Fearing Duke, Louisiana Blacks Work to Boost Turnout

With former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke making a strong run for governor, get-out-the-vote efforts in Louisiana’s black communities are the strongest since the early days of the civil rights movement.

“History is going to be made,” said the Rev. Zebadee Bridges, president of the political arm of the Interdenominational Assn. of Black Ministers of New Orleans. “We are going to get the vote out as never before.”

A joint statement by Louisiana’s highest-ranking black religious leaders--from the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. in Baton Rouge, the African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Orleans, the Church of God in Christ in Lafayette and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Shreveport--endorsed Edwin W. Edwards for governor and launched a statewide effort to defeat Duke.

“Duke’s overt race baiting brings out the worst instincts in people and plays on fear and ignorance,” said a joint statement from the leaders.

The get-out-the-vote strategy for Saturday’s gubernatorial runoff against Edwards also is intense, but more subtle, in Jewish communities since Duke’s strong showing in the Oct. 19 primary.

Elections Commissioner Jerry Fowler predicted at least 75% of the state’s 2,240,264 registered voters would go to the polls Saturday.

Edwards, a three-term Democratic governor, was defeated in 1987 after an influence-peddling scandal that dominated his third term. Bumper stickers from his supporters in the current campaign read “Vote the Crook--It’s Important.”