MORGAN D. PEOPLES
I had never noticed Billy's bio on Mr. Peoples. I really
wonder how many classrooms all across the country are still being
touched by Mr. Peoples today. I know that he is the reason I am a
college history instructor today, and I know there must be an
amazing number of others he also inspired to try and follow in
his footsteps.
John Agan, Class of 1964
.....................................................................................................
I was just going over the Minden Memories pages and read the
info about
Billy Hathorn. In the "blurb" he mentioned
Professor Morgan D.
Peoples. I agree about Mr. Peoples, and here is what
I sent to the
Ruston High School Alumni Assn. webmaster a while back...
Billy Hathorn graduated from MHS in 1966.
Nolan Bailey was with the class of 1957 before he
moved.
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Here is a deceased faculty member from Ruston High School that
should be
remembered on the "Memorials" page...
*Mr. Peoples was my supervising teacher in American History at
Ruston
High School in the Fall Semester of 1961-62. Even though
I've finished
336 college credits over the years, and have observed dozens and
dozens
of teachers, none were better than Morgan Peoples--99.9% were not
as
good. And, in the teaching of history, none could
compare.
In Morgan's classroom one studied "living
history." I'll never forget
Mr. Peoples running around the classroom acting out battles from
the
American Revolutionary War. He would hide behind imaginary
trees and
walls...load and fire his imaginary musket...march around
in Redcoat
fashion....and, /ride /on Paul Revere's horse shouting "The
British are
coming, The British are coming!. A student didn't
have to remember the
facts, they could just close their eyes at test time and see the
history
happen. /Bellissimo, /Mr. Peoples! / /Bravo!
You were the man!*
Thanks for your time,
Nolan
Nolan Bailey
Rowlett, Texas
....................................................................................................
Morgan D. Peoples
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Morgan Dewey Peoples (February 1, 1919 - May 25, 1998) was a
historian who coauthored with Michael L. Kurtz (born 1941) the
definitive biography of the late Louisiana Governor Earl Kemp
Long. Peoples was a member of the Louisiana Tech University at
Ruston history department faculty from 1965 until his retirement
in 1985. In 1991, Louisiana Tech honored Peoples with the title
of professor emeritus.
Early years and education
Peoples was born and reared in the small town of Guin near Marion
in Perry County, Alabama, in the central "Black Belt"
section of the state. After his graduation from Guin High School,
he worked for the Birmingham Post. He then served in the U.S.
Army Air Corps, the forerunner to the United States Air Force
during World War II.
He received his bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern State
University (then College) in Natchitoches. He obtained his Master
of Arts degree in history from Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge. Thereafter, he taught history in junior or senior
high school for fifteen years -- in Nashville, Tennessee, and
Winnsboro, Louisiana, the seat of Franklin Parish, and then
Ruston High School. He did not become a professor at Louisiana
Tech until he was forty-six and was not required to obtain the
terminal degree at that time to remain on the Tech faculty. Yet,
he researched prolifically.
The popular Professor Peoples
Peoples was a popular professor who required students taking his
Louisiana history course, many of whom were education majors, to
write an "original" term paper using primary sources.
It was his desire that the students research and write about
important events that were not widely known in the body of
historical literature. He would not accept regurgitation of
already "settled" history but would permit students to
offer serious new interpretations of established historical
findings. Over the years, his students researched a plethora of
previously unknown or little known historical events covering a
wide range of Louisiana history.
Peoples avoided injecting his personal attitudes, beliefs, or
partisanship in his teaching. He offered the standard historical
narrative but frequently detoured with other points of view and
interesting stories and anecdotes that he had encountered in
years of research and study. He was biased, however, in his love
of Louisiana, but he did not let his patriotic spirit withhold
truth that exposed the warts and flaws of the state and its
leadership over the years. His "Peoples' Policies"
instructed his students on exactly what would be expected of
them.
He received many honors and awards for his teaching, including
the first ever Louisiana State University at Alexandria award as
"Outstanding Louisiana Historian" in 1973. He received
the Louisiana Tech Faculty Senate "Good Teacher Award"
for 1980.
In the 1970s, he and a colleague, geographer Ralph D. Pierce, who
is retired and living in Farmerville in Union Parish, conducted
college-credit bus tours of the United States, with emphasis on
from-the-scene history and geography lessons. In 1971, for
instance, the pair led some three dozen students in a tour of the
East Coast, with major stops in Virginia, Philadelphia, New York
City, Boston, Maine, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Montreal, Detroit,
Ohio, and Kentucky. In 1972, they conducted a trip to the
American West, with stops at many historical sites and natural
wonders, including Yellowstone. The tours were in demand, and
students often found that the available seats were quickly taken.
Professional historical duties
Peoples was editor of the North Louisiana Historical Association
Journal for twelve years. He published many articles and book
reviews during that time. He was also president of the Louisiana
Historical Association from 1975-1976.
In search of the real Earl Kemp Long
For nearly two decades, Peoples researched the life of the
colorful governor known as "Uncle Earl". He sought to
separate fact from legend in his research. Long's flamboyant and
seemingly endless career made it difficult and therefore
time-consuming to research and write the book that Peoples had in
mind. After years of studious endeavors, Peoples joined Kurtz, a
colleague from Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, and
they produced The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics,
published in 1992.
A reviewer for Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge offered
this synopsis of the Peoples-Kurtz book: Earl Long "was a
raspy-voiced stump orator who in his speeches employed anecdotes,
name-calling, and quotations from the Bible with equal facility.
He was a rustic master of Louisiana politics who was suspected of
consorting with known criminals and yet compiled one of the
greatest records of reform for Louisiana’s poor in this
century. Frequently referring to himself as 'the last of the red
hot poppas [of politics],' Long correctly predicted that after
him all politicians would have to learn to use the medium of
television in campaigning. From his days on the campaign trail
with his brother Huey P. Long, Jr., through the course of his own
remarkable career, Earl Long came to epitomize the character of
the powerful southern demagogue."
Peoples and Kurtz depict Earl Long’s role in the rise to
power of his brother Huey, and they give a frank, unvarnished
description of the no-hold-barred political tactics that Uncle
Earl advocated. At one time, Earl turned against Huey and tried
to get him indicted. This occurred one year when Huey opposed
Earl's candidacy for lieutenant governor. The division was not
resolved until future U.S. Senator Russell B. Long
(1918–2003), Huey's oldest son, agreed to become Earl's
executive counsel, more than a decade after Huey's assassination.
The authors show how Earl Long dedicated his own career to
improving the lives of Louisiana’s masses, and they
emphasize how in his unorthodox way Long became one of
Louisiana's most progressive and effective governors. At the risk
of his own political success, Earl Long was an early champion of
civil rights, a fact the authors claim has generally been
ignored. Long's defense of African Americans was overlooked at
the time because of his own use of racial epithets and his desire
to register black voters for his own political motives.
Kurtz and Peoples present new information from declassified FBI
files concerning Long’s ties to organized crime figures, who
gave him substantial sums of money to keep their illegal gambling
operations flourishing. They also offer the first comprehensive
account of Long's highly publicized stays in mental institutions
in 1959, including an interpretation of the psychiatric and
physical causes of his "breakdown", and provide factual
information about Long's relationship with the stripper Blaze
Starr.
By exploring Earl Long’s controversial life-style yet his
strong family ties, his raw humor and his political savvy, his
abuse of power, and his accomplishments in the areas of civil
rights and public services, this biography, according to the
reviewer, fills a serious gap in the history of modern Louisiana
politics.
Last rites
Peoples died of long-term heart disease in Lincoln General
Hospital in Ruston. Services were held on May 27, 1998, at the
Kilpatrick Funeral Home Chapel in Ruston, with Dr. Dwight Ramsey,
pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, officiating. Interment
was in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Ruston.
Peoples was survived by his wife of more than fifty-five years,
the former Gwendolyn Sanderson (born 1921); two sons, Dr. Kenneth
Morgan Peoples (born 1949) of Arlington, Virginia, and John
Walter Peoples, Sr., (born 1951) and wife, Mary McCreary (born
1948), of Shreveport; four grandchildren, John Walter Peoples,
Jr. (born 1975), Kathryn Gwendolyn Peoples (born 1979), Mary
Evelyn Peoples (also born 1979), and Carolyn McCreary Peoples,
all then of Shreveport; and a brother, Eugene W. Peoples (born
1918) of Birmingham, Alabama.
Peoples' legacy
Glenn Ivy Jackson (born 1948), a banker in Bossier City, who
holds bachelor's and master's degrees in history from Louisiana
Tech and studied under Peoples in the late 1960s, recalls having
last seen his former professor at a history fraternity banquet:
"The last time that I saw him, he had suffered from heart
disease and . . . wasn't doing well. He was a shriveled up man
from what I remembered at Tech, had lost weight, and walked
slowly. But he still had a great smile and genuine spirit.
Peoples was one of those teachers who was comfortable with who he
was. He wasn't interested in impressing folks with credentials or
name dropping. He was homespun and cared about his students,
totally lacking in pompous affectations."
The first ever "Morgan D. Peoples Graduate Scholarship in
History" was awarded to Phillip Allison of Springhill,
(Webster Parish), in 2005. The award aided Allison in writing his
thesis: "More than Words: Human Rights and the Council of
Europe, 1949-1960." The scholarship was established by his
two sons, Kenneth and John Peoples, in memory of their father.
Louisiana Tech has a similar scholarship for women graduate
students doing research on Louisiana topics. It is named for the
late State Representative Louise B. Johnson of Union Parish.