Elbert Guillory

Elbert Lee Guillory (born June 24, 1944)^[1] is an African American Republican member of the Louisiana State Senate.

He represents District 24, including his native Opelousas, Louisiana, and an assortment of rural precincts. Previously represented by the Democrat Armand Brinkhaus, the district encompasses most of Saint Landry Parish and a northern part of adjacent Lafayette Parish.^[2] Guillory previously served as state representative for District 40, having succeeded Democrat Charles I. "Chuck" Hudson.^[3]

Background

Guillory was reared in a divorced family in Saint Landry Parish.

My parents lived seven miles from each other on the same road. They were both always part of my life, but they could never live together. They were opposites.^[4]

His Roman Catholic father, Ozema Ledee (died c. 2009), was an adventurer who flew his own plane, a rarity for a black man in the 1950s, and he was an entrepreneur and a bootlegger. Guillory's mother, who was still living in 2013 at the age of 104, is a hard-shelled Baptist, as he terms her, who forbade alcohol and cursing in her home. She earned her living as a teacher and school principal. Guillory himself has been married and divorced four times.^[4]

Guillory had aspirations of becoming a physician but switched to the study of law. In 1961, he enrolled in historically black Southern University in Baton Rouge. As the editor of the university paper, The Digest, he wrote an editorial in which he referred to U.S. Senator Allen J. Ellender, a Democrat from Houma, Louisiana, as a "lunatic"; as result of this verbal attack, Guillory was expelled from Southern. He subsequently joined the United States Navy, obtained his Bachelor of Arts at another historically black institution, Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, and obtained his Juris doctor from Rutgers School of Law in Newark, New Jersey. He also attended a Baptist theological seminary in New York to study for the ministry but was never ordained. Since 1985, he has practiced law in his native Opelousas.^[4][5]

Guillory's avocation is mountain climbing. Not only has he reached the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State and Mount McKinley in Alaska, but he also has climbed his "namesake" Mount Elbert, the apex of the Colorado Rockies.^[4]

Party affiliation

Up until 2007, Guillory had been a registered Republican^[6] and served on the Louisiana Republican state central committee.^[7] He became a Democrat in 2007 when he first ran for the state House in the heavily Democratic District 40.^[7][8][9] During the 2013 regular session of the Louisiana Legislature, Guillory switched his party affiliation back to Republican.^[10]

Officially, Guillory's party-switch occurred on May 31, when he was presented with the Frederick Douglass Award from the @Large Society. Earlier, State Senator Karen Carter Peterson, the chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, had indicated racism to be the reason why the Louisiana Legislature and Governor Bobby Jindal opposed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010 by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Jindal and the legislature had declined to implement in Louisiana that part of the federal act offering the states federal funding for Medicaid. Guillory took exception to Carter Peterson's characterization of the opponents of the law, but his intent to switch parties had already been under consideration.^[11]

Before Guillory's switch, the last Republican of African-American ethnicity in the Louisiana Senate had served during the Reconstruction era.^[12] In accepting the award, Guillory compared himself to 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a Republican who had supported Abraham Lincoln.^[13]

Guillory has a conservative political philosophy already indicated, according to Daily Kos, in his pre-2007 membership in the Republican Party.^[14] Guillory explained his 2013 party switch in a 4-minute 17-second video widely circulated in state and national media outlets, including the radio programs of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Moon Griffon as well as by Neil Cavuto on Fox News. The video was viewed on You Tube within the first three days by nearly 500,000. Filmed in the rear of the Senate chamber, the video calls the Democrats "the party of Jim Crow" and depicts "the party of freedom and progress" as the Republicans. Guillory called his switch "not only right for me, but for all of my brothers and sisters in the black community" as he left the Democrats for the Republicans.^[15]

Louisiana Science Education Act

Guillory spoke in a hearing about the Louisiana Science Education Act, a law concerning religion and science in public schools. Guillory argued to keep the law on the books because of an experience he had with a faith healer.^[16]

Legislative Black Caucus

Guillory remains a member of the Louisiana Legislature's Black Delegation, a caucus—a question clarified by Legislative Black Caucus Chair State Representative Katrina Jackson, a Democrat from West Monroe.^[17] The Baton Rouge Advocate asserted that Guillory's switch to the Republicans "favors the GOP's efforts to broaden its base"—in an editorial.^[18]

Speculation on future office

Within days of Guillory's change of parties, Jim Shannon of KLTV speculated that Guillory may be a candidate for lieutenant governor in the 2015 state elections, when Jay Dardenne is expected to step down from that position to seek the governorship. Guillory did not comment.^[19]

Community involvement

Guillory has served on the boards of directors for the Saint Landry Parish Chamber of Commerce, the local Salvation Army, the Saint Landry Parish Indigent Defenders, and the Opelousas Daily World newspaper. He is a Rotarian and a supporter of the American Cancer Society. Guillory is Roman Catholic like his father, being an active member of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Opelousas.^[20]

Elbert Guillory is the brother-in-law of the late Jane Nora "Genore" Guillory (1958–2000), who was brutally murdered in East Feliciana Parish Louisiana

. Senator Guillory and his daughter Imani Malique Guillory were interviewed in Investigation Discovery's 2013 Southern Fried Homicide documentary on the murder, for which four of Genore's neighbors were convicted.^[21]

Notes