Activists behind Chisom v. Louisiana hold reunion
18th November 2019 · 0 Comments
By C.C. Campbell-Rock
Contributing Writer
“We can come together, periodically, to show a united front. We have to have a power base,” said Ron Chisom, a community organizer and founder of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.
Chisom called at least 50 community organizers and activists together for a conference and Sankofa moment where past victories were revisited and a call to action issued for African Americans to take on challenges in the legal, political, and community which hat have impeded the forward movement of African Americans in pursuit of a higher quality of life.
Joining Chisom at his church home, Greater Grace Fellowship, was Pastor Perrin Gaines, civil rights Attorneys William (Bill) P. Quigley and Ronald (Ron) L. Wilson, and Louisiana State Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson.
The lives of Chisom, Quigley, Wilson, and Johnson are forever entwined in national judicial history in the landmark Supreme Court decision that lead to the first “Chisom Justice” on the LA State Supreme Court and first African-American Justice Revius Ortique in 1992 and the first African-American woman and Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson on the state’s highest court in 1994.
Their protracted battle and successful lawsuit to fairly redistrict the State Supreme Court, based on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, is still being taught in law schools to this day and continues to be cited in court cases involving redistricting and gerrymandering cases.
Chisom v. Roemer started in 1988 with Ron Chisom, Marie Bookman, and Marc Morial suing Governor Charles Roemer and the State of Louisiana over the lack of African-American representation on the state Supreme Court. Attorneys William P. Quigley, Roy Rodney, New Orleans, La., Pamela S. Karlan, Charles Stephen Ralston, Univ. of Virginia, Law School, Charlottesville, Va., Ron Wilson, New Orleans, La Ron Wilson, Bill Quigley, and Roy Rodney represented the plaintiffs.
After a six year protracted court battle that went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court and back to the appellate court, “Chisom Justice” was created in 1992, as a result of a Consent Decree Judgment. But the fight didn’t end there. Justice Johnson had to sue the State to stop her fellow Supreme Court justices from barring her from ascending to the Chief Justice seat. She won.
Having served on the State Supreme Court for 27 years, Justice Johnson told the gathering, “I’m retiring in December 2020.”
Larry Hayes, a family therapist and counselor is known broadly as a community organizer. The executive director of the Sankofa Center, Inc., said, “I’m just happy that the highest elected official in Louisiana is someone who looks just like me.” Others notable civil rights leaders present were Viola Washington, Carl Galmon, Kool Black, Tyrone Edwards, Norris Henderson, Tiffany Chisom, and others. Several elected officials turned out, including Judge Arthur Hunter, State Rep. John Bagneris,
Wilson and Quigley introduced each other. Quigley said, “Ron Wilson is the most active civil rights lawyer in Louisiana. His works on cases with the NAACP-LDF and the ACLU. The two have known each other for 44 years. They both remembered that back then there was only one African-American attorney practicing in the courts, Judge Israel Augustine, who became one of the first attorneys for the SCLC, the organization that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led.
Wilson is currently working, nationwide, on gerrymandering cases and he has been doing ‘ballot protection work.”
“The Supreme Court recently refused to hear gerrymandering cases,” says Wilson. “If we don’t stop gerrymandering, they will gerrymander us out of existence,” he adds. The attorney cautioned everyone to be vigilant and to monitor the way Louisiana legislature will draw district lines after the 2020 Census. “In Kentucky, the legislation passed a statute that whenever an election is in doubt, the issue is kicked back to the GOP-dominated legislature to decide. In North Carolina, they (GOP-State Legislature) rewrote the law to take away the power of the Democratic governor.”
Wilson shared that Terrebonne Parish never had an African-American or female judge. “After we filed a lawsuit, they picked an African-American judge, and no one ran against him. The case in on appeal.” Wilson added that the state hires attorney that go around and “defend racist legislators.” He also warned Blacks not to allow white donors and politicians to pick Blacks to represent the African-American community, as happened in Terrebonne.
Even in the black community, we don’t understand racism,” says Chisom. We have an election coming up. This year is one election but next year we have a responsibility and a role to play. If we don’t exercise our voice, we can’t complain.”
“A lot of people died for the vote. Keep in mind the power of the ballot, protect it, hold politicians accountable. If Black politicians are not doing right, we must call them out,” says Wilson.
“Bill Quigley is my hero,” Wilson says of his long-time colleague. If the national legal community doesn’t know anyone else, they know Bill Quigley and everyone who is concerned about human and civil rights knows Bill.”
Quigley recounted various voting rights battles waged by African-Americans. He remembered a time when the New Orleans City Council and political officers in Plaquemines Parish were all white. “We successfully created Black majority voting districts for Orleans Parish.” He also shared the battle that Justice Johnson had to wage to take her rightful place as Chief Justice based on serving the longest on the state Supreme Court.
“She had served 18 years. When a white woman retired (Chief Justice Kimball), the remaining justices, all white except Chief Justice Johnson, wanted to put her (Johnson) in third place. Justice Johnson said, “I don’t think son.”
Quigley says they had to reopen Chisom v. Roemer 25 years after the decision was final. “The community activated and said, ‘We will not stand for this.’ The first lawsuit took six years; but we were able to do, this time, what we should have been able to do in the first place,” Quigley added.
“We were in court fighting for the right of people out of prison to vote,” says ex-felon rights activist Norris Henderson, of the importance of holding politicians accountable and lobbying for human and civil rights. “We didn’t win in court, but we won in the legislature.”
Chief Justice Johnson shared her life’s story. “I grew up in the lower night ward. I went to segregated schools. I caught the bus with Galmon’s wife to Cohen High School from Ponchartrain Park.” Johnson went on to graduate from Spelman University and earn her law degree from LSU.
Speaking on the sanctity of the vote, Johnson remembers being 21 and going to City Hall to vote, degree in hand. “I filled out the form and told I didn’t pass the test. This was in 1964. This was recent, in our lifetime. We had to struggle to vote. With social media, we’re more disconnected than ever. We’re not connected anymore.
“We have to return to our roots… and isn’t it the Black church. I grew up in a family of preachers,” she adds… “the Joshuas.” “I was taught you don’t steal, and you don’t lie. I’ve been a member of the bar for 50 years and a judge for 35 years. If truth doesn’t matter, how do I decide what is the truth?” Of the challenge to her tenure and ascent to the Chief Justice seat, Johnson said, “I couldn’t just let people walk all over me because you sent me. My job was not to be nice and friendly. My job was to advocate for the community, to ensure due process, and to seek justice. My job since 1994 has been to be a voice at the table and articulate the voices of our community. I’m retiring in December 2020, but you have an opportunity to elect someone that will fight for you.”
Johnson recalls a young person asking her, what’s the point in voting? She replied, “Blood, sweat and tears. And don’t be stupid about it.”
Chisom asks the activists to commit to meeting again and to prepare to fight for voting rights. “We have to show a united front in the city, state, and across the nation. I know our work is fragmented. Years of oppression have created divisions. If the system knows we’re divided, they system will continue to do us like they do. We got to be more effective.
This article originally published in the November 18, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
