O. H. Haynes, Jr.

Oscar Henry Haynes, Jr.
Sheriff of Webster Parish, Louisiana
In office May 1, 1964 – July 1980
Preceded by	J. D. Batton
Succeeded by	Royce L. McMahen, D.V.M.
Personal details
Born	(1920-10-28)October 28, 1920 Minden, Webster Parish Louisiana
Died	December 9, 1996(1996-12-09) (aged 76) Minden, Louisiana
Resting place	Minden Cemetery
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Freddie Louise Walker Haynes (born 1924)
Relations	Cleone Hodges (sister)
Children	O. H. Haynes, III Fred Haynes (1946-2006) Jerry Wayne Haynes, Sr. (1952-2014)[1] Gary Walker Haynes
Parents	O. H. Haynes, Sr. Mary Lynn Burns Haynes
Occupation	Businessman Law-enforcement officer
Religion	Southern Baptist

Oscar Henry Haynes, Jr., known as O. H. Haynes (October 28, 1920 – December 9, 1996), was from 1964 to 1980 the Democratic sheriff of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana He was also the parish Exxon distributor for some four decades. He was the father of Louisiana State University American football star Fred Haynes, who played for the Tigers in Baton Rouge during the latter 1960s.

Background

Haynes was born in Minden, the parish seat of Webster Parish, to O. H. Haynes, Sr., and the former Mary Lynn Burns (1889-1971). Originally from the village of Shongaloo north of Minden, the senior Haynes was the sheriff from 1933 to 1952. Haynes, Jr., graduated in 1939 from Minden High School, having played football on the MHS state championship team in 1938, twenty-five years before his son Fred played on the next MHS state championship team. Thereafter, he married the former Freddie Louise Walker (MHS Class of 1940, born January 20, 1924), originally from the village of Ashland in northern Natchitoches Parish. She was the daughter of Fred Walker (January 10, 1896 — November 19, 1954) and the former Lesca McCain (April 6, 1900 — January 26, 1974). Besides Fred, the couple had three other sons, O. H., III, Jerry Wayne, and Gary Walker Haynes, all of Minden.^[2] The Haynes family lived in a long brick home at the intersection of Pine and Clerk streets near the Webster Parish fairgrounds in Minden. Mrs. Haynes resided there after his death.

Prior to his sheriff's tenure, Haynes was the supervisor of all state driver's license offices within North Louisiana.^[3] In Louisiana, the sheriff is the collector of property taxes and also enforces criminal laws outside the municipalities.

Political races

Haynes entered the December 7, 1963, Democratic primary against incumbent Sheriff J. D. Batton, the older brother of later Mayor Jack Batton. Another candidate was Royce L. "Doc" McMahen, a veterinarian and a member of the city council in Springhill in northern Webster Parish, and Lawrence Harold Gilbert (1911-1995), the Minden municipal police chief. On the night before the primary election, Haynes's son, Fred, quarterbacked his Minden High School football team to the state championship in a home game against a team from Lafourche Parish.^[4]Haynes trailed Batton by 722 votes in the primary, 1,993 to 2,719 votes.^[5]

McMahen ran a strong third with 1,484 votes in the primary. In the runoff contest, he endorsed Haynes, who then announced that McMahen would be his chief deputy. In the showdown with Batton, Haynes ran a newspaper advertisement in which he vowed to bring "capable, conscientious, and sober leadership" to the sheriff's department. He claimed that the issue was not one of physical equipment or the training of deputies but leadership skills of the individual chosen as sheriff.^[6] In the January 11 runoff, Haynes prevailed, 5,190 votes (53.4 percent) to Batton's 4,523 (46.6 percent).^[7][8]

Haynes appointed the African-American deputy Louis Dunbar, Sr. (1914–1986), whose son "Sweet" Lou Dunbar became, like Haynes' son, a distinguished athlete. Dunbar played for twenty-seven years for the Harlem Globetrotters.^[9]

In 1967, Haynes scored a second term by again defeating Batton, who stressed his past accomplishments as sheriff, and another primary rival, C. J. "Red" Vaughan, the former city marshal in Springhill and the operator of a gasoline service station. Vaughan challenged Haynes in regard to unsolved crimes, such as the theft of cattle and oilfield equipment and the stripping of tires and accessories from automobiles.^[10]Haynes prevailed with 6,952 ballots (53.3 percent) to Batton's 5,456 (41.8 percent) and Vaughan's 634 (4.9 percent). Haynes actually lost the Minden area by five hundred votes to Batton but more than compensated with his margin in the remainder of the parish.^[11]

In the 1971 Democratic primary, Haynes defeated two opponents, the Minden ward marshal, John T. Kennon, Jr. (1928–2005), a relative of former Governor Robert F. Kennon, and a former sheriff's deputy, H. H. "Boots" Johnston, who called himself an "independent". Haynes outpolled his rivals by nearly 2,500 votes parish-wide.^[12] In the general elections of both February 6, 1968, and February 1, 1972, Haynes coasted to reelection with five-to-one margins in defeating the Republican candidate, George Alvin Pipes (1913–1976), a businessman from Dubberly in south Webster Parish, who was unable to gain traction in the campaign.^[13][14] Pipes had also been one of several minor Democratic candidate for sheriff in the 1963 primary against both Batton and Haynes.^[15]

In his last election in the first nonpartisan blanket primary in Louisiana in 1975, Haynes defeated Ward Marshal Johnny Lombardino, who had succeeded John T. Kennon in that position, and a third contender, Waymon Nealy, 8,344 votes (57.7 percent) to 5,905 ballots (40.5 percent), and 192 votes (1.8 percent), respectively.^[16]

Haynes did not seek a fifth term in 1979 but instead supported McMahen as his successor. After four terms, McMahen retired and was succeeded by a former state police officer, Larkin T. Riser.

Lynching and beating case

When he was chief deputy under his father, Haynes and five others, Samuel Clinton Maddry, Sr. (1893-1973), Charles Melvin Edwards, Harry Edward Perry, Willie Drayton Perkins (1903-1949), and Benjamin Garey Gantt (1890-1948), were indicted in connection with the lynching death of John Cecil Jones and the mortal beating of Albert Harris, Jr., both African Americans.^[17] The deaths occurred at Dorcheat Bayou west of Minden.^[18]Though a deputy sheriff, the junior Haynes was effectively acting as sheriff because his father, Haynes, Sr., was reportedly recovering at the time from a gunshot wound.^[19]

Haynes, Jr., took Albert Harris, who was a teenager, into custody over an alleged trespassing charge in the backyard of a white woman. He was released to a mob in Dixie Inn, which took him to a field near Cotton Valley, bound him upside down to a pipe, and beat him severely. The youth was sent out of state by his father, Albert Harris, Sr., but eventually was returned to the custody of Haynes, Jr. Sheriff's deputies picked up the cousin of Harris, Jr.'s – John Cecil Jones – at his job and eventually confined both men in the parish jail for days without formal charges and repeatedly beat them. Jones was an honorably-discharged World War II United States Army corporal. On August 8, 1946, Haynes released Jones and Harris, Jr. to a mob in front of the old parish jail. This led to the only known post-World War II lynching in Louisiana. Both Harris and Jones were tortured just south of Minden and were left for dead.^[20]

The charges against Chief Gantt were dropped after he agreed to cooperate with federal officials. The other defendants were found not guilty by a jury of twelve white men in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in Shreveport.^[21]

The United States Attorney, Malcolm Lafargue, told the court:

We are here in federal court because free government and good government were not available in Webster Parish.... I come from this state. My grandfather had slaves. But to me civil liberties means human rights, God-given rights for all Americans. This is not a social question. This is not an economic question. It is a question of God-given rights. If you want a feudal society with overlords, or a Hitler or Mussolini government, then this country is no place for you. We can have as much danger from within this country, from groups of intolerant men who would destroy the rights our forefathers gave us, as from any outside enemies.^[22]

The verdicts, which came after two hours of deliberations, were particularly unsettling to J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who stated: "We had clear-cut, incontrovertible evidence of a multiple agency cover-up."^[20]Jones's widow filed a civil suit Sheriff O. H. Haynes, Sr., but received no damages.^[20]

The last legal hanging in Minden had been in the 1880s; after that time, convicts given the death penalty were sent for execution at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in West Feliciana Parish.^[23]

Later years

Haynes returned to private business in 1980. He was Southern Baptist. He died at his residence at 628 Pine Street in Minden after a lengthy illness. He is interred in the Haynes-Walker family plot in the Minden Cemetery.^[2] Haynes had two brothers, the late J. Y. Haynes and Delmus Wells Haynes (1918-1919), who died shortly before his second birthday and is interred at Old Shongaloo Cemetery.^[24]

His only sister, the late Cleone Hodges, for more than three decades was a professor of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.^[25]

O. H. Haynes, III (born November 5, 1943), was employed in various capacities in the sheriff's office from 1973 until his retirement in 2008. His wife, Debbie Vaughan Haynes, the daughter of Billy Norton Vaughan (1932-2010),^[26] is an administrative assistant to current Sheriff Gary Sexton. Their son, O.H. "Hank" Haynes, IV (born May 4, 1967), is a Louisiana State Police trooper. ^[27]Gary Haynes, the youngest Haynes's son, owns two Minden businesses. He was from 1985 to 1987 a football and baseball coach at his alma mater, Minden High School and from 1989 to 1992 a baseball and basketball coach at Lakeside High School (formerly Sibley High School) in south Webster Parish, where he started the football program.^[28]

References

Preceded by J. D. Batton	Sheriff of Webster Parish, Louisiana Oscar Henry Haynes, Jr. 1964–1980	Succeeded by Royce L. McMahen, D.V.M.