By P.C. Staff
J. Bennett Johnston, who served Louisiana as a senator for 24 years, died March 25 at a McLean, Va.-hospital. He was 92. According to family members, the cause of death was attributed to complications from Covid-19.
Known as a conservative Democrat who was able to work across party lines and as “the man to see” with regard to energy policy — he was a champion of the United States’ Strategic Petroleum Reserve — he was also among 69 senators who July 27, 1988, voted “yes” on a reconciled version of HR 442.
Also known as the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the bill, which was later approved by the House of Representatives on Aug. 4, 1988, then went to the White House. President Reagan signed it Aug. 10, 1988. Its enactment led to an apology and monetary compensation to still-living Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from the West Coast and subsequently incarcerated in government-operated facilities.
At the time, Johnston served on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee; he also served a a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.
In 1990, Johnston received the endorsement of Republican senators during his closest re-election bid when former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke ran for the same seat. Johnston declined to run again in 1996.