Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the W. D. Robinson Papers, #1214, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gifts 1947-1957

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kate Stratton and Jodi Berkowitz, August 2010

This collection was rehoused and a summary created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This finding aid was created with support from NC ECHO.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Bilbo, Theodore Gilmore, 1877-1947.
• Connor, Mike Sennett.
• Cyr, Paul Narcisse, 1878-1946.
• Early, Stephen T. (Stephen Tyree), 1889-1951.
• Governors--Louisiana--History--20th century.
• Harrison, Pat, 1881-1941.
• Howe, Louis M. (Louis McHenry), 1871-1936.
• Journalists--Southern States--Political activity.
• Ku Klux Klan (1915- )--Louisiana.
• Ku Klux Klan (1915- )--Mississippi.
• Long, Huey Pierce, 1893-1935.
• Long, Julius Tison.
• Louisiana--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Louisiana--Social conditions.
• Mississippi--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Mississippi--Social conditions.
• Parker, John Milliken, 1863-1939.
• Robinson, W. D., 1865-1945.
• Sandlin, J. N.
• Saunders, John Y.
• White, Hugh L. (Hugh Lawson), 1881-1965.

W. D. Robinson (1865-1945) was a native of Mississippi and a veteran newspaperman. After operating a paper of his own in Mississippi and serving as telegraph editor of the New Orleans Picayune, he was for a long time legislative correspondent and roving reporter covering major events in Mississippi and Louisiana for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the New Orleans Daily States. In the latter capacity Robinson had a wide acquaintance with prominent men and events in both states.

After serving for a time as publicity director for Huey P. Long's campaign for Governor of Louisiana in 1928, Robinson turned against Long and began collecting information about the activities of Long and his associates. The information involved graft and corruption in office, coercion of opponents, use of influence, unconstitutional actions, and corruption in private life. Much of the information from his files Robinson transmitted to Federal Internal Revenue agents between 1931 and 1934. He also transmitted copies of the confidential reports to Louis M. Howe or Stephen Early, assistants to President F. D. Roosevelt. Much of the information collection by Robinson was submitted to the United States Senate in 1933 when ex-governor John M. Parker and other prominent Louisianans petitioned for the investigation and impeachment of Long, then Senator. Notheing had come of either of these investigations at the time Long was assassinated in 1935. Robinson continued to collect information, on a lesser scale, about the successors to Long's organization until about 1939.

Confidential files and correspondence of W. D. Robinson. The files contain memoranda in the 1920s and 1930s (chiefly 1930-1935) about the activities of Huey Pierce Long and his associates, mostly in regard to alleged malfeasance. A smaller number of items are concerned with the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana and Mississippi in the early 1920s, in particular the "Mer Rouge Murders" in Morehouse Parish, La. Correspondence is with leading political figures in Louisiana and Mississippi, concerning opposition to Long and also other political issues. Among those represented are Huey P. Long, Julius T. Long, Pat Harrison, Theodore G. Bilbo, John M. Parker, Louis M. Howe, Stephen Early, John Y. Saunders, J. N. Sandlin, Mike Sennett Connor, Paul N. Cyr, and Hugh White. Also present are broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers, judicial proceedings, and other printed matter about Long or the Klan, and five scrapbooks of clippings about politics in the two states, 1916-1932.