Alexander Pierre Tureaud Sr. | |
|---|---|
 Tureaud in 1960 | |
| Born | (1899-02-26)February 26, 1899 |
| Died | January 22, 1972(1972-01-22) (aged 72) New Orleans,Louisiana, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Howard University[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Attorney;Civil rights activist |
| Political party | Republican-turned-Democratic (1944) |
| Children | A. P. Tureaud Jr. |
Alexander Pierre "A. P." Tureaud Sr. (February 26, 1899 – January 22, 1972)[1] was an Americanattorney who headed the legal team for theNew Orleans chapter of theNAACP during theCivil Rights Movement. With the assistance ofThurgood Marshall and Robert Carter from theNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, A. P. Tureaud filed the lawsuit that successfully ended the system ofJim Crowsegregation in New Orleans. That case paved the way for integrating the first two elementary schools in theDeep South.
Jim Crow laws arose directly from a Supreme Court ruling which validated a "states' rights" notion that blacks and whites could be equally well served usingseparate but equal public facilities. WithPlessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537 (1896)) the United States Supreme Court confirmed the right of state legislatures to enactdiscriminatory legislation. With this authority, civic organizations throughout the American South moved to restrict citizen access and limit citizens from exercising their civil rights based on the basis of their social and economic status, and on their personal history as descended from a former slave.[2]
Louis Berry, the civil rights attorney fromAlexandria and the first African American admitted to the Louisiana bar since Tureaud himself, had hoped to join Tureaud's law firm in the late 1940s, but Tureaud could not at the time afford to take on another attorney.[3]
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court overturnedPlessy and ruled inBrown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional and must be desegregated "with all deliberate speed." In the following years, A. P. Tureaud and the NAACP initiated the lawsuits which eventually forced theOrleans Parish School System to desegregate. He worked out of an office in thePeter Claver Building, which partly served as a headquarters for the local chapter of theNAACP.
Tureaud also filed suit in 1953 against theLouisiana State University Board of Supervisors seeking desegregation on behalf of his minor son,A. P. Tureaud Jr.[4] As a result, his son became the first black student at LSU.[5]
Tureaud died in New Orleans in 1972,[1] roughly a month shy of what would have been his 73rd birthday.
Tureaud wasCatholic, a member ofSt Augustine Church and theKnights of Peter Claver.[6]A. P. Tureaud Jr. is his son.
The subject has a statue at the beginning of A.P. Tureaud Street in the 7th ward.[7]
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