NEWS RELEASE

JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA

June 19, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ROBERT MANN DISCUSSES THE HOUSE HUEY BUILT AT EAST BANK REGIONAL LIBRARY

JEFFERSON, LA – Robert Mann, the Manship Chair in Mass Communication at Louisiana State University's Manship School of Mass Communication, will discuss his new book, Kingfish U, Huey Long and LSU, at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie.

Mann’s talk is part of the regularly scheduled meeting of the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association. This presentation is free of charge and open to the public. There is no registration.

No political leader is more closely identified with Louisiana State University than the flamboyant governor and U.S. senator Huey P. Long, who devoted his last years to turning a small, undistinguished state school into an academic and football powerhouse. From 1931, when Long declared himself the “official thief” for LSU, to his death in 1935, the school’s budget mushroomed, its physical plant burgeoned, its faculty flourished, and its enrollment tripled.

Robert Mann has written critically acclaimed political histories of the Vietnam War, the U.S. civil rights movement, American wartime dissent, and the 1964 presidential election. Mann holds Mann spent more than 20 years working in national and Louisiana state politics. Prior to joining the Manship School in 2006, he served as communications director to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. He joined Blanco's staff in 2004 after serving 17 years as state director and press secretary to U.S. Senator John Breaux of Louisiana. He was also press secretary to U.S. Senator Russell Long of Louisiana and press secretary for the 1990 re-election campaign of U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana.

In the early 1980s, he covered Louisiana politics as a reporter for the Shreveport Journal and the Monroe News-Star. His essays and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times and the Boston Globe.

For more information regarding this event, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.

The Jefferson Parish Library system consists of 16 locations that stretch from the Lakeshore Branch on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain to the Grand Isle Branch just steps away from the Gulf of Mexico. The library system consists of two large regional libraries and seven branches on each side of the Mississippi River. The East Bank Regional Library (4747 West Napoleon Avenue, Metairie) serves as library headquarters. The Jefferson Parish Library is the second largest system in the state of Louisiana. More than 200 employees work for the Jefferson Parish Library including librarians, administration and support staff. For more information, contact the library at (504) 838-1100 or www.jefferson.lib.la.us. 

For more information about Jefferson Parish, visit www.JeffParish.net Residents can also receive regular updates by following the Parish on Facebook, Twitter Youtube, JPTV and Instagram (@JeffParishGov) or by texting JPALERT or JPNOTICIAS to 888-777.

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Jefferson Parish Public Information Office 1221 Elmwood Park Boulevard, Suite 1002 Jefferson, LA 70123

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Gretchen Hirt Gendron, PIO