Louise B. Johnson

Infobox_State Representative
name= Louise Brazzel Johnson
caption= Louise B. Johnson
office=Louisiana State Representatives from District 11 (Union and Claiborne parishes)
term_start=1972
term_end=1976
preceded=John Sidney Garrett
succeeded=Loy F. Weaver
birth_date= birth date |1924|10|6
birth_place=Dubach in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, USA
death_date= death date and age|2002|1|6|1924|10|6|
spouse=
children=
party= Democrat
occupation=Businesswoman
religion=
education=Louisiana Tech University

Louise Brazzel Johnson (October 6, 1924 -- January 6, 2002) was a little-known insurance agent in Bernice in Union Parish who rocketed to state prominence when she upset the Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives in the 1971 Democratic primary. Johnson unseated 24-year incumbent John Sidney Garrett of Haynesville in Claiborne Parish to win the nomination for the District 11 seat in the legislature. She was particularly known for her opposition to the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.

After she defeated Garrett, Mrs. Johnson faced Gene Allen, the first Republican to seek the seat in modern times. She won overwhelmingly, 7,143 votes (74.8 percent) to Allen's 2,410 (25.2 percent). She served one term until 1976, and was succeeded by her fellow Democrat, Loy Weaver, a former FBI agent from Homer, the seat of Claiborne Parish.

Mrs. Johnson ran unsuccessfully for the District 35 state Senate seat in the December 13, 1975, general election. She ran strongly enough in the primary to meet her intraparty rival, former state Senator Charles C. Barham of Ruston in Lincoln Parish. Barham, the son of former state Senator and Lieutenant Governor (1952-1956) Charles E. "Cap" Barham, polled 16,878 votes (52.4 percent) to Mrs. Johnson's 15,385 ballots (47.6 percent). Barham served in the Senate from 1964-1972 and again from 1976-1988, when he was succeeded by Randy Ewing, a Democrat from Quitman in Jackson Parish. Barham was a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, a defining difference between the candidates. He also carried the backing of organized labor and the majority of the African American community.

On October 27, 1979, Mrs. Johnson ran unsuccessfully in a bid to regain her previous state House seat. She received 5,422 votes (38.5 percent) to the 7,093 ballots (50.4 percent) garnered by incumbent Loy Weaver. Two other candidates split the remaining 11.2 percent of the vote. Weaver was among a field of candidates who had run unsuccessfully in 1978 for the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated by Democrat Joseph David "Joe D." Waggonner, Jr., of Bossier Parish.

Early years and education

Louise Johnson was born in Dubach in Lincoln Parish. She graduated at the age of sixteen as the valedictorian of Hico High School in Lincoln Parish and later from Chillicothe Business College in Livingston County in northern Missouri. She thereafter graduated magna cum laude from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, where she obtained both bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees. She studied abroad at the University of London.

Prior to the organization of her successful Bernice Insurance Agency near Ruston, she had worked at radio stations KDTL and KWFM in Farmerville, the seat of Union Parish. She was also an award-winning flower arranger.

Avowed opponent of the ERA

While in office, Representative Johnson moderated a Hemispheric Conference in Miami on the "Status of Women in the Western Hemisphere." She was among the more conservative speakers at the gathering, many of whom looked to government action to address gender inequities in society. Johnson took the view that government could do relatively little to ease inequities and might in fact make the situation worse. Such thinking led her to fight ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, much to the consternation of many Democratic women.

On June 30, 1982, Mrs. Johnson addressed a luncheon in the Royale Rouge Hotel in Baton Rouge to mark the defeat of the ERA, which fell three states short of ratification. Present and past House members who were instrumental in the defeat of the amendment were presented with certificates. Joining Mrs. Johnson in addressing the conference was the then Speaker of the Louisiana House, Democrat (later Republican) John J. Hainkel, Jr., of New Orleans.

Mrs. Johnson said that history must remember the persecution that opponents of ERA, such as herself, endured. She recalled "personal vendettas; some of our leaders suffered for the cause. Our lives were threatened more times than you've got fingers and toes." She expressed her belief that God placed her in the legislature specifically to fight ratification of the ERA. Mrs. Johnson contended that the ERA would have federalized state laws in regard to the family and would have empowered federal judges to "legislative" their personal views through means of a generally-worded amendment.

Long after she had left public office, Mrs. Johnson wrote a 50th anniversary tribute to the women who had served in the Louisiana legislature. Her papers are in the archives of her alma mater, Louisiana Tech. Tech honors Johnson through the "Louise B. Johnson Graduate Scholarship", which is awarded to a female graduate student in the field of history who, for her master's thesis, is researching the role of women in Louisiana. A similar scholarship in history is named for the late Tech professor Morgan D. Peoples.

References

* http://www.latech.edu/specialcollections/collections/m134.shtml
* http://www.latech.edu/techtalk/archives/2_17_05/current/graduate.php
* [e-mail]
* Annabelle Armstrong, "ERA foes celebrate, challenge," Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, July 1, 1982