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Aristede Dejoie: Black leader who tested the Civil Rights Act of 1875 [1]

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Date: 2024-06-17  

Louisiana lawmaker Aristede Dejoie caught the attention of the press when he and a colleague decided to test the Civil Rights Act of 1875 at an elegant segregated theater in New Orleans.

The act gave Black people access to theaters, public schools, churches and cemeteries during Reconstruction. At the same time, the St. Charles Theatre was considered “the most luxurious” in the United States. It could seat more than 4,000 people and cost more than $320,000 to build.

In March 1875, Dejoie, who served in the state House of Representatives from 1870-1874 and 1877-1879, and state Sen. Tobias S. Stamps bought tickets to the theater. Then they sat in the whites-only section. The fact that they were able to do so peaceably generated a lot of news coverage.

Aristide Dejoie. Credit: Public domain

A member of a well-known Creole family, Dejoie was born in St. James Parish in 1847. His father Jules was born in France while his mother, Celestine, was enslaved, according to the Creole Genealogical and Historical Association. In 1844, Jules went to a New Orleans notary to release his family from slavery.

They moved to New Orleans in 1850.

Dejoie had “a knack for leadership and quickly made a name for himself among the Republicans of the city during Reconstruction,” Creole Genealogical states. He “sought to improve the business life of Black New Orleanians” as the first president of the local National Negro Business League. The league was founded by Booker T. Washington in 1900.

Also serving as the 6th District tax assessor, Dejoie was “the recognized leader of the city’s Black businessmen,” Creole Genealogical states. In 1907, he helped to merge “several Black mutual aid and beneficial societies into the Unity Industrial Life Insurance Company, which was the first company of that sort organized among Black people in Louisiana.”

Dejoie died in 1917. He was 69.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/17/bitd-aristede-dejoie-civil-rights-act-of-1875/

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