A. P. Tureaud

Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Sr.
Born	February 26, 1899(1899-02-26)
Died	January 22, 1972(1972-01-22) (aged 72) New Orleans Orleans Parish, Louisiana, USA
Alma mater	Howard University
Occupation	Attorney; Civil rights activist
Political party	Republican-turned-Democratic (1944)
Children	Including A. P. Tureaud, Jr.

Turead's house at 3121 Pauger Street in New Orleans, where he resided at the time of his death

Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Sr., known as A. P. Tureaud (February 26, 1899 – January 22, 1972), was the attorney for the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP during the civil rights movement. With the assistance of Thurgood Marshall and Robert Carter from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, A.P. Tureaud, as he was known, filed the lawsuit that successfully ended the system of Jim Crow segregation in New Orleans. That case paved the way for integrating the first two elementary schools in the Deep South.

Legacy

New Orleans was one of the most segregated cities in the nation when the movement for civil rights began. The Plessy v. Ferguson case, 163 U.S. 537, of 1896, began in the New Orleans court system. This was the United States Supreme Court decision that made segregation legal throughout the United States.

New Orleans attorney A.P. Tureaud initiated a suit on behalf of Earl Benjamin Bush calling for an end to the segregated school system in Orleans Parish. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court overturned Plessy and ruled that segregated schools are unconstitutional. The high court ordered that public schools be desegregated “with all deliberate speed.” In 1956, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit set aside multiple attempts by the Louisiana Legislature to thwart desegregation.

In July 1959, U.S. District Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered the Orleans Parish School Board to desegregate its schools. After a series of aptitude tests, Gail Etienne, Leona Tate, Ruby Bridges, and Tessie Prevost were selected to fulfill the court’s mandate. On November 14, 1960, three of the four children became students at McDonough #19 School at 5909 St. Claude Avenue and Ruby Bridges began classes at William Frantz School at 3811 North Galvez Street.

Tureaud retired from the law in 1971 and died the next year in New Orleans at the age of seventy-three. His papers are archived at the Amistad Research Center, at Tilton Hall on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans.

London Avenue, a thoroughfare in New Orleans, was renamed A. P. Tureaud Avenue in his honor. In 1999, the Marie C. Couvent School at 2021 Pauger Street was renamed for him.

Tureaud Hall on the campus of LSU is named for A.P. Tureaud, Sr. His son, A.P. Tureaud, Jr., was LSU's first African American undergraduate student.

Tureaud was a Republican until 1944, when he changed his registration to Democrat.

References

• Rachel Lorraine Emanuel and Denise Barkis-Richter. Louisiana Public Broadcasting. "Journey for Justice: The A.P. Tureaud Story."

• Saint Augustine Church, Fauborg Treme, New Orleans. "Alexander Pierre Tureaud: Civil Rights Attorney (1899 – 1972)."

• New Orleans Public Library System. "Notable African Americans from Louisiana."

• Donald E. Devore and Joseph Logsdon. Crescent City Schools 1991 Jul. ISBN 0-940984-66-0. Chapters VI and VII.

• Wesley, Charles H. (1981) [1928]. The History of Alpha Phi Alpha, A Development in College Life. Foundation Publishers. ASIN: B000ESQ14W. 

• A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana (A Personal Biography).[1]