Morgan D. Peoples
Encyclopedia
Morgan Dewey Peoples 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.
in Marion County
in northwestern Alabama
. After his graduation from Guin High School, he worked for the Birmingham Post in Birmingham
, Alabama. 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
, 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.
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 relatively 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, Peoples and a colleague, geography professor Ralph Douglas Pierce (1931-2009), conducted college-credit bus tours of the United States. In 1971, for instance, the pair led some three dozen students in a tour of the East Coast, with 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.
. He published many articles and book reviews during that time. In 1980, he penned for North Louisiana History "Henry Wirz: The Scapegoat of Andersonville", a study of Henry Wirz
, a Louisiana physician and Confederate
captain hanged for war crimes from his command of the prison of Union soldiers in Andersonville, Georgia
.
In 1975, Peoples was elected president of the Louisiana Historical Association
. His department chairman, William Y. Thompson
, was the association president in 1980. Another colleague, John D. Winters
, headed the group in 1968.
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.
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.
Peoples was survived by his wife of more than fifty-five years, the former Gwendolyn Sanderson (1921–2010), a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Sanderson and a native of Sulligent
in Lamar County
in northwestern Alabama. She was a secretary for twenty-two years at Grace United Methodist Church. Interment was in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Ruston. The Peopleses had two sons, Dr. Kenneth Morgan Peoples (born 1949) of Arlington, Virginia, later Tucson
, Arizona
, and John Walter Peoples, Sr., (born 1951) and his 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.
, 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.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
who coauthored with Michael L. Kurtz (born 1941) the definitive biography of the late Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Earl Kemp Long. Peoples was a member of the Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University, often referred to as Louisiana Tech, LA Tech, or Tech, is a coeducational public research university located in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech is designated as a Tier 1 school in the national universities category by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings...
at Ruston
Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston is a city in and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,546 at the 2000 census. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Its economy caters to its college population...
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 GuinGuin, Alabama
Guin is a city in Marion County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 2,389. On July 13, 2010, the citizens of Guin voted to become the first city in Marion County, since Prohibition, to allow the sale of alcohol....
in Marion County
Marion County, Alabama
Marion County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Marion County was created by an act of the Alabama Territorial General Assembly on February 13, 1818. The county is located in the northwestern part of the state, bounded on the west by the state of Mississippi. It encompasses . Marion County...
in northwestern Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. After his graduation from Guin High School, he worked for the Birmingham Post in Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, Alabama. He then served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, the forerunner to the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
He received his Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University
Northwestern State University, known as NSU, is a four-year public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the University of Louisiana System.NSU was founded in 1884 as...
(then College) in Natchitoches
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...
. He obtained his Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
from Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge. Thereafter, he taught history in junior or senior high school for fifteen years—in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, and Winnsboro
Winnsboro, Louisiana
Winnsboro is a city in and the parish seat of Franklin Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of July 2009, the estimated city population was 4,377...
, the seat of Franklin Parish
Franklin Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 21,263 people, 7,754 households, and 5,706 families residing in the parish. The population density was 34 people per square mile . There were 8,623 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile...
, and then Ruston High School
Ruston High School
Ruston High School is a 4 year public high school located in the Lincoln Parish School District of Ruston, Louisiana, United States. The school has an enrollment of approximately 1200 students with 85 faculty members; the mascot is the bearcat. The school colors are red and white. Black students...
. 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 educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
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 relatively 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
Louisiana State University at Alexandria
Louisiana State University at Alexandria is located in Alexandria, Louisiana. Louisiana State University at Alexandria is a publicly supported institution that provides undergraduatelevel college education to the citizens of Central Louisiana. The university is a unit of the LSU System and operates...
award as "Outstanding Louisiana Historian" in 1973. He received the Louisiana Tech Faculty Senate "Good Teacher Award" for 1980.
In the 1970s, Peoples and a colleague, geography professor Ralph Douglas Pierce (1931-2009), conducted college-credit bus tours of the United States. In 1971, for instance, the pair led some three dozen students in a tour of the East Coast, with stops in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, Philadelphia, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Detroit, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. In 1972, they conducted a trip to the American West, with stops at many historical sites and natural wonders, including Yellowstone
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
. The tours were in demand, and students often found that the available seats were quickly taken.
Professional historical duties
For a dozen years, Peoples edited the North Louisiana Historical Association Journal, since renamed North Louisiana HistoryNorth Louisiana History
North Louisiana History is an academic journal published twice annually in Shreveport, Louisiana by the North Louisiana Historical Association .-History:...
. He published many articles and book reviews during that time. In 1980, he penned for North Louisiana History "Henry Wirz: The Scapegoat of Andersonville", a study of Henry Wirz
Henry Wirz
Heinrich Hartmann Wirz better known as Henry Wirz was a Confederate officer in the American Civil War...
, a Louisiana physician and Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
captain hanged for war crimes from his command of the prison of Union soldiers in Andersonville, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
.
In 1975, Peoples was elected president of the Louisiana Historical Association
Louisiana Historical Association
The Louisiana Historical Association is an organization of professional historians and interested laypersons dedicated to the preservation, publication, and dissemination of the history of the U.S. state of Louisiana, with particular emphasis at the inception on territorial, statehood, and the...
. His department chairman, William Y. Thompson
William Y. Thompson
William Young Thompson is a retired historian who was affiliated for most of his academic career, from 1955 through 1988, with Louisiana Tech University at Ruston in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana...
, was the association president in 1980. Another colleague, John D. Winters
John D. Winters
John David Winters was a historian at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, best known for his definitive and award-winning study, The Civil War in Louisiana, still in print, published in 1963 and released in paperback in 1991.-Background:Winters was born to John David Winters, Sr...
, headed the group in 1968.
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 UniversitySoutheastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...
in Hammond
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...
, 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
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
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
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
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
Russell B. Long
Russell Billiu Long was an American Democratic politician and United States Senator from Louisiana from 1948 until 1987.-Early life:...
(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
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, 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
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
figures, who gave him substantial sums of money to keep their illegal gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
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
Blaze Starr
Blaze Starr is an American former stripper and American burlesque star. Her vivacious presence and inventive use of stage props earned her the nickname "The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque"...
.
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 diseaseHeart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
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
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
, officiating.
Peoples was survived by his wife of more than fifty-five years, the former Gwendolyn Sanderson (1921–2010), a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Sanderson and a native of Sulligent
Sulligent, Alabama
Sulligent is a city in Lamar County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 2,151. The name is derived from railroad personae.- History :...
in Lamar County
Lamar County, Alabama
Lamar County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, member of the United States Senate from Mississippi. As of 2010 the population was 14,564...
in northwestern Alabama. She was a secretary for twenty-two years at Grace United Methodist Church. Interment was in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Ruston. The Peopleses had two sons, Dr. Kenneth Morgan Peoples (born 1949) of Arlington, Virginia, later Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and John Walter Peoples, Sr., (born 1951) and his wife, Mary McCreary (born 1948), of Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
; 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 retired banker in Bossier CityBossier City, Louisiana
Bossier City is a city in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States.As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total population of 61,315. Bossier City is closely tied to its larger sister city Shreveport, located on the western bank of the Red River. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is the...
, 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
Springhill, Louisiana
Springhill is a city in northern Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,439 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Minden Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, (Webster Parish), in 2005. The award aided Allison in writing his thesis: "More than Words: Human Rights and the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, 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
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
Louise B. Johnson
Louise B. Johnson
Louise Brazzel Johnson 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...
of Union Parish.
Further reading
- Morgan Peoples obituary, Shreveport Times, May 26, 1998
- http://www.latech.edu/technews/viewnews.cgi?category=1&id=1109363217
- http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/LSA&CISOPTR=189
- http://www.smarter.com/books-1/product/earl_k._long-495033/?source=inktomi_books495033
- http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/Books/Lightning%20Source/Kurtz_Earl.htm