User:ZTCarpenter/Louisiana Voodoo

Crimes Relating to Louisiana Voodoo
Around the summer of 1906, there were several local New Orleans newspapers that began covering a civil lawsuit filed against one J.R. Lawson, who was the pastor of Austerlitz Street Baptist Church. The suit was filed by Anderson Fields, a member of the Austerlitz congregation. The accusations ranged from financial mismanagement to foregoing his Christian faith by practicing Voodoo. Financial charges were not as sensational as Voodoo, so news outlets focused heavily on the aspect of the practice of Voodoo in the church. The local newspapers began reporting that Fields and other parishioners were trying to have Pastor Lawson ousted from his position due to his adoption of the Voodoo doctrine. The Daily News headline referred to Lawson as a "Voodoo Doctor," and the front-page headline in The New Orleans Item alleged that Austerlitz's pastor was "Practicing Voodooism." Fields testified that even though Lawson was elected for one term, he had managed to continue as pastor after the end of his term, and that his three associates, Daniel Johnson, Joseph Granderson and James Williams were "active workers in the voo-doo business alongside the preacher." Fields went on to say that he believed that if they were not stopped, they would bankrupt the church. " Fields, along with the newspapers, attempted to cash in on voodoo dread and hysteria, making Lawson a target for culture wars while the fiscal issues were put on the backburner.

Voodoo had long been criminalized in Louisiana, and bagged weighed down those who were even accused of the practice. Practitioners in and around New Orleans were prosecuted on over fifteen different criminal charges from the 1880s to the 1900s. Even prior to the Lawson case, local newspapers reported such prosecutions. For example, in 1883, a white man named Anthony Kesler was charged with malicious mischief by a local baker. When the baker found Kesler placing a supposed Voodoo gris-gris of beans, pepper and "other trash" on the baker's step, he assaulted Kesler and filed a charge against him in court. Despite the obvious assault by the baker, the supposed voodoo practitioner was fined a $250 bond by the court. Years before the Lawson and Austerlitz case, in an incident with similar bias, Henry Jones was arrested in 1904 by an officer he had asked for help. Jones requested help from the officer after individuals on the street began to throw objects at him. The officer accused Jones of being the guilty party regarding a number of burglaries in the area, and arrested him. While in court, an accuser of Jones, Frances Matthews, claimed that Jones came to her door in search of a cup of water, and then put her into a "trance" or "spell". While under this influence, Matthews testified that she was forced to retrieve $70 in cash that she then gave to Jones. Matthews then claimed that Jones told her to never tell anyone, or that person would go deaf. This was described as an armed robbery via Voodoo. The accusations by Fields regarding the Austerlitz case that were reported in local papers essentially charged Lawson with a similar crime, playing on the hurtful association the local newspapers and law enforcement made between Voodoo and criminality.