James Carville’s Stirring Tribute to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco

Late last month, I brought a small film crew up to Baton Rouge to record LSU Professor James Carville’s first class of the semester, part of a larger project we’re working on together and hope to announce in greater detail in the near future.

At the very end of his class (and for reasons that may or may not be made clear later on), James asked students to stand and listen to a recording of “Amazing Grace.” But before he called class to a close, he had a final message for his new class, which is entirely comprised of juniors and seniors at the Manship School for Mass Communications: This year’s class would be dedicated to the late Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who he had previously told the Bayou Brief was “the most underrated one-term governor in American history.”

Fortunately, our cameras were still rolling, so with James’ permission, we decided to turn this into a standalone clip, which we first shared on social media a week ago.

Watch the man known as the Ragin Cajun explain his deep admiration for Blanco and why he decided to dedicate this year’s class to her:

Lamar White, Jr.: Producer

Ben Collinsworth: Producer

Tim Connor: Sound

Sue Lincoln: Associate Producer

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Lamar White, Jr.
Lamar writes about the people, the politics, and the magic of Louisiana. He is the founder and publisher of the Bayou Brief and a contributing writer for the Daily Beast. Lamar is best known for his investigative reporting on public corruption, racism, and civil rights. He has appeared as a guest on CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC, and he's been the subject of profiles in The Washington Post, The Advocate, and Huffington Post. Before launching the Bayou Brief, he published CenLamar, a popular blog that initially covered the drama of City Hall in his hometown of Alexandria. Lamar is a graduate of Rice University in Houston and the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Today he lives in New Orleans and is currently writing a book about the life of reputed New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello. Support Lamar's work on Patreon.