Morial addresses role of Black attorneys during Martinet event

By Nayita Wilson
Contributing Writer

Generations linked and were reminded of African American history and involvement in Louisiana’s legal arena during the Greater New Orleans Chap­ter of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society’s June luncheon.

National Urban League CEO and President Marc H. Morial served as the keynote speaker for the luncheon, which took place at Café Reconcile on June 7.

Addressing an audience of judges, attorneys, public officials and professionals from various sectors, Morial reminded a new generation of professionals — particularly attorneys — of their predecessors and Marti­net’s founding fathers’ in­volvement in community issues such as civil and voting rights, poverty, the founding of the Southern Christian Leader­ship Conference and ascension to public office.

Attending the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society’s luncheon this month, were from left to right: Kenneth Polite,
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana; Councilwoman Nadine Ramsey, Judge Roland Belsome,
Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal; La. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, Marc
Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; Erika McConduit-Diggs, president and CEO of
Urban League of Greater New Orleans; and First City Court Judge Monique Morial.

He also implored them to become actively engaged in civic involvement.

“Every step of the way, in the effort to secure equal rights, justice and more open city, state and nation, lawyers were at the center of the battle as the architects, as the social engineers, as the people who helped to think through, as people who were self-employed and could exhibit a degree of courage and independence,” Morial said.

“Lawyers were at the front. Pas­tors were at the front. African American professionals were at the front. Why? They were self-employed,” he added, noting that it was a sacrificial choice that did not come with significant wealth and may not necessarily be the charted course for the modern attorney.

Morial’s ultimate appeal to the current regime of local attorneys was for them to get involved in community issues such as voting and violence. He also encouraged them to be equally fearless, committed and compassionate to their profession.

Giving tribute to the organization’s founding leadership, Martinet members also paid homage to the society’s 17 founding members and their families during the event. The founding members were: Earl J. Amedee, Israel M. Augustine, Louis Berry, Lionel Collins, Robert F. Collins, Nils R. Douglas, Norman C. Francis, Benjamin J. Johnson, Alvin Jones, Vance B. LaCour, Ernest N. Morial, Justice Revius Ortique, Jr., J. T. Powell, James Smith, A. P. Tureaud, Freddie Warren and Lawrence Wheeler.

Also recognized and in attendance was New Orleans civil rights attorney Lolis Elie who became involved with the Martinet in 1959, at which point he said he was one out of about 10 Black attorneys in New Orleans.

“I’m very impressed with the numbers and people understanding that you have to go forwards and not backwards,” Elie said of the current Martinet body.

Named in honor of Louis A. Martinet who was the first African American graduate from Louisiana State University, the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society was founded in 1957 to fight Jim Crow and the racial injustices and inequalities that existed in the 1950’s.

The mission of the Greater New Orleans Louis A. Martinet Society is to encourage interchange of ideas, promote legal scholarship, advance the science of jurisprudence, promote the administration of justice, uphold the order and ethics of the courts and the profession of law and promote the welfare of the legal profession in Louisiana.

This article originally published in the June 23, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.