Book Review

A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 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 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 . 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. We’re getting the next Davidson introduced Alex to the organi- lawyers, Louis A. Martinet and Rodolphe plane out of here. But he has to stay here zation’s co-founder, W.E.B. DuBois. On L. Desdunes, whose work he had studied and face whatever reprisals there might reading DuBois’s writings, Alex agreed at Howard. He wanted to follow in their be for our activity.” Tureaud persevered. with his “manifesto” asserting that African- footsteps. Despite taunts and threats, he always re- Americans should not be denied the right Tureaud found work at the U.S. mained calm and professional. He liked to vote and that segregation in schools and Customs House on Canal Street where to quote Thurgood Marshall: “Lose your public accommodations should end. Walter Cohen, a successful Republican cool, lose your case.” In 1950, after years At Howard, Tureaud — his professors businessman, served as comptroller of of devoted service to the organization,

260 December 2011 / January 2012 he became president of the New Orleans litigation, one of the lead plaintiffs was his describe in detail the angry reaction of the branch of the NAACP. son, Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Jr. white parents and the horrible treatment So what did A.P. Tureaud do? A.P. Tureaud, Jr.’s ordeal at LSU is one these brave children endured from their In 1941, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of the most heartrending sections of a book white classmates. They also describe the of Joseph P. McKelpin and other teachers which obviously deals with a history of resulting history of white flight from the against the Orleans Parish School Board, inhumane treatment by one group against city and its public schools. seeking equal pay for black teachers being another. The case was won in federal court, Space constraints won’t permit me to paid less than their white counterparts. despite offensive rhetoric from LSU’s lead do more than make passing reference to Because of Tureaud’s advocacy, federal defense counsel , with Judge other aspects of this interesting book — judge Wayne Borah ruled that teachers with Skelly Wright ruling that LSU’s under- such as Tureaud’s run for U.S. Congress the same credentials, regardless of color, graduate school had to be desegregated. But in 1958, his lawsuits to integrate the city’s must receive the same salary beginning the story of A.P. Tureaud, Jr.’s treatment parks and buses, his work with Archbishop in the 1943 school year. Over the years, by students and faculty in the fall of 1953, Joseph F. Rummel to integrate New Or- Tureaud filed 16 suits in parishes across as the only black student at the university, leans Catholic schools, his representation the state to equalize teachers’ salaries, underscores the cruel difference between of a white woman who sought to enroll at winning victory after victory. victory in the courtroom and changing the Grambling State University, and his men- In 1944, Tureaud and Thurgood Mar- hearts and minds of people. After eight toring of future leaders like Ernest Morial shall filed suit on behalf of Edward Hall, weeks of what can only be termed hell, and Revius Ortique. The authors also paint president of the NAACP branch in St. Tureaud’s son was granted a “reprieve” of several deft portraits of Louisiana judges John the Baptist Parish, challenging the sorts when the temporary injunction under like E. Gordon West (who doesn’t fare state’s unreasonable (in many cases ridicu- which he had been admitted was set aside too well) and Herbert Christenberry (who lous) restrictions on voter registration for due to a legal technicality. During a gath- does) and politicians like , Hale Negroes. Until then, most of these suits ering on the LSU campus in April 2011, Boggs, DeLesseps S. (Chep) Morrison and had been dismissed on grounds of lack of celebrating the publication of this book, F. Edward Hebert. For those interested in federal jurisdiction. But in 1946, the 5th A.P. Tureaud, Jr. recalled those days with our state’s turbulent and colorful history, Circuit affirmed plaintiffs’ right to sue in great poignancy and courage. there is much here to savor. federal court. As the authors note, only In 1948, Tureaud filedRosanna Aubert A.P. Tureaud died of cancer in 1972 at 400 black men were registered to vote in v. Orleans Parish School Board, contend- his home on Pauger Street. At his funeral, Louisiana in 1940; by 1952, the number ing the 14th Amendment guaranteed black Thurgood Marshall said: “He was a great was in the thousands. students the right to receive “instruction in man. In this age of civil rights, we got where In 1946, Tureaud and his colleague course of study including the use of modern we are today by the efforts and dedication of Louis Berry, on behalf of a New Orleans and sanitary schools and school facilities, men like A.P. Tureaud, who made himself a postman named Charles Hatfield, sued such as are provided by defendants for leader.” He is buried at St. Louis Cemetery Louisiana State University School of white children.” A few years later, as part of No. 3 on Esplanade Avenue. Looking back, Law, contending it could not legally bar a frontal assault on the Plessy doctrine, he it would not have been inappropriate for admission to black students. The school’s filedBush v. Board of Education. In 1956, someone to observe, as Secretary of War defense was that Southern University Judge Wright enjoined the Orleans Parish Edwin Stanton did in Washington, D.C. in Baton Rouge, opened in 1881, could School Board from continuing a policy of on the morning of April 15, 1865, “Now and should have a “separate but equal” segregation in its public schools. There fol- he belongs to the ages.” law school. According to the authors, the lowed, as we know, a lengthy series of ap- lawsuit “was the impetus to the opening peals, legislative maneuvers and political E. Phelps Gay has of a law school at Southern University in machinations, all designed to circumvent practiced law for 32 years at the firm 1947.” Years later, Tureaud remembered, the court’s rulings. In 1960, Gov. Jimmy of Christovich & “They didn’t have any Negro lawyers [in Davis signed an executive order under Kearney, L.L.P. He Louisiana] until I opened up a school at which he took control of the New Orleans also is affiliated with Southern University.” public schools, ordering them re-opened on the mediation firm of Nothing if not persistent, Tureaud con- a segregated basis. Judge Wright wasted ADR inc. He obtained tinued to hammer away at racial exclusion no time striking down the order, despite his undergraduate degree from Princeton in higher education. In the 1950s, he filed overheated pleas from Attorney General University in 1975 and won four lawsuits tearing down the Jack Gremillion. and his JD degree from Tulane Law School in walls of discrimination at LSU medical, Finally, on the morning of Nov. 14, 1979. He is a member of the Louisiana State law, graduate and undergraduate schools. 1960, four black girls — Gail Etienne, (1979) and Texas (1993) Bar Associations. He In 1952, two Seventh Ward residents, Er- Leona Tate, Tessie Prevost and Ruby served as president of the Louisiana State Bar nest Morial and Robert Collins, who had Bridges — each only 6 years old, accompa- Association during the 2000-01 term. (Ste. 2300, 601 Poydras St., New Orleans, LA 70130) grown up near Tureaud’s home, entered nied by federal marshals, went to two public

LSU Law School. In the undergraduate schools in the Ninth Ward. The authors

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