Bayou Dilemma: Louisiana in Crisis and Change Offers Perspectives on Historical & Present-Day Challenges, Includes Essay by John Bel Edwards

On November 14, 2024, Southeastern Louisiana University’s Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and Archives hosted the book launch of Bayou Dilemma: Louisiana in Crisis and Change, which includes a chapter written by Fishman Haygood special counsel and former Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards. A collection of essays, the book “illuminates pressing problems confronting Louisiana and its surrounding environs, as well as some of the least known and most frequently misunderstood issues that have affected the state in the past.” Edwards’ contribution details his posthumous pardon of Homer Plessy in 2022 and the case’s longstanding impact on racial justice. Read more about Bayou Dilemma here.

In the fall of 2022, Edwards and a diverse group of scholars, including scientists, historians, political scientists, geographers, and journalists, held a symposium to discuss their views on the challenges that define life in Louisiana. Their conversations led to Bayou Dilemma’s examination of the Gulf South region’s social, political, environmental, and economic hurdles, especially those pervasive in the Bayou State. Among the book’s esteemed contributors are Janet Allured, retired professor of history and director of women’s studies at McNeese State University, LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology Professor Emeritus Craig E. Colten, coastal scientist John A. Lopez, and Robert Mann, LSU professor and Manship Chair in Journalism at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication.

The essays explore issues like flood control, unequal treatment for African Americans and women, political corruption, endemic violence, and partisan applications of justice, as well as the crisis of coastal erosion, the dilemma of special interests shaping legislation, and the corresponding drain of talent from the state to regions offering improved opportunities. However, it also suggests pathways forward in addressing these concerns for the future well-being of Louisiana and its people.

During his two terms as the 56th Governor of Louisiana, Edwards spearheaded legislative initiatives like Medicaid expansion, budget stabilization, and criminal justice reform. Having led the response to—and recovery from—fifty state emergencies and twenty-three federal disaster declarations, which included hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and tornadoes, he also took numerous steps to prioritize addressing climate change and expanding the clean energy sector in conjunction with the state’s long history of traditional energy. Read more about Edwards here.