John Henry Baker - Running For Constitutional Convention Delegate

Running For Constitutional Convention Delegate

In August 1972, five months after he lost the state Senate race, Baker ran in the nonpartisan race for delegate to the state constitutional convention. The convention was held in Baton Rouge in 1973. It adopted a new constitution, which voters approved in a special election held in the spring of 1974.

Baker filed for delegate in the state legislative district for Franklin and Tensas parishes. He was defeated by Democratic state Representative Lantz Womack (1914–1998) of Winnsboro. As a young man, Womack had played baseball for the former Winnsboro Red Sox at a time when many small towns had their own teams. Baker's father organized two Winnsboro teams, one for whites and the other for African American players. Womack, a businessman and farmer, was first elected to the House seat from Franklin Parish House in a special election in 1958, and he held the seat until 1976. In his last reelection on February 1, 1972, Womack polled 67 percent of the vote against the Republican nominee, Terry Clingan (1918–2007), a barber from Mangham in Richland Parish and later from Baskin, a village in Franklin Parish. Coincidentally, Womack was once a bookkeeper for the Bakers.