 Long attended college at Northeast Junior College in Monroe, Louisiana, graduating in 1950, and then at Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, Louisiana, from which he graduated in 1951.He was recalled to active duty in the Navy from September 1951 to December 1952, then graduated from Louisiana State University Law School in Baton Rouge in February 1959.Long was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1959 and began the practice of law in Jena, Louisiana.