J.D. DeBlieux
Encyclopedia
Joseph Davis DeBlieux, known as J.D. DeBlieux (September 12, 1912 – March 13, 2005),
was a Democratic
member of the Louisiana State Senate
who represented East Baton Rouge Parish from 1956 to 1960 and again from 1964 to 1976. DeBlieux is remembered as a crusader for civil rights
in Louisiana
politics
during the latter years of the era of segregation
. During the New Orleans school desegregation
crisis of 1959-1960, DeBlieux chaired the Louisiana State Advisory Committee to the newly established United States Civil Rights Commission. He argued for "equal rights for all", not for racial integration
per se, as the American South slowly complied with the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education
.
DeBlieux was the oldest of fourteen children (seven boys and seven girls) born to Honore Louis "Bubba" DeBlieux, Sr. (1889–1958), and the former Ozet Perot (1895–1981). Honore and Ozet were both natives of Natchitoches Parish: he was from Clarence
and she from nearby Campti
. The couple married in 1911 in Winnsboro
, the seat of Franklin Parish south of Monroe
. Honore was a farmer
, operated a grocery store
, and delivered Monroe News Star
newspaper
s. In 1973, Ozet, whose last child was born in 1939, was named Louisiana "Mother of the Year". The DeBlieux family had just relocated to Columbia
, the seat of Caldwell Parish, at the time of J.D.'s birth there. He graduated in 1929 from Caldwell Parish High School, then known as Columbia High School. While in high school, he worked for the Caldwell News.
The DeBlieuxs lived on land adjacent to the Hogan Plantation
acquired by future Louisiana Governor
John J. McKeithen
. McKeithen recalled that the DeBlieux family overcame great odds: "Everything he did, he did on his own. It's a credit to him. I think it's a credit to America that he could do what he did." McKeithen added, "There has never been a man in the legislature more honest than J.D. DeBlieux.".
The family thereafter relocated to Bastrop
, the seat of Morehouse Parish in north Louisiana near Monroe. In 1932, DeBlieux received a two-year associate's degree
from the University of Louisiana at Monroe
, when the institution was Ouachita Parish Junior College
. He then transferred to Louisiana State University
in Baton Rouge, where he procured his Juris Doctor
degree in 1936. To earn money for his studies, DeBlieux was an elevator
operator at the Louisiana State Capitol
and performed many odd jobs over the years.
DeBlieux opened his Baton Rouge general practice in 1936. He declined to take divorce
cases or other requests which he thought might be unethical. He opposed advertising
by lawyers.
In 1941, DeBlieux was drafted into the United States Army
, having served during World War II
in the Middle East
as a staff sergeant
law clerk. From 1949 to 1950, he was an officer of the Baton Rouge American Legion
post.
from East Baton Rouge Parish but was defeated. In 1952, he ran for the state Senate but lost to Charles F. Duchein (December 23, 1914 – October 19, 1998). It was an anti-Long
year in Louisiana, with Robert F. Kennon
of Minden
, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, winning the governorship. DeBlieux rebounded to unseat Duchein in 1956, when Earl Kemp Long made his comeback for a second full term as governor. At the time DeBlieux, like Earl Long, was strongly supported by organized labor because of his advocacy of the repeal
of the right-to-work law
passed during the Kennon administration,
DeBlieux was a Louisiana delegate to the Democratic National Convention
in Chicago in 1956, when delegates nominated the Adlai Stevenson—Estes Kefauver
ticket, the first national Democratic ticket since Reconstruction to fail to win Louisiana's electoral votes.
DeBlieux also served for a time on the 144-member Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, a powerful organization with influence in election procedures and campaigns.
DeBlieux was unseated in the Democratic runoff election in January 1959 by segregationist Wendell P. Harris (March 13, 1917 – February 4, 1994). Under a revised districting plan following the 1960 census
, East Baton Rouge Parish gained two additional state Senate seats. DeBlieux entered the 1963 Democratic primaries and managed to unseat Harris, who had been indicted
for illegal wiretapping.
In the March 3, 1964, general election, DeBlieux defeated Republican businessman and Illinois
native Floyd O. Crawford (1907–1995) of Baton Rouge, 55-45 percent. That fall, Crawford, running with the Barry Goldwater
electors, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Representative James H. Morrison
of Hammond
. DeBlieux was thereafter reelected to the state Senate in 1968 and 1972.
DeBlieux's support for civil rights caught the eye of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
, who invited DeBlieux to the White House
. DeBlieux had supported the Kennedy
-Johnson, Johnson-Humphrey
, and Humphrey-Muskie
tickets in 1960, 1964, and 1968, but only Kennedy secured Louisiana's then ten electoral votes.
DeBlieux was unlike most of his Senate colleagues. He published his annual income in the newspaper. He tried to prevent Louisiana department heads from soliciting campaign contributions from state employees. He sought to examine the records of state agencies. He opposed an attempt by the Louisiana House to invoke the doctrine of interposition
in regard to federal-state relations and authored an unsuccessful amendment
that affirmed the state's recogniton of federal constitutional authority. He hired future state district and appellate court judge Henry L. Yelverton
of Lake Charles
on his Senate staff. Yelverton later said that DeBlieux's public posture was an inspiration for his own.
In 1966, midway in his second term in the state Senate, DeBlieux waged an intraparty challenge to U.S. Senator Allen J. Ellender
of Houma
, the seat of Terrebonne Parish
in south Louisiana. While DeBlieux challenged the entrenched incumbent
from the political left, another candidate, Troyce E. Guice
(1932–2008), a conservative businessman then from Ferriday
in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, ran to Ellender's right. Ellender polled 484,519 votes (74.2 percent) to DeBlieux's 94,154 (14.1 percent) and Guice's 78,137 (11.7 percent). Ellender was then unopposed in the November 8 general election
for the last of his six Senate terms.
In 1968, DeBlieux, with little available funding, waged a losing intraparty challenge to conservative U.S. Representative John Richard Rarick
, an Indiana
native and a lawyer from St. Francisville
in West Feliciana Parish.
format, by fellow Democrat Thomas H. Hudson (born 1946) of Baton Rouge, who held the seat for one term. Ironically, he lost the black vote to Hudson because DeBlieux refused to give black ministers funds for their pledged support. "You should be raising money for me and giving me money to help in my election. I shouldn't be giving you money," DeBlieux told the clergy
men. He added that he never gave the ministers any funds.
In 1976, shortly after he had left the state Senate, DeBlieux waged a challenge to freshman Republican
U.S. Representative W. Henson Moore, III
, of Baton Rouge in the Louisiana 6th Congressional District. Moore, who had succeeded Rarick in 1975, was an easy winner even though DeBlieux's candidate for U.S. President, former Governor Jimmy Carter
of Georgia
, won Louisiana's then ten electoral votes. Moore received 99,780 votes (65.2 percent) to DeBlieux's 53,212 (34.8 percent) and won majorities in all precincts in the district except for two boxes in West Feliciana Parish. Moore was the first Louisiana Republican congressional candidate in modern history
to run ahead of the presidential electors in the state. Even in areas where the Carter-Mondale ticket won handily, DeBlieux still trailed.
The Sixth District did not return to its Democratic moorings until May 3, 2008, when State Representative
Don Cazayoux
of New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish defeated Republican former State Representative Woody Jenkins
in a special election created by the resignation of Republican Richard Hugh Baker. Cazayoux was then defeated for a full two-year term in the November 4 general election by Republican State Senator Bill Cassidy
of Baton Rouge.
five days before his 46th birthday.
In his last years, DeBliex moved to a convalescent home in Mer Rouge
in Morehouse Parish, where he was tended by a sister, Alma D. Honeycutt (born 1923), a retired postmaster
in Mer Rouge. DeBlieux died of Alzheimer's disease
. DeBlieux was a distant cousin of Robert DeBlieux
, who served as mayor
of Natchitoches from 1976 to 1980. An active Roman Catholic who attended mass daily, DeBlieux was once cited for his spiritual convictions by Pope
John Paul II.
DeBlieux was a former recipient of the "Racial Justice Award" given by the Baton Rouge chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association
. On April 2, 2008, DeBlieux was, along with former Judge
and 1952 gubernatorial candidate Carlos Spaht
and former Register of the State Lands Ellen Bryan Moore
, honored posthumously by the annual Louisiana Governor's Prayer Breakfast. DeBlieux's funeral mass was celebrated on March 16, 2005, at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge. The DeBlieuxes are interred in Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge.
Camille F. Gravel, Jr.
, the Alexandria
attorney who was a confidant of three governors and who himself died nine months after DeBlieux's passing, referred to his friend, accordingly: "This may sound overblown, but there aren't enough ways for me to describe what a fine man J.D. DeBlieux [was]. He had courage in his handling of public matters..." Gravel, who was with DeBlieux at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, recalled that two crosses were burned on DeBlieux's property in Baton Rouge during the desegregation crisis, but DeBlieux stood his ground.
Victor V. Bussie
, former president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO
, said that DeBlieux would not only vote for liberal measures before the Senate but "speak out, which was very unusual. Some others would vote that way but not carry the fight by speaking out. J.D. did both."
Smiley Anders, the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate columnist
, wrote on DeBlieux's death that the former lawmaker was "a small man with glasses and a high voice. But in the state Senate in the 1950s, his was the lone voice crying out for racial justice. Today, it's hard to imagine the kind of courage required to take a stand for civil rights in those days. Segregationists ran the state, and bad things could happen to people who supported ... voting rights for African Americans. J.D.'s support of civil rights didn't help his political career, and no doubt didn't help his law practice. Being ahead of your time can be a costly business. His stubborn advocacy of equal rights for all Louisiana people caused the first crack in the solid wall of segregation. J.D. said what he believed needed to be said, at a time when few people wanted to hear it. His stand was not only right—it was heroic."
was a Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
member of the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
who represented East Baton Rouge Parish from 1956 to 1960 and again from 1964 to 1976. DeBlieux is remembered as a crusader for civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
during the latter years of the era of segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. During the New Orleans school desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
crisis of 1959-1960, DeBlieux chaired the Louisiana State Advisory Committee to the newly established United States Civil Rights Commission. He argued for "equal rights for all", not for racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
per se, as the American South slowly complied with the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
.
Early years, education, military
DeBlieux was the oldest of fourteen children (seven boys and seven girls) born to Honore Louis "Bubba" DeBlieux, Sr. (1889–1958), and the former Ozet Perot (1895–1981). Honore and Ozet were both natives of Natchitoches Parish: he was from Clarence
Clarence, Louisiana
Clarence is a village in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 499 at the 2010 census. It is located some seven miles east of the parish seat of Natchitoches and is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area....
and she from nearby Campti
Campti, Louisiana
Campti is a town in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,057 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area. Campti is a flat area of mostly farmland. It sets on the eastern bank of the Red River...
. The couple married in 1911 in Winnsboro
Winnsboro, Louisiana
Winnsboro is a city in and the parish seat of Franklin Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of July 2009, the estimated city population was 4,377...
, the seat of Franklin Parish south of Monroe
Monroe, Louisiana
Monroe is a city in and the parish seat of Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 53,107, making it the eighth largest city in Louisiana. A July 1, 2007, United States Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 51,208, but 51,636...
. Honore was a farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, operated a grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
, and delivered Monroe News Star
Monroe News Star
The News-Star is the principal newspaper of Monroe and northeastern Louisiana. Its circulation area ranges over some dozen parishes from Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish, on the west, to Tallulah in Madison Parish on the east, to the Arkansas state line on the north, and to Ferriday in Concordia...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s. In 1973, Ozet, whose last child was born in 1939, was named Louisiana "Mother of the Year". The DeBlieux family had just relocated to Columbia
Columbia, Louisiana
Columbia is a town in and the parish seat of Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 477 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Columbia is located at ....
, the seat of Caldwell Parish, at the time of J.D.'s birth there. He graduated in 1929 from Caldwell Parish High School, then known as Columbia High School. While in high school, he worked for the Caldwell News.
The DeBlieuxs lived on land adjacent to the Hogan Plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
acquired by future Louisiana Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
John J. McKeithen
John McKeithen
John Julian McKeithen was the 49th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1964 to 1972. A Democrat from the town of Columbia, he was the first governor of his state in the twentieth century to serve two consecutive terms...
. McKeithen recalled that the DeBlieux family overcame great odds: "Everything he did, he did on his own. It's a credit to him. I think it's a credit to America that he could do what he did." McKeithen added, "There has never been a man in the legislature more honest than J.D. DeBlieux.".
The family thereafter relocated to Bastrop
Bastrop, Louisiana
Bastrop is a city in and the parish seat of Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 12,988 at the 2000 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Bastrop, Louisiana Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Monroe-Bastrop, Louisiana Combined...
, the seat of Morehouse Parish in north Louisiana near Monroe. In 1932, DeBlieux received a two-year associate's degree
Associate's degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by community colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges, and bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study usually lasting two years...
from the University of Louisiana at Monroe
University of Louisiana at Monroe
The University of Louisiana at Monroe is a coeducational public university in Monroe, Louisiana and part of the University of Louisiana System.-History:...
, when the institution was Ouachita Parish Junior College
Junior college
The term junior college refers to different educational institutions in different countries.-India:In India, most states provide schooling through 12th grade...
. He then transferred to Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
in Baton Rouge, where he procured his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree in 1936. To earn money for his studies, DeBlieux was an elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
operator at the Louisiana State Capitol
Louisiana State Capitol
The Louisiana State Capitol building is the capitol building of the state of Louisiana, located in Baton Rouge. The capitol houses the Louisiana State Legislature, the governor's office, and parts of the executive branch...
and performed many odd jobs over the years.
DeBlieux opened his Baton Rouge general practice in 1936. He declined to take divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
cases or other requests which he thought might be unethical. He opposed advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
by lawyers.
In 1941, DeBlieux was drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, having served during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
as a staff sergeant
Staff Sergeant
Staff sergeant is a rank of non-commissioned officer used in several countries.The origin of the name is that they were part of the staff of a British army regiment and paid at that level rather than as a member of a battalion or company.-Australia:...
law clerk. From 1949 to 1950, he was an officer of the Baton Rouge American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
post.
Entering Louisiana politics
In 1948, DeBlieux ran for the Louisiana House of RepresentativesLouisiana House of Representatives
The Louisiana House of Representatives is the lower house in the Louisiana State Legislature, the state legislature of the US state of Louisiana. The House is composed of 105 Representatives, each of whom represents approximately 42,500 people . Members serve four-year terms with a term limit of...
from East Baton Rouge Parish but was defeated. In 1952, he ran for the state Senate but lost to Charles F. Duchein (December 23, 1914 – October 19, 1998). It was an anti-Long
Earl Long
Earl Kemp Long was an American politician and the 45th Governor of Louisiana for three non-consecutive terms. Long termed himself the "last of the red hot poppas" of politics, referring to his stump-speaking skills...
year in Louisiana, with Robert F. Kennon
Robert F. Kennon
Robert Floyd Kennon, Sr., known as Bob Kennon , was the 48th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1952-1956. He failed to win a second non-consecutive term in the 1963 Democratic primary....
of Minden
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, winning the governorship. DeBlieux rebounded to unseat Duchein in 1956, when Earl Kemp Long made his comeback for a second full term as governor. At the time DeBlieux, like Earl Long, was strongly supported by organized labor because of his advocacy of the repeal
Repeal
A repeal is the amendment, removal or reversal of a law. This is generally done when a law is no longer effective, or it is shown that a law is having far more negative consequences than were originally envisioned....
of the right-to-work law
Right-to-work law
Right-to-work laws are statutes enforced in twenty-two U.S. states, mostly in the southern or western U.S., allowed under provisions of the federal Taft–Hartley Act, which prohibit agreements between labor unions and employers that make membership, payment of union dues, or fees a condition of...
passed during the Kennon administration,
DeBlieux was a Louisiana delegate to the Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention
The Democratic National Convention is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 national convention...
in Chicago in 1956, when delegates nominated the Adlai Stevenson—Estes Kefauver
Estes Kefauver
Carey Estes Kefauver July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S...
ticket, the first national Democratic ticket since Reconstruction to fail to win Louisiana's electoral votes.
DeBlieux also served for a time on the 144-member Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, a powerful organization with influence in election procedures and campaigns.
DeBlieux was unseated in the Democratic runoff election in January 1959 by segregationist Wendell P. Harris (March 13, 1917 – February 4, 1994). Under a revised districting plan following the 1960 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, East Baton Rouge Parish gained two additional state Senate seats. DeBlieux entered the 1963 Democratic primaries and managed to unseat Harris, who had been indicted
Indictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
for illegal wiretapping.
In the March 3, 1964, general election, DeBlieux defeated Republican businessman and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
native Floyd O. Crawford (1907–1995) of Baton Rouge, 55-45 percent. That fall, Crawford, running with the Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
electors, unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Representative James H. Morrison
James H. Morrison
James Hobson "Jimmy" Morrison, Sr. , was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the Sixth Congressional District of Louisiana, who served from 1943 to 1967...
of Hammond
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...
. DeBlieux was thereafter reelected to the state Senate in 1968 and 1972.
DeBlieux's support for civil rights caught the eye of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
, who invited DeBlieux to the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. DeBlieux had supported the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
-Johnson, Johnson-Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
, and Humphrey-Muskie
Edmund Muskie
Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie was an American politician from Rumford, Maine. He served as Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, as a member of the United States Senate from 1959 to 1980, and as Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981...
tickets in 1960, 1964, and 1968, but only Kennedy secured Louisiana's then ten electoral votes.
DeBlieux was unlike most of his Senate colleagues. He published his annual income in the newspaper. He tried to prevent Louisiana department heads from soliciting campaign contributions from state employees. He sought to examine the records of state agencies. He opposed an attempt by the Louisiana House to invoke the doctrine of interposition
Interposition
Interposition is an asserted right of U.S. states to declare federal actions unconstitutional. Interposition has not been upheld by the courts. Rather, the courts have held that the power to declare federal laws unconstitutional lies with the federal judiciary, not with the states...
in regard to federal-state relations and authored an unsuccessful amendment
Amend (motion)
-Explanation and Use:-Main Motions:Any main motion and any motion to amend may be amended. However, a motion to amend a motion to amend may not be amended, due to the overly complex parliamentary situation that would frequently result.-Secondary Motions:...
that affirmed the state's recogniton of federal constitutional authority. He hired future state district and appellate court judge Henry L. Yelverton
Henry L. Yelverton
Henry Lee Yelverton, Jr. , was a judge for thirty-two years of the state district and appellate courts, based in Lake Charles, the seat of Calcasieu Parish in southwestern Louisiana.-Early years and education:...
of Lake Charles
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...
on his Senate staff. Yelverton later said that DeBlieux's public posture was an inspiration for his own.
In 1966, midway in his second term in the state Senate, DeBlieux waged an intraparty challenge to U.S. Senator Allen J. Ellender
Allen J. Ellender
Allen Joseph Ellender was a popular U.S. senator from Houma, Louisiana , who served from 1937 until his death. He was a Democrat who was originally allied with the legendary Huey Pierce Long, Jr.. As Senator he compiled a generally conservative record, voting 77% of the time with the Conservative...
of Houma
Houma, Louisiana
Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...
, the seat of Terrebonne Parish
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
Terrebonne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Houma. Its population was 111,860...
in south Louisiana. While DeBlieux challenged the entrenched incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
from the political left, another candidate, Troyce E. Guice
Troyce Guice
Troyce Eual Guice was a prominent businessman in northeastern Louisiana who twice ran for the United States Senate in campaigns thirty years apart, 1966 and 1996. A conservative Democrat, Guice later, as a Mississippi voter, became a donor to the Republican Party...
(1932–2008), a conservative businessman then from Ferriday
Ferriday, Louisiana
Ferriday is a town in Concordia Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population, which is three-fourths African American, was 3,723 at the 2000 census....
in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, ran to Ellender's right. Ellender polled 484,519 votes (74.2 percent) to DeBlieux's 94,154 (14.1 percent) and Guice's 78,137 (11.7 percent). Ellender was then unopposed in the November 8 general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
for the last of his six Senate terms.
In 1968, DeBlieux, with little available funding, waged a losing intraparty challenge to conservative U.S. Representative John Richard Rarick
John Rarick
John Richard Rarick was a lawyer who served as a Louisiana state district court judge from 1961 to 1966 in St. Francisville, Louisiana, the seat of West Feliciana Parish, and as a Democratic U.S. representative from the Sixth Congressional District from 1967 to 1975...
, an Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
native and a lawyer from St. Francisville
St. Francisville, Louisiana
St. Francisville is a town in and the parish seat of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,712 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:St...
in West Feliciana Parish.
Opposing Henson Moore
DeBlieux was unseated in the 1975 elections, the first held in Louisiana under the jungle primaryJungle primary
A nonpartisan blanket primary is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. Under this system, the top two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election...
format, by fellow Democrat Thomas H. Hudson (born 1946) of Baton Rouge, who held the seat for one term. Ironically, he lost the black vote to Hudson because DeBlieux refused to give black ministers funds for their pledged support. "You should be raising money for me and giving me money to help in my election. I shouldn't be giving you money," DeBlieux told the clergy
Clergy
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....
men. He added that he never gave the ministers any funds.
In 1976, shortly after he had left the state Senate, DeBlieux waged a challenge to freshman Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
U.S. Representative W. Henson Moore, III
Henson Moore
William Henson Moore III , is a retired attorney and businessman who is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, having represented the Baton Rouge-based Sixth Congressional District, from 1975-1987. He is only the second Republican to have represented Louisiana in the House since...
, of Baton Rouge in the Louisiana 6th Congressional District. Moore, who had succeeded Rarick in 1975, was an easy winner even though DeBlieux's candidate for U.S. President, former Governor Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, won Louisiana's then ten electoral votes. Moore received 99,780 votes (65.2 percent) to DeBlieux's 53,212 (34.8 percent) and won majorities in all precincts in the district except for two boxes in West Feliciana Parish. Moore was the first Louisiana Republican congressional candidate in modern history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
to run ahead of the presidential electors in the state. Even in areas where the Carter-Mondale ticket won handily, DeBlieux still trailed.
The Sixth District did not return to its Democratic moorings until May 3, 2008, when State Representative
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
Don Cazayoux
Don Cazayoux
Donald J. 'Don' Cazayoux, Jr. is a former Democratic U.S. Representative from Louisiana's 6th congressional district. He is currently US Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana....
of New Roads in Pointe Coupee Parish defeated Republican former State Representative Woody Jenkins
Woody Jenkins
Louis Elwood "Woody" Jenkins is a newspaper editor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1972–2000 and waged three unsuccessful races for the United States Senate....
in a special election created by the resignation of Republican Richard Hugh Baker. Cazayoux was then defeated for a full two-year term in the November 4 general election by Republican State Senator Bill Cassidy
Bill Cassidy
William "Bill" Cassidy is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2009. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
of Baton Rouge.
Family and legacy
DeBlieux closed his law practice in December 1997. He was predeceased by his wife of forty-six years, the former Dorothy Lepine (November 18, 1916 – December 30, 1993), and their adopted son, Paul Louis DeBlieux (September 11, 1952 – September 6, 1998), who died of renal failureRenal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
five days before his 46th birthday.
In his last years, DeBliex moved to a convalescent home in Mer Rouge
Mer Rouge, Louisiana
Mer Rouge is a village in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, United States. The name is French for "Red Sea". The population was 721 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bastrop Micropolitan Statistical Area....
in Morehouse Parish, where he was tended by a sister, Alma D. Honeycutt (born 1923), a retired postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
in Mer Rouge. DeBlieux died of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. DeBlieux was a distant cousin of Robert DeBlieux
Robert DeBlieux
Robert Buford DeBlieux, usually known as Bobby DeBlieux , was an historian, preservationist, painter, author, businessman, and a former Democratic mayor of Natchitoches, the oldest city in the U.S...
, who served as mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Natchitoches from 1976 to 1980. An active Roman Catholic who attended mass daily, DeBlieux was once cited for his spiritual convictions by Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
John Paul II.
DeBlieux was a former recipient of the "Racial Justice Award" given by the Baton Rouge chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association
Young Women's Christian Association
Young Women's Christian Association or YWCA or YWCA Building or Old YWCA Building or variations may refer to:*World YWCA, the organization formerly known as Young Women's Christian Associationor it may refer to:...
. On April 2, 2008, DeBlieux was, along with former Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
and 1952 gubernatorial candidate Carlos Spaht
Carlos Spaht
Carlos Gustave Spaht, I , was a Louisiana judge best remembered for having lost the Democratic gubernatorial runoff election in January 1952 to fellow Judge Robert F. Kennon of Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana. Spaht's unsuccessful running mate for lieutenant governor...
and former Register of the State Lands Ellen Bryan Moore
Ellen Bryan Moore
Ellen Bryan Moore was a pioneer of women in Louisiana politics, having served in the formerly elected office of "Register of State Lands" from 1952–1956 and 1960-1976...
, honored posthumously by the annual Louisiana Governor's Prayer Breakfast. DeBlieux's funeral mass was celebrated on March 16, 2005, at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge. The DeBlieuxes are interred in Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge.
Camille F. Gravel, Jr.
Camille Gravel
Camille Francis Gravel, Jr. , was a Louisiana, Democratic politician.Gravel spent much time and money supporting the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII honored Gravel with the "Order of St. Gregory" for his outstanding service to the church.-Education:Gravel graduated in 1935 from the University...
, the Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
attorney who was a confidant of three governors and who himself died nine months after DeBlieux's passing, referred to his friend, accordingly: "This may sound overblown, but there aren't enough ways for me to describe what a fine man J.D. DeBlieux [was]. He had courage in his handling of public matters..." Gravel, who was with DeBlieux at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, recalled that two crosses were burned on DeBlieux's property in Baton Rouge during the desegregation crisis, but DeBlieux stood his ground.
Victor V. Bussie
Victor Bussie
Victor V. Bussie was until his retirement in 1997 the 41-year unopposed president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, having first assumed the mantle of union leadership in 1956. Journalists often described him as the most significant non-elected "official" in his state's politics...
, former president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
, said that DeBlieux would not only vote for liberal measures before the Senate but "speak out, which was very unusual. Some others would vote that way but not carry the fight by speaking out. J.D. did both."
Smiley Anders, the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
, wrote on DeBlieux's death that the former lawmaker was "a small man with glasses and a high voice. But in the state Senate in the 1950s, his was the lone voice crying out for racial justice. Today, it's hard to imagine the kind of courage required to take a stand for civil rights in those days. Segregationists ran the state, and bad things could happen to people who supported ... voting rights for African Americans. J.D.'s support of civil rights didn't help his political career, and no doubt didn't help his law practice. Being ahead of your time can be a costly business. His stubborn advocacy of equal rights for all Louisiana people caused the first crack in the solid wall of segregation. J.D. said what he believed needed to be said, at a time when few people wanted to hear it. His stand was not only right—it was heroic."