University alumna Rachel Emanuel spoke of the importance of the civil rights movement in public education at the LSU Bookstore Saturday during a book signing for “A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana”, the biography of A.P. Tureaud.
The book was written with the assistance of the Tureaud family and co-written by A.P. Tureaud Jr.
“A.P. Tureaud Sr. was the foremost New Orleans civil rights attorney who dedicated his career to change,” Emanuel said. “He worked with a group who worked with the legal system to knock out Jim Crow laws.”
Tureaud worked with many African-Americans who sued to attend the University, with his son being the plaintiff for the undergraduate school, so he knew firsthand what the environment was like for African-Americans trying to attend in those years, she said.
“We’re all part of A.P. Tureaud’s legacy,” she said. “Today we see a different society than the one he grew up in, one in which taxpayers didn’t have the same opportunities … being separate but not very equal.”
Tureaud’s fights in the courtroom allowed African-Americans to attend the University.
Vince Miranda attended the University from 1952 to 1956 as an arts and sciences student and saw the success Tureaud had in the courts.
Miranda said he remembers when A.P. Tureaud Jr. first attended the University.
“It was odd in the fact that they didn’t have any [African American students], not that he shouldn’t be here,” Miranda said.
Miranda said he remembers hearing people talk inappropriately about Tureaud’s willingness to be at the University, but he always believed Tureaud deserved the same rights as everyone else.
Emanuel said she was involved with the civil rights movement as a child, not attending a desegregated school until the ninth grade. She said it was this involvement that influenced her decision to write “A More Noble Cause.”
In addition to her book, Emanuel has also produced a documentary about Tureaud entitled “Journey for Justice: The A.P. Tureaud Story”.
“[The book] tells of an individual who uses his life experience to shape his career success and his legal training to make a change,” she said.
Emanuel said Tureaud’s work created a more open society.
“It is up to us now to build upon those improvements,” she said.
“We’re all part of A.P. Tureaud’s legacy.”
