Edwin Willis

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Edwin Edward Willis
U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd Congressional District
In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1969
Preceded by	James R. Domengeaux
Succeeded by	Patrick Thomson Caffery
Louisiana State Senator for Lafayette Parish
In office 1948–1948
Preceded by	Two-member district: Edward P. Burguieres Cornelius P. Voorhies
Succeeded by	Bernard Trappey
Born	October 2, 1904 Arnaudville, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Died	October 24, 1972 (aged 68) St. Martinville, Louisiana
Resting place	St. Michael's Cemetery in St. Martinville
Political party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Estelle Bulliard Willis
Children	Bobby Willis Parents: Olanda and Julia Hardy Willis
Alma mater	St. Martinville High School Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
Occupation	Attorney; Planter; Businessman
Religion	Roman Catholic

Edwin Edward Willis (October 2, 1904 – October 24, 1972) was an American attorney and politician from his native state of Louisiana who was affiliated with the Long political faction. A Democrat, he served in the state Senate in 1948 and thereafter at the urging of then Governor Earl Kemp Long ran successfully to represent Louisiana's 3rd congressional district from 1949 to 1969. Willis served as the last chairman of the since disbanded House Un-American Activities Committee, which sought to expose communist infiltration of the U.S. government.^[1]

Background[edit]

Willis was born in Arnaudville in St. Landry Parish, the eleventh of twelve children of Olanda Willis and the former Julia Hardy. He graduated from St. Martinville High School in St. Martin Parish. In 1926, Willis obtained credentials from the law school of Loyola University (New Orleans). He began his law practice in New Orleans and also owned and operated a plantation in St. Martin Parish near Lafayette.^[1]

Willis married the former Estelle Bulliard on December 9, 1929. They had a son, Bobby Willis.

Career[edit]

Willis was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 1948 but served only a few months because he later in the same year won election to Congress to succeed James R. Domengeaux (1907–1988), who left the House to run unsuccessfully for the United States Senate against fellow Democrat Russell Long.

U.S. House of Representatives[edit]

In November 1948, Willis faced Republican opposition from a wealthy New Iberia businessman, Jean (pronounced JOHN) Paulin Duhe (1885–1961), who was the president of the New Iberia National Bank, head of the Duhe-Bourgeois Sugar Company, president of the Edmundson-Duhe rice mill, third vice-president of the American Sugar Cane League, and the president of the St. Martin-Iberia-St. Mary Flood Control Association. Willis defeated Duhe, 26,587 votes (66.6 percent) to 13,337 ballots (33.4 percent).^[2] Duhe's margin was similar to that of a previous Republican candidate in the 3rd district, David W. Pipes, Jr., who contested the position in 1940, when he was defeated by James Domengeaux.

Anti-communism, opposition to both civil rights and KKK[edit]

Willis held the congressional seat for ten terms. Through his chairmanship of the House Un-American Activities Committee, he supported anti-communist Cold War laws, such as the McCarran-Walter Internal Security Act of 1950.^[3] Willis was in effect the last chairman of the HUAC, which was reconstituted as the U.S. House Committee on Internal Security in 1969. During the 1960s, Willis viewed both the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War as reflections of communist influences.^[4] He signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto in opposition to public school desegregation ordered by the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education.^[5] He voted with all eight members at the time from Louisiana against the Civil Rights Act of 1964^[6] and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.^[7] He also spoke out against the radicalism of the Ku Klux Klan^[3] and led an investigation against the terrorist group which resulted in the conviction of a Klan leader.^[8] The KKK in turn burned effigies of Willis throughout the South.^[9]

In Congress, Willis sought to secure subsidies for sugar planters. He successfully sponsored legislation to obtain federal funds for the protective levee in the Morganza Spillway in Pointe Coupee Parish. With his colleagues, he fought for federal royalty payments to the State of Louisiana from tidelands petroleum revenues.^[3]

Later career, 1968 primary runoff defeat[edit]

In 1966, though he had suffered a series of strokes, Willis still defeated Lafayette oilman Hall McCord Lyons, one of the two sons of then Republican state chairman and former gubernatorial nominee Charlton Havard Lyons, Sr., of Shreveport. Willis received 46,533 votes (59.7 percent) to Lyons' 31,444 (40.3 percent).^[10] Lyons, who ran on a staunchly conservative platform, carried Iberia Parish with 51.4 percent of the vote and received 46 percent in Lafayette Parish. Hall Lyons later left the Republican Party and was the American Independent Party nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1972. In retrospect, 1966 was a warning to Willis about his electoral future.

Willis supported U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey in the 1964 and 1968, but his states electoral votes were cast for Barry Goldwater and George Wallace, respectively. Willis compiled a generally liberal voting record in Congress according to Louisiana standards at the time, including his votes for the Food Stamp Act^[11] and Economic Opportunity Act in 1964,^[12] both key components of the Great Society. In 1968, he was denied re-nomination by a more conservative Democrat, Patrick Thomson "Pat" Caffery, Sr. (1932–2013).^[13] Willis' health problems may have contributed to his defeat. Caffery won the general election and held the seat until January 1973, when he was succeeded by Republican leader David C. Treen of suburban Jefferson Parish. Caffery did not seek a third term in the House in 1972.

Edwin Willis died in St. Martinville and is interred there with his wife in St. Michael's Cemetery, which is owned by the St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church.^[1]

(Coincidence of names: Edwin Edward Willis died the same year that a Louisiana legend became governor: Edwin Edwards. They were unrelated, but each had supported the other politically over the years.)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Profie at Civil Rights Digital Library
• Profile at Find a Grave