subj11. Civil Rights Holdings

Scope and Contents The papers document Nelson's active participation in the civil rights movement, school integration in New Orleans, and his work as an Assistant District Attorney for Orleans Parish. The papers of John P. Nelson, Jr. measure approximately 7.2 linear feet. There are 1,227 pieces of correspondence dated between 1957 and 1977. The papers also include magazine articles, speeches, a proposal, collected materials, notes, memoranda, agendas, reports, minutes, job descriptions, applications, resumes,...

Content Description The papers include correspondence, legal documents, collected printed items, clippings, and other materials generated in the case of Mars, Ketchum, and Newhouse v. Jane Byrne and the City of Chicago to stop a remapping attempt that would have disenfranchised numerous African American and Hispanic voters in Chicago. The suit was successful and led to greater support for Mayor Harold Washington from the African American and Hispanic constituency.  Other items in the collection relate to Logan...

Content Description The Pontchartrain Park Pioneers Oral History Collection encompasses ten digital mp4 video interviews with original residents of the safe haven all-black suburb, Pontchartrain Park in New Orleans, formed during the era of Jim Crow and racial segregation. The second oldest black suburb, built between 1955 and 1961, Pontchartrain Park was envisioned and developed by and for middle and upper-class African Americans who were denied the opportunity of homeownership in historic and new suburban...

Scope and Contents Although the case of Margaret Aurelia Porter vs. Reuben Reynolds is relatively obscure, the court case set a dangerous precedent for fugitive state laws and states' rights. In 1810, Margaret Porter - represented by her father, Stephen, because women could not then file suits in a court of law - sued Reuben Reynolds for the return of three fugitive slaves that he was harboring, and she demanded the sum of $1500 in damages for loss of labor and income. This...

Content Description Primarily consisting of office records such as correspondence, invitations, minutes, reports, financial records, news releases, lists, and records involving specific publications and projects. Materials regarding specific projects include the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The collection is replete with names of editors and educators, especially those based in the South, as might be expected in the records of the agency which superceded the Southern Education Reporting Service....

Scope and Contents This collection contains twenty-four linear feet of correspondence, attorney and judicial files, organizational records, Ortique’s writings, collected research, and ephemeral materials.The papers of Revius Ortique Jr. primarily chronicle his professional life as a prominent African-American attorney and judge in New Orleans, Louisiana and as the first African-American judge elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Included in his papers are case files from his early...

Scope and Contents This collection contains materials collected by John E. Rousseau, editor of the Louisiana edition of the Pittsburgh Courier, relating to the case of Edgar Labat and Clifton Alton Poret, two African American men wrongfully convicted by an all-White jury for the 1950 rape of a White woman in New Orleans. Sentenced to the death penalty in 1953, Labat and Poret won nine stays of execution, ultimately becoming the longest-serving death row inmates in Louisiana...

Scope and Contents The papers of Charles B. Rousseve consist predominantly of collected items, both from his historical research and contemporary materials reflecting his varied interests. Primary subjects include publications from the 1890s from the Citizens' Committee (Comite des Citoyens), which brought the Plessy v. Ferguson case to the United States Supreme Court; poetry and other literature written in Reconstruction-era New Orleans; the desegregation of public and...

Scope and Contents The Save Our Schools records document the efforts by this organization, which was founded in April 1960 to maintain free public education in New Orleans during the integration of the public school system. The collection contains organizational records, as well as newspaper clippings and publications collected by SOS and its members. The bulk of the materials within the Save Our Schools collection spans the years 1957 to 1962, with correspondence dating from 1960 to 1962. The...

Scope and Contents The A. M. Trudeau, Jr. papers consist of two folders of correspondence and printed ephemera.  These pertain to the Supreme Court cases in which Trudeau was involved.  The correspondence consists largely of Trudeau’s outgoing carbons recommending local African American civil leaders to various posts.  Notable items include Trudeau’s letter to President Gerald Ford recommending  Revius O. Ortique, Jr. for the United States District Court and letters of recommendation for Clarence Barney of the...