Justice Revius Ortique Jr., first black judge on Louisiana high court and civil rights advocate, has died at age 84 from complications of a stroke. There are so many unsung heroes in the struggle for civil rights that I must stop to pay homage to this great man. Ortique’s life, according to The Times-Picayune, was a succession of firsts. He was the first black member of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s policymaking organization, the House of Delegates and was also the first black Civil District Judge. His highest achievement was to win election to the state Supreme Court in 1992, but he had to step down in June 1994 when he turned 70, the mandatory judicial retirement age.
In addition to his local activities, Justice Ortique was president of the National Bar Association, an organization of African-American lawyers, and five presidents appointed him to commissions and councils, including one panel that investigated the killings at Kent State University and Jackson State College, now Jackson State University, in 1970.
A Historical Context….
Mr. Ortique was born in New Orleans and served four years as an Army officer during World War II, when he was deployed to the Pacific theater. A year after returning to New Orleans in 1946, he earned a bachelor’s degree at Dillard University. At Indiana University he earned a master’s degree in criminology by studying the criminal-justice system in the South. When Mr. Ortique returned to Louisiana, he earned a law degree in 1956 at Southern University.
According to the Times Picayune, Mr. Ortique, who set up a private practice as the civil rights movement was gathering steam, was part of a generation that possessed “a desire to bring about change,” said Sybil Morial, a friend for more than a half-century. In his profession, he channeled that desire into work on the legal teams in several suits that resulted in equal pay for black employees at companies such as the Celotex Corp. and Kaiser Aluminum.
“He was on the forefront of a lot of issues relating to civil rights,” another friend said. “I think he was well-prepared. He was fearless. Back in those days, when an African-American attorney represented a client, you’d have the deck stacked against you, but he worked pretty hard.”
His preparation was meticulous, but his friends said that was no surprise.
In 1958, he was elected to the first of five terms he served as president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans. A year later, he was elected president of the National Bar Association, and he served three terms as president of the Community Relations Council, a biracial group formed to promote racial harmony. Mr. Ortique was the ideal choice to be a negotiator for the black community in discussions with white civic leaders on topics such as jobs in major stores and peaceful desegregation of lunch counters, bathrooms and other public facilities in the early 1960s, before access to such places was guaranteed by the landmark Civil Rights of Act of 1964.
The talks, which helped end an African-American boycott of major stores, were set up because nobody wanted people in either community to resort to violence.
In the mid-1960s, when Mr. Ortique led the National Bar Association, he lobbied President Johnson to appoint African-Americans to the federal bench. So a White House meeting was set up. Before it started, Johnson announced the appointment of eight African-Americans to judgeships. And during that session, Johnson announced that he was going to nominate Thurgood Marshall, a major civil rights lawyer, to be the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
A lasting legacy….
Six colleges gave him honorary doctorates. The Louisiana State Bar Association, the National Bar Association and the American Bar Association saluted him, and the Black Law Students Association named him a “Civil Rights Pioneer.” During his tenure on the New Orleans Aviation Board, five additional airlines set up shop at New Orleans International Airport, and an $850 million rebuilding, renovation and expansion program was begun. Justice Ortique also was instrumental in getting the airport named for jazz immortal Louis Armstrong.
So, he comes from the tradition of civil rights icon Johnnie Carr, who gave her life to the struggle for racial equality. We must learn about these people and the great contributions they made for us and the rich legacy they leave behind. These great and unsung heroes had the odds stacked against them but they defied conventional wisdom because they knew their purpose and worked towards it no matter what. There is a lesson in the life of Justice Revius Ortique Jr. for each of us to commit to emulating in our lives–determination. I pay homage and respect to a great man, an unsung hero in the civil rights movement
Filed under: civil rights activist, Johnnie Carr, Louis Armstrong, President Lyndon Johnson, Revius Ortique Jr., Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall
Justice Revius Ortique Jr., first black judge on Louisiana high court and civil rights advocate, has died at age 84 from complications of a stroke. There are so many unsung heroes in the struggle for civil rights that I must stop to pay homage to this great man. Ortique’s life, according to The Times-Picayune, was a succession of firsts. He was the first black member of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s policymaking organization, the House of Delegates and was also the first black Civil District Judge. His highest achievement was to win election to the state Supreme Court in 1992, but he had to step down in June 1994 when he turned 70, the mandatory judicial retirement age.
Black Political Thought 