A More Noble Cause

As a student at Louisiana State University, I attended several classes in Tureaud Hall and was likely not alone in my ignorance that it is the first—and only—LSU building named after an African American. Thankfully, LSU Press’s recent A More Noble Cause: A.P. Tureaud and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Louisiana brings Tureaud’s life and achievements to greater awareness.

Penned by Rachel L. Emanuel and Alexander P. Tureaud, Jr.—Tureaud’s son and also LSU’s first black undergraduate—this biography is both academic and personal. What emerges is the story of an influential man who used the legal system to guide many of the social reforms that have shaped modern society. The biography uses the framework of Tureaud’s life to paint a fascinating, many times uncomfortable, portrait of Louisiana—particularly New Orleans and Baton Rouge—as it evolved from the late 1800s to the mid-1970s. Without Tureaud’s steady, determined efforts, many who now take LSU attendance for granted would not be allowed matriculation.

Tureaud’s work with the NAACP to desegregate Louisiana schools dominates the book. Interesting though this history is, the details about Tureaud’s concerns and hopes for his family most bring him to life across these pages. He enlisted his son as a plaintiff in his attempts to desegregate LSU’s undergraduate school and asked his daughter Jane to enroll at Grambling College and be the roommate of a white student seeking enrollment at the black college. The accounts of how Tureaud and his family handled numerous threats against him and their home demonstrate incredible closeness and bravery.

Most remarkable is Tureaud’s journey, from one of the NAACP’s “Young Turks,” to established and successful New Orleans lawyer and civil rights activist, to an “Old Guard” mentor to many in the next generation of lawyers and activists. One of these was Ernest Morial, who would become the first black mayor of New Orleans.

Thurgood Marshall ended Tureaud’s funeral service by saying, “In this age of civil rights, we got where we are today by the efforts and dedication of men like A.P. Tureaud, who made himself a leader.”