Louis Pennington Davis, Backer of Garrison and Banister
Author: jpshinley
Email: jpshinley@my-dejanews.com
Date: 1998/08/03
Banister's positions attracted the backing of the chairman of the Citizens' Council of Gentilly, Louis Pennington Davis, Jr. (NOTP; March 19, 1961; s 1, p 21) The Gentilly Council was a subunit of the larger Citizens' Council of Greater New Orleans (referred to as GNOCC). Davis had been involved since the inception of GNOCC in 1956 (NOTP; January 27, 1956; p 13) Leander Perez was a member of the board. Other members of the Gentilly section were Robert L. Hickerson and George L. Singelmann, usually identified as an assistant to Perez (NOTP; March 4, 1956; p 28). Perez himself spoke at an early meeting of the Gentilly Council in 1956. His topic was the "menace" of the Supreme Court. (NOTP; March 10, 1956; p 2)
Davis made his position on the NAACP clear: "a small group of Russian Jews with known Communist ties is procuring the vast amounts of money being 'poured into NAACP activities.'" (NOTP; August 5, 1956; p 2)
In 1961, Davis and Singelmann held forth on CORE:
No less than 13 members of its national advisory board belong to numerous organizations that have been cited for their Communist front activities.The avowed purpose of this organization is to create incidents and excite people to violence. If their objective is successful, the South and the nation will be a seething mass of racial strife and violence. (NOTP; June 3, 1961; S 3, p 20)
During the Ole Miss crisis in 1962, Davis sent the following telegram to General Edwin Walker: "You called for ten thousand volunteers nationwide for Mississippi's fight against Federal tyranny. Will pledge ten thousand from Louisiana alone under your command." (NOTP; September 28, 1962; S 3, p 2)
Davis died September 15, 1971, at the age of 58. (NOTP; September 17, 1971; s 1, p 20)