A.P. Tureaud Sr. portrait unveiled at La. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Society and the A. P. Tureaud Sr. Legacy Committee were joined by Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson and the Associate Justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court on Thursday evening for the presentation and installation of the portrait of the late New Orleans civil rights attorney Alexander Pierre “A.P.” Tureaud, Sr.

Following the courtroom ceremony in the 400 Royal Street courthouse, the portrait was permanently installed in the State Wing of the Louisiana Law Library, which is located on the second floor of the courthouse. Painted by Haitian artist and New Orleans resident Ulrick Jean-Pierre, the portrait is a gift to the Louisiana Supreme Court from A.P. Tureaud, Jr.

A.P. Tureaud, Sr. was the preeminent civil rights attorney of Louisiana from the mid-1920s until his death in 1972. As the local attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Tureaud handled nearly all of the desegregation and other civil rights cases filed in Louisiana that successfully ended Jim Crow segregation throughout New Orleans and the state.

A More Noble Cause: AP. Tu­reaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana was penned by A.P. Tureaud Jr. and Rachel L. Emanuel in 2011 and captures the civil rights attorney’s passion for justice and his unrelenting commitment to protecting the constitutional rights of people of color in Louisiana.

“In this year, as the country celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is fitting that the portrait of this tireless civil rights attorney be prominently displayed in Louisiana’s highest court and that the A.P. Tureaud, Sr. portrait will be the first African-American attorney portrait among the court’s historical collection,” Chief Justice Johnson said.

The featured speaker of the courthouse ceremony was Dr. Norman C. Francis, president of Xavier University of Louisiana. Francis was a colleague and friend of A.P. Tureaud, Sr.

This article originally published in the March 17, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.