of the changed politics, by 1908 when John N. Pharr's son Henry Newton Pharr (eponym of Pharr, Texas) sought the Louisiana governorship as a Republican, he gained just 11.1 percent, of a much reduced proportion of voters in comparison to his father's campaign against Foster in 1896. Senator and customs official After leaving the office of governor in 1900, Foster was elected by the state legislature as a U.S. senator. He served until 1913, when he lost the Democratic nomination. Thereafter, he was appointed as the customs collector in New Orleans by President Woodrow Wilson. This Southerner achieved office because he gained an Electoral College bonus following disfranchisement of blacks in the South and hobbling of the Republican Party. Death Foster died on June 12, 1921, on the Dixie Plantation near Franklin, some nine years before his grandson and namesake, a future governor of the state, was born. Legacy Foster worked to maintain white supremacy in Louisiana through his support of the Louisiana Constitution of 1898, which practically disfranchised blacks. He also led the fight which succeeded in outlawing the Louisiana Lottery Co. Foster fought for the interest of sugar growers and supported flood-control legislation and the regulation of railway rates. Foster was the last governor of Louisiana to serve two consecutive 4-year terms until John J. McKeithen (who served from 1964 to 1972). Because blacks were disfranchised under his administration, Democratic candidates in the state did not encounter serious challenges from Republicans until 1963. At the beginning of a realignment of party identification in the South, that year John J. McKeithen was challenged by Republican Charlton Lyons. Since the late 20th century, the former Confederate states, where whites constitute a majority, have since generally elected Republican national candidates. In 1997, Foster was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. His grandson, Murphy J. Foster Jr., served as a Republican governor of the state from 1996 to 2004. "Mike" Foster is technically Murphy J. Foster III, but he uses the term "Jr." instead. Notes References External links State of Louisiana - Biography Cemetery Memorial by La-Cemeteries Congressional Biography 1849 births 1921 deaths People from Franklin, Louisiana Democratic Party United States senators from Louisiana Democratic Party governors of Louisiana Democratic Party Louisiana state senators Businesspeople from Louisiana Electoral fraud Tulane University Law School alumni Bourbon Democrats