A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana by Rachel L

Book Review A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana by Rachel L. Emanuel and Alexander P. Tureaud, Jr. (Published 2011, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, La.) Reviewed by E. Phelps Gay 258 December 2011 / January 2012 f, as Martin Luther King observed, “human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability, but instead comes through the tireless efforts Iand persistent work of men willing to be co-workers with God,” then the great New Orleans civil rights lawyer A.P. Tureaud belongs in the pantheon of heavenly co- workers. Many have heard the name A.P. Ture- aud. At Louisiana State University (LSU), a building is named in his honor. (In 1953, his son, A.P. Tureaud, Jr., co-author of this “personal biography,” was, as a result of his father’s efforts, the first African-American undergraduate admitted to the university.) In New Orleans, a bronze statue stands at the entrance to A.P. Tureaud Civil Rights Memorial Park. On Pauger Street, not far from where Tureaud lived, one finds A.P. Tureaud Elementary School. During the mayoral administration of one of Tureaud’s protégés, Ernest (Dutch) Morial, London Avenue was renamed A.P. Tureaud Av- enue to commemorate the legacy of this mild-mannered, courageous man. Visitors to New Orleans can view an impressive sculpture of Tureaud at the corner of A.P. Tureaud and St. Bernard Avenues. Scholars can pore over his papers at the Amistad Research Center on the campus of Tulane University. In 2005, Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Bernette J. Johnson, serving as co-chair of the Louisiana State Bar As- sociation’s Diversity Committee, created the A.P. Tureaud American Inn of Court. Chaired by Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Ethel Simms Julien, the Inn meets regularly on the fourth floor of the Royal Street court building. up in Faubourg Marigny as a “downtown was baptized here April 2, 1899.” But, until this year, we did not have a Creole” in the early 1900s — the sights and Inquisitive and hard-working, young full-length biography of this inspirational sounds of the French Quarter, the music Alex proved to be a good student at Bayou leader. Thanks to the outstanding efforts of artists like trumpeter Joe (King) Oliver Road School. In eighth grade, he attended of Rachel L. Emanuel, director of publi- emanating from Creole dance clubs, the Thomy Lafon School in uptown New cations and electronic media at Southern scent of fruits and vegetables at the French Orleans, to which he had to travel on a University Law Center, and Alexander Market, gas lanterns along the banquettes segregated streetcar. “Negro” passengers P. Tureaud, Jr., an artist and educational at night, and the rich cuisine of gumbo and were required to sit behind a partition with consultant in New York, now we do. jambalaya, okra and étouffée cooked by a sign reading “For Colored Patrons Only.” Born in 1899, Alexander Pierre Tureaud Alex’s mother and sisters. Religious life Young Alex would often stand, rather than was the fifth son of a carpenter named Louis revolved around St. Augustine Catholic sit, as an act of defiance. Tureaud, a mulatto born on a sugar planta- Church in Tremé. Today, upon entering this The authors do not gloss over the racist tion in St. James Parish, and a beautiful venerable institution, one reads on a bronze world of the Jim Crow South. Schools, Creole woman from New Orleans named plaque: “Alexander P. Tureaud, Attorney parks, restaurants, hotels, transportation, Marie Eugenie Dejan. The authors vividly and Noted Louisiana Civil Rights Leader, medical services — much of the city, indeed portray what it was like for Alex to grow Louisiana Bar Journal Vol. 59, No. 4 259 the entire South, was simply closed off to called him by his last name, and, hence- customs. Having to compute the value persons of color. So oppressive were the forth, he was known simply as “Tureaud” of merchandise entering the Port of New times that eventually four of Alex’s sisters (pronounced “Too Row”) — came under Orleans all day, Tureaud had little free time; decided to “cross the color line,” cut off the influence of remarkable teachers such but at night, the young lawyer got involved contact with the family, and live their lives as James A. Cobb, William Henry Harri- in his community, joining Seventh Ward as Caucasians (“passé blancs”). The result- son Hart and Charles Hamilton Houston. social clubs and establishing civic leagues. ing heartache on both sides of the family is Houston famously pronounced: “A lawyer His civic league work included appeals to movingly conveyed by the authors. is either a social engineer or he’s a parasite the Orleans Parish School Board for bet- Attending high school at night, Alex on society.” As an ardent member of the ter facilities and new schools for Negro went to work for his father as an apprentice Blackstone Society, Tureaud also liked to students, appeals rejected by white politi- bricklayer and cement finisher. Then his quote the British scholar’s maxim: “Law cians on grounds that Negro public schools father left home, and his mother and the is the embodiment of the moral sentiment were “separate but equal” in compliance rest of the family struggled to make ends of the people.” with the Plessy v. Ferguson case. Tureaud meet. Recruited to work in the railroad Here I would note that one of the hall- “agreed they were separate but they were yards of Chicago, Alex left New Orleans marks of this fine book is that it is, as noted in no way equal.” in 1916 at the age of 17, part of what came on the dust jacket, a “personal biography.” Not long after his return, Tureaud met to be known as the Great Migration. Before It relies heavily on two sources: family the love of his life, Lucille Dejoie, a fel- leaving, he took a civil service exam. If he reminiscence and taped interviews with low Howard University graduate whose did well, he might be able to work for the Tureaud conducted by the late University family owned a pharmacy in uptown federal government. of New Orleans history Professor Joseph New Orleans. A pharmacist herself, she In Chicago, Alex drove spikes for the Logsdon. Thus, the reader gets an imme- managed the family business for many Illinois Central Railroad and worked in a diate sense of the man — what he looked years. The young couple moved into a steel foundry, sending as much money as and sounded like, the clothes he wore, the two-story double on Rocheblave Street he could back home to his mother. At the food he ate, how he acted in the courtroom in the Seventh Ward and began raising a invitation of his brother Adolph, he moved and around the house. His voice, and the family. Eventually, they would have five to New York, where he found a job washing voice of his family, pervades the book, so daughters and one son. dishes. In Harlem, a “Renaissance” was that one “joins” this conscientious Creole While employed at the Customs underway with artists and poets such as lawyer as he navigates his way through a House, Tureaud also practiced civil and Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston time of immense social change while also criminal law in an office above a barroom celebrating racial pride and challenging living a rich personal life in New Orleans on Iberville Street in the French Quarter, racial discrimination. One day news arrived with his beautiful wife, Lucille, and six and he conferred with clients in his home. from New Orleans. Alex had passed the children. Devotees of a certain kind of Understating the case, the authors note that civil service exam. A new job awaited him academic history might quibble that this is “trying to establish himself as a practic- in the nation’s capital: junior clerk in the not a prodigiously-researched, excessively ing Negro lawyer in the segregated South library of the United States Department footnoted tome, weighted down with legal during the Depression wasn’t easy,” but of Justice. argument and constitutional theory. In this Tureaud was “convinced that the law was In Washington, D.C., 19-year-old Alex humble reader’s opinion, this constitutes the best means of fighting injustices and met many interesting and accomplished one of the book’s virtues. providing opportunities for a better life.” people, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, The first person in his family to finish For many years, he was the only actively- J. Edgar Hoover and U.S. Supreme Court college, A.P. Tureaud graduated from practicing black lawyer in the state. Justice Edward Douglass White. After Howard Law School with honors in 1925. Admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1927, attending St. John’s College, he enrolled He passed the District of Columbia Bar, only a year later A.P. Tureaud was desig- at Howard University Law School. He known to be among the most difficult in nated by the national NAACP office as its roomed with a classmate whose father, the country, and began working for a judge lead attorney in Louisiana. Given the times, Shelby Davidson, was an accomplished in Washington. But in 1926, he decided to this took courage. As Tureaud began to file lawyer and newspaper publisher. Active return to his hometown. Not only was his one civil rights suit after another, Thurgood in the National Association for the Ad- mother ill, but Tureaud also felt drawn back Marshall said, “You know, he’s putting vancement of Colored People (NAACP), to New Orleans by the example of Creole his life on the line.

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