatorian of the 1936 graduating class of Minden High School.^[4]​

Political life[edit]

In 1922, Lindsey and his family moved to Minden in Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana to join District Attorney R. H. Lee in the practice of law. Within two years of relocation, he was elected to the state senate from the district encompassing Bossier and Webster parishes. He was aligned with the Long faction in the legislature.^[2] Lindsey served from 1924 to 1928 and was succeeded by Bossier Parish banker V. V. Whittington. Lindsey returned to the Senate from 1932 to 1940.^[5] In the Senate, he was the chairman of the Committee on Health, Quarantine, Drainage and Charitable Institutions and vice chairman of the Committee on Banking. He served on the committees on Corporations, Parochial and Municipal Affairs; Elections, Qualifications and Registrations; the Judiciary, Railroads, Insurance and Industries. He was also a member of committee of five in charge of the 1924 inaugural ceremonies for Governor Henry L. Fuqua.​

On April 8, 1930, Lindsey ran for mayor of Minden but lost to the incumbent, Henry L. Bridges. In that contest, Bridges polled 519 votes (56.4 percent) to 402 ballots (43.6 percent) for Lindsey.^[6]

As the President pro tempore of the Louisiana State Senate, Coleman became lieutenant governor in the summer of 1939, when Earl Long, who had been elected as lieutenant governor in 1936, succeeded to the governorship on the resignation of the scandal-plagued Richard Webster Leche, Sr., of New Orleans during a time known as the "Louisiana Hayride," not to be confused with the former Country music program of the same name in Shreveport. Lindsey did not run for lieutenant governor in 1940, but Long sought a full term, only to be unseated by intraparty rival, Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles. Long ultimately defeated Jones in 1948 and won a second full term as well in 1956.​

After his service as lieutenant governor, Coleman resumed the practice of law in Minden but later returned permanently to Baton Rouge.^[2] He and Cora had three other sons, Lewis Hughes Lindsey (1922–2000), James Hall Lindsey (born 1925), and David Lindsey (born 1928). David Lindsey, like his brother Douglas earlier, graduated second in his class at Minden High School in 1945 class.^[7]​

In 1950, Lindsey, a member of the East Baton Rouge Bar Association, became a judge for the 19th Judicial District, Division D, a position that he held for the remainder of his life. He was known for banning the NAACP from operating in the state of Louisiana under a 1924 law originally designed to ban the Ku Klux Klan.^[8] He served as presiding judge from 1960 to 1968. Lindsey was active in the Knights Templar and the Masonic lodge and its related component, the Shriners.^[2] Lindsey wrote at least three scholarly works, including The Courts of Louisiana.^[9]​

Lindsey was a Southern Baptist lay speaker and deacon.^[10] He is entombed at Resthaven Mausoleum in Baton Rouge.^[2]​

References[edit]

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