Revius Ortique, Jr. Papers

Revius Ortique, Jr., civil rights attorney, American jurist, and first African American justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court. Revius Oritque, Jr. was born June 14, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Revius O. Ortique, Sr. and Lillie Edith Long. He was educated in the parochial and public schools in the city. He married Miriam Marie Victorianne Ortique on January 29, 1947 and together they have one daughter, Rhesa Marie Ortique McDonald. He first attended Xavier University in New Orleans, then transferred to Dillard University, however his education was interrupted by his military service during World War II. He served for four years as an army officer. In 1946, he returned to Dillard University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 1947.

He earned his Master’s degree in Criminology from University of Indiana, Bloomington in 1949. In 1956, he earned his J.D. from Southern University Law School in Baton Rouge and pursued a career as an attorney at a time when there were few African American lawyers working in the U.S. court system. He was involved in the Civil Rights Movement using law as a vehicle and became a civil rights attorney representing efforts in Louisiana to integrate labor unions and often represented Black workers in lawsuits seeking equal pay. The same year, Ortique began private practice in New Orleans, where his clientele were primarily middle class African Americans. Early on he considered himself a general practitioner and took on many types of cases, but as his career progressed, Ortique began to specialize in personal injury and domestic cases and, later, estate cases. Ortique’s practice became one of the largest specializing in estate cases in the State of Louisiana. He also took on or participated in civil rights cases involving equal pay, and employment discrimination lawsuits prior to and after the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. These cases include Lloyd Lewis v. Celotex Corporation of Marrero (1958), Tom Brown v. Richard Brown and Crown Zellerbach Corporation (1963), Parsons v. Kaiser Aluminum Chemical Corporation, as well as the Vogler vs. McCarty Case (1968).

Ortique began his judicial career in 1978, when the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed him as a judge pro tempore of the Orleans Parish Civil District Court to complete the term of Adrian Duplantier. In 1979, he was elected to fill out the term of retiring judge Oliver Carriere. He was re-elected in 1984 and he was elected Chief Judge two years later. In 1992, he became the first African American elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court. He served until June 1994 when he retired at the age of 70, which was the mandatory judicial retirement age in Louisiana. Throughout his life, Ortique served in numerous civic and professional organizations including the Community Improvement Agency, the Community Relations Council, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the National Bar Association, and the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. As president of the Community Relations Council, he negotiated for peaceful desegregation of lunch counters, hotels, and other public facilities in the City of New Orleans. As president of the National Bar Association, Ortique lobbied President Lyndon Johnson to appoint Black judges to the Federal Bench.

In 1970, after the killing of student protestors by National Guardsmen at Kent State University and Jackson State University, President Richard Nixon appointed Ortique to the on the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest. Nixon also appointed him to serve on the Legal Services Corporation in 1974. This private non-profit corporation was established by the U.S. Congress to ensure equal access to the criminal justice system for those who were unable to afford legal assistance. Ortique was Chairman for eight years on the New Orleans Aviation Board appointed by Mayor Marc Morial in 1994. He was also a member of the Louisiana Ethics Commission. In 1999, he was named an alternate to the United Nations General Assembly by President Bill Clinton.

Revius Ortique died on June 22, 2008 at age 84 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.