J.D. DeBlieux

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Joseph Davis "J.D." DeBlieux
Louisiana State Senator from East Baton Rouge Parish
In office 1956 – 1960
Preceded by	Charles F. Duchein
Succeeded by	Wendell P. Harris
In office 1964 – 1976
Preceded by	Wendell P. Harris
Succeeded by	Thomas H. Hudson
Born	September 12, 1912(1912-09-12) Columbia, Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, USA
Died	March 13, 2005 (aged 92) Mer Rouge, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Dorothy Lepine DeBlieux (1916-1993, married 1948-her death)
Children	Paul Louis DeBlieux (1952-1998)
Residence	Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana (prior to disabililty)
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Roman Catholic
(1) State Senator DeBlieux was perhaps the first white politician in Louisiana to advocate desegregation of public schools after the United States Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. (2) DeBlieux was the oldest of fourteen children born to a Roman Catholic couple in Natchitoches, the oldest city in Louisiana. His youngest sibling was born in 1939, when DeBlieux was twenty-seven. (3) DeBlieux waged liberal campaigns in futile attempts to unseat popular incumbents, U.S. Senator Allen J. Ellender in 1966 and U.S. Representative W. Henson Moore, III, in 1976.

Joseph Davis DeBlieux, known as J.D. DeBlieux (September 12, 1912 - March 13, 2005),^[1] was a Democratic member of the Louisiana State Senate who represented East Baton Rouge Parish from 1956-1960 and again from 1964-1976.^[2] 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", as the American South slowly complied with the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education.^[3]

Contents 1 Early years, education, military 2 Entering Louisiana politics 3 Opposing Henson Moore 4 Family and legacy 5 References

[edit] Early years, education, military

DeBlieux was the oldest of fourteen children (seven boys and seven girls) born to a poor Louisiana couple, Honore Louis "Bubba" DeBlieux, Sr. (1889-1958), and the former Ozet Perot (1895-1981). Honore and Ozet were both born in Natchitoches Parish, he in Clarence and she in nearby Campti. The couple married in 1911 in Winnsboro, the seat of Franklin Parish. Honore was a heavy duty equipment engineer. 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, when J.D. was born there. He graduated in 1929 from Caldwell Parish High School, then known Columbia High School.^[4]The DeBlieuxs lived on land adjacent to the Hogan Plantation acquired by future Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen. McKeithen recalled that the DeBlieux family was "very, very poor. 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."^[5]McKeithen added, "There has never been a man in the legislature more honest than J.D. DeBlieux."^[6].

The family thereafter relocated to Bastrop, the seat of Morehouse Parish in north Louisiana near Monroe. In 1932, DeBlieux received an associates degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, when the institution was Northeast 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.^[4]

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.^[7]In 1941, DeBlieux was drafted into the United States Army, having served during World War II in the in the Middle East as a staff sergeant law clerk.^[6]From 1949-1950, he was an officer of the Baton Rouge American Legion post.^[8]

[edit] Entering Louisiana politics

In 1948, DeBlieux ran for the Louisiana House of Representatives 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).^[1]. 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.^[9]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,^[5]

DeBlieux was unseated in the Democratic runoff election in January 1959 by segregationist Wendell P. Harris (March 13, 1917 - February 4, 1994).^[1] 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. 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.^[10] 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.

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, a conservative businessman 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).^[11] Ellender was then unopposed in the November 8 general election for the last of his six Senate terms.

In 1968, DeBlieux 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.

[edit] Opposing Henson Moore

DeBlieux was unseated in the 1975 elections, the first held in Louisiana under the jungle primary format, by fellow Democrat Thomas H. Hudson of Baton Rouge.

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 viotes (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 Louisana 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.^[12]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 a resignation.

[edit] Family and legacy

DeBlieux 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),^[1] who died of kidney failure 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 1976-1980. An active Roman Catholic who attended mass daily, DeBlieux was once cited for his spiritual convictions by Pope John Paul II.^[13]

DeBlieux was a former recipient of the "Racial Justice Award" given by the Baton Rouge chapter of the Young Women's Christian Association.^[14] 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 Catholic Cathedral in Baton Rouge. The DeBlieuxes are interred in Resthaven Gardens of Memory in Baton Rouge.

Camille Gravel, the Alexandria attorney who was a confidant of three governors and who 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 recalled that two crosses were burned on DeBlieux's property in Baton Rouge during the desegregation crisis, but DeBlieux stood his ground.^[5]

Preceded by Charles F. Duchein

Louisiana State Senator from East Baton Rouge Parish Joseph Davis DeBlieux 1956–1960

Succeeded by Wendell P. Harris

Preceded by Wendell P. Harris

Louisiana State Senator from East Baton Rouge Parish Joseph Davis DeBlieux 1964–1976

Succeeded by Thomas H. Hudson

[edit] References