Background
He was born on July 16, 1891 in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States, the son of Roselius E. ("Fice") Perez, a planter, and Gertrude Solis. He grew up in an isolated, swampy parish south of New Orleans.
He was born on July 16, 1891 in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States, the son of Roselius E. ("Fice") Perez, a planter, and Gertrude Solis. He grew up in an isolated, swampy parish south of New Orleans.
He attended a one-room schoolhouse run by his sister. Later Perez attended Holy Cross College, a secondary academy for boys in New Orleans, but he dropped out in 1906 without receiving a diploma. In 1912 he graduated from Louisiana State University. He also attended Tulane University Law School from 1912 to 1914.
While studying he began his lifelong habit of attending sessions of the state legislature and, in 1912, was appointed secretary of its House appropriations committee. Following his graduation from Tulane University Law School, he set up practice in New Orleans. In 1916, Perez ran unsuccessfully for the state legislature on a reform ticket. Appointed judge of the Twenty-ninth Judicial District, which comprised Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, in 1919, Judge Perez, as he was called forever after, earned a lasting reputation as a flamboyant, ruthless partisan willing to mete out stern punishment to his political enemies.
In 1924, Perez was elected district attorney for the two parishes. During the next thirty-six years, he used this post to enrich himself, intimidate his enemies, manipulate election returns, and perpetuate segregation. An early ally of Huey Long, Perez campaigned strenuously for him and, in 1929, was a chief defense strategist in Long's successful effort to avoid impeachment. In return, Perez associates were appointed to key local positions overseeing the disposition of valuable oil and sulfur properties.
Although his official salary never exceeded several thousand dollars a year, Perez amassed a fortune estimated at $100 million, much of it from the sale of mineral leases. Perez gained national notoriety in 1943 during a tense confrontation with the reform governor Sam Jones. A crime commission established by Jones condemned Perez for creating "a dynasty saturated with crime and corruption" and ordered him to produce certain documents. Perez was able to delay the matter in the courts, and ultimately the commission was abolished before reaching Perez. That same year, Jones appointed a reformer to serve as sheriff of Plaquemines Parish. When Perez vowed not to let the reformer take office, Jones declared martial law and sent in the National Guard. Preparing for armed resistance, Perez erected wooden barricades around the courthouse.
In the midst of World War II, Perez, fitted out in hunting clothes and pith helmet, was scorned for mobilizing local residents in defiance of state authority, only to slip out of town just ahead of an advancing armed convoy. Perez was vindicated in 1944, however, when a court struck down the governor's declaration of martial law as unconstitutional and a Perez candidate was elected sheriff.
In the wake of the Supreme Court's school desegregation decision in 1954, Perez helped found the White Citizens Council and worked feverishly to thwart integration. He spent so much time in Baton Rouge helping to draft anti-civil rights bills that he became known as "the third house of the Louisiana legislature. "
In 1960, Perez resigned as district attorney, but remained political boss of the parish. In a political reorganization of the parish the following year, he was elected president of the newly created Commission Council. Perez continued to battle the civil rights movement as it gained momentum in the 1960's.
When, in 1963, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ordered military commanders to promote racial equality in and around their bases, Perez retaliated by barring personnel of the Naval Air Station at Belle Chasse from nearby night spots. In 1964, Perez converted Fort St. Philip, a 200-year-old Spanish fortress in the Mississippi River, into a prison ready to house, he warned, any civil rights organizers foolish enough to stray into his parish.
In 1965, Perez again became the object of ridicule for his remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was considering the voting rights bill. He claimed that the dismal 3 percent black voter registration in his parish was due not to discrimination but to an innate lack of ambition and interest in government among blacks. In 1966, when Plaquemines Parish was placed under court order to desegregate its public schools, Perez led the drive to establish a private school system for whites.
Perez resigned from the Commission Council in 1967 and was succeeded by his son, Chalin Perez. The following year, he campaigned extensively for George Wallace for president.
He died at his home in 1969.
In 1962 he was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church for leading the effort to thwart Archbishop Joseph Rummel's order to desegregate parochial schools in the archdiocese of New Orleans.
Staunchly conservative, Perez denounced as socialism the domestic programs of the Truman administration and in 1948 broke permanently with the Democratic party to help found the Dixiecrat party, led by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.
Perez blamed racial unrest on Communists and Zionist Jews.
He barred blacks from parish libraries and ordered the removal of all books inimical to segregation.
Perez epitomized the bigotry, demagoguery, and arrogance of the political bosses of the Old South.
He married Agnes Chalin on May 12, 1917; they had four children, including two sons.