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Lit Louisiana: Telling the stories civil rights movement leaders [1]

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Date: 2024-06-18  

The number of African descendants and their allies involved in Louisiana’s Civil Rights movements of the mid-20th century can hardly be counted. Marches and sit-ins involved everyday workers, homemakers, and leaders. Among the more well-known locals was Alexander Pierre Tureaud Sr. According to publisher LSU Press, “A.P. Tureaud was at times the only regularly practicing Black attorney in Louisiana. From his base in New Orleans, the civil rights pioneer fought successfully to obtain equal pay for Louisiana’s black teachers, to desegregate public accommodations, schools, and buses, and for voting rights of qualified black residents.” “A More Noble Cause” is a recounting of his professional and personal life by Tureaud’s son and namesake A.P. Tureaud Jr. and Rachel L. Emanuel. Originally published in 2011, “A More Noble Cause” was released as a paperback in February 2024.

Among the Civil Rights heroes of our Mississippi neighbors is Dr. Gilbert R. Mason Jr., the late father-in-law of New Orleans’ OperaCréole founder Givonna Joseph. He is the subject of “Wading In: Desegregation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.” Author Amy Lemco recounts Mason’s initiatives to integrate the beaches in Biloxi. “Dr. Mason operated under the surveillance of the State Sovereignty Commission, assaults by private citizens, and the terrors of a decade riddled with the assassinations of civil rights workers,” according to the book’s publisher, the University Press of Mississippi. His daughter-in-law, Joseph, said that a section of the Gulf of Mexico beach along the Mississippi area along highway 90 is named for Mason now. Additionally, a National Science Foundation ship, called a Regional Class Research Vessel which is 199 feet long and can house 29 crew members and scientists for 21 days, has Gilbert R. Mason for its namesake.

EMBERS

To go back to the roots of the mid-20th century Civil Rights movement, you should read a couple of classics that are often quoted. Alex Haley wrote the “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” based on their conversations. The book outlines the leader’s groundbreaking philosophies and religious awakening. The other important text is “Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King Jr. This Civil Rights icon is masterful in his thinking and brilliant in his articulation. And I can’t leave out James Balwin’s excellent book of essays “Notes of a Native Son.” Written in the 1940s and 1950s, the book describes white supremacy and its effects on America in a way that is still revelatory. Don’t be a person who just quotes these leaders and doesn’t read their actual thoughts. You will be so much the better for knowing them more thoroughly.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/18/lit-louisiana-civil-rights-movement-ap-tureaud/

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