Huey Long: “Every Man a King” Address

By all accounts Huey Long was a spellbinding speaker. No matter the platform—the radio, the Senate floor, or small towns and large cities alike during campaigns—Long was a consummate performer who could adjust the level of his talk to his audience. In rural Louisiana he was a common man, using plain and simple language. On the Senate floor he could be eloquent in tearing apart legislation by his colleagues that either ignored or did not do enough to relieve the economic plight of Americans. Over the radio, he appealed directly to depression-era audiences of millions who were looking for ways out of poverty, joblessness, and the growing influence of corporations and wealthy individuals who, in Long’s view, prevented the “everyman” from becoming a king—that is, master of his own fate, on an equal playing field with every other man. This was the view he made plain in his signature address “Every Man a King.” His address, delivered in February 1934 and broadcast...