Bolivar Edwards Kemp Sr. (December 28, 1871, St. Helena Parish,

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

– June 19, 1933, Amite, Louisiana), was an attorney and a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

from

Louisiana's 6th congressional district Louisiana's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located in south-central Louisiana, the district contains most of the state capital of Baton Rouge, the bulk of Baton Rouge's suburbs, and conti ...

. In 1897, Kemp earned his legal degree from the

Louisiana State University Law Center The Paul M. Hebert Law Center, often styled "LSU Law", is a public law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the Louisiana State University System and located on the main campus of Louisiana State University. Because Louisiana is a c ...

in Baton Rouge and began his law practice in Amite, the

parish seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Tangipahoa Parish Tangipahoa Parish (; French: ''Paroisse de Tangipahoa'') is a parish located in the southeast corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 121,097. The parish seat is Amite City, while the largest city is ...

, one of the

Florida Parishes The Florida Parishes ( es, Parroquias de Florida, french: Paroisses de Floride), on the east side of the Mississippi River—an area also known as the Northshore or Northlake region—are eight List of parishes in Louisiana, parishes in the southe ...

. In 1910, he was appointed a member of the influential

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

Board of Supervisors. A Democrat, Kemp won the 1924 primary election for the 6th district seat and was unopposed in the general election. He ran unopposed in 1926, 1928, and 1930, and he defeated two primary opponents to win a fifth term in 1932. Kemp worked for passage of

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

flood-control legislation, the

Great Mississippi Flood The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with inundated in depths of up to over the course of several months in early 1927. The uninflated cost of the damage has been estimat ...

having occurred in 1927. On June 19, 1933, Bolivar Kemp died unexpectedly of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

at his home in Amite three weeks after the similar death of his brother and law partner, William Breed Kemp Jr. His seat ordinarily would have been filled through a special primary and general election. In early December 1933,

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Oscar K. Allen declared that a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

would be held eight days from the date of his announcement, and he named Kemp's widow, the former Esther Edwards Conner, known as "Lallie" Kemp, as the "unopposed" Democratic nominee. Many protested the announcement, and ballots were destroyed or burned in several locations within the district. After state election officials nevertheless declared Lallie Kemp the winner of the special election, a committee of citizens staged a "revolt election", won by Jared Y. Sanders Jr., supported by district

conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and anti-

Long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

elements. In January 1934, Mrs. Kemp and Sanders presented their competing claims to the House. The

United States House Committee on Elections The United States House Committee on Elections is a former standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. Article 1, section 5, of the Constitution of the United States specifies: "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, ...

refused to seat either candidate, and the full House approved the committee report by voice vote. Lallie Kemp declined to run in the subsequent May 1 special election in which Sanders defeated Harry D. Wilson, the Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry. The Kemps' son, Bolivar Edwards Kemp Jr., a son-in-law of Harry Wilson, served as the Attorney General of Louisiana from 1948 to 1952, between the two terms of Fred S. LeBlanc of Baton Rouge. Lallie Kemp, who died in 1943, was appointed in 1937 by Governor Richard Leche to the Louisiana Hospital Board. She is honored by the naming of the medical center, a critical access hospital, in Independence. Bolivar E. Kemp was Episcopalian. He is interred beside his wife and son at Amite Cemetery.

References

External links

Obituary, ''Ponchatoula Enterprise'', June 23, 1933
*, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'', December 18, 1933
New York Times obituary, June 20, 1933 (subscription required)"Louisiana Contest Up in House Today"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', January 3, 1934 (subscription required)
"House Upholds Ban on Louisiana Seat"
''The New York Times'', January 30, 1934 (subscription required)
"Quits Louisiana Race"
''The New York Times'', March 19, 1934 (subscription required) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kemp, Bolivar E. 1871 births 1933 deaths American lawyers Louisiana State University Law Center alumni People from St. Helena Parish, Louisiana People from Amite City, Louisiana American Episcopalians Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana Kemp family

See also

References

External links