ENROLLED
2018 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 52
BY REPRESENTATIVE RICHARD
A RESOLUTION
To commend John DeSantis for his authorship of The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence
and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike.
WHEREAS, historical and archival records confirm that on November 23, 1887, no
fewer than eight African American residents of Louisiana were murdered in the city of
Thibodaux in Lafourche Parish, and reviews of these records indicate that the killings
occurred following a strike of sugar cane laborers that began on November 1, 1887; and
WHEREAS, John DeSantis, senior staff writer at the Times of Houma newspaper,
who has covered social justice and race relations in New York, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Florida, North Carolina, and California, undertook an extensive research project into the
1887 strike and authored a book as a result of his research; and
WHEREAS, a native of Jackson Heights, New York, Mr. DeSantis was a reporter
in the 1970s and 1980s for leading wire services who specialized in reporting on homicides
in New York; he also covered the courts in Brooklyn for United Press International; his first
book, For the Color of His Skin: The Murder of Yusuf Hawkins and the Trial of Bensonhurst,
set the course of his journalistic career; and
WHEREAS, John DeSantis has received awards from the Louisiana Press
Association and the Associated Press Managing Editors Association, and his articles have
been published in the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers; and
WHEREAS, Mr. DeSantis compiled information over ten years of research to pen
The Thibodaux Massacre; his book shares never-before published facts on the brutal tragedy
in the labor and racial history of Louisiana and the nation, and it continues his life's work of
bringing social and criminal justice issues to the forefront of the consciousness of America.
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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby commend John DeSantis for his authorship of The
Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike and does
hereby express enduring gratitude for his quest to expose injustice wherever and whenever
it occurs.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
to John DeSantis.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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