Elbert Lee Guillory, 68, is a Louisiana state senator who is a practicing lawyer with a J.D. law degree from Rutgers University.
A week ago, on May 31, 2013, Guillory switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. In so doing, Guillory is the first black Republican in the Louisiana Senate since the Reconstruction Era.
Guillory announced his change of party affiliation at a ceremony in which he received the Frederick Douglass Award from the @Large Society. Douglass is a 19th-century abolitionist and a hero to black Americans.
In his speech, Guillory explains why he is no longer Democrat. Calling Democrats the Party of Disappointment, Guillory says Americans have been fed disinformation, and that Democrats have moved away from the majority of Louisianians and away from the traditional values of America on many issues — abortion, school vouchers, 2nd Amendment, union control of public jobs, school prayer, and family values.
He attributes the high unemployment, high crime rate, and destruction of the Black family to the welfare state.
~Eowyn