Emmitt Douglas
Encyclopedia
Emmitt James Douglas was an African-American
business
man from New Roads
, Louisiana
, who served as president of his state's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) from 1966 until his death.
in northern Tensas Parish
in northeastern Louisiana to Samuel Frederick Douglas and the former Fannie Rose Armstrong. He was educated at the segregated
since defunct black schools in Newellton and from Tensas Rosenwald in St. Joseph
. He was a classmate of Andrew Brimmer
, later the first African American named to the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System
. The institutions closed in 1970, when Tensas Parish public schools were desegregated.
Brimmer then attended the historically black Roman Catholic-affiliated Xavier University
in New Orleans
. Thereafter, Douglas entered the United States Army
, where he reached the rank of master sergeant
. From 1950–1952, he was stationed in Anchorage
, Alaska
, and Fort Worth
, Texas
. Thereafter, he was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and a salesman for Southern Barber and Beauty Supply Company in Baton Rouge
. On July 24, 1949, in New Roads, the seat of Pointe Coupee Parish
, Douglas married the former Audrey Marie Daisy (1920–1991), daughter of farmer Thomas Daisy (1898–1975) and the former Lillian Pourclau (1897–1985). The Douglases had one child, Kordice Majella Douglas (born 1955). Kordice Douglas is a graduate of the Harvard Law School
and practices law in Baton Rouge.
Douglas was active in Democratic
politics at a time when his party dominated most of his native state. He headed the New Roads NAACP from 1965–1981 and served on the national board of the organization from 1967–1981. Governor Edwin Washington Edwards appointed Douglas to the Prison System Study Commission. He served in 1975 on the Commission on Judicial Compensation for City, Parish, and Municipal Courts. He was a member of the St. Augustine Catholic Church in New Roads, where he resided from 1949 until his death. He had lived in New Orleans from 1942–1946 and in Baton Rouge from 1946–1949. He was a district manager for Standard Life Insurance Company and Supreme Life Insurance Company and the proprietor of Douglas Barber and Beauty Supply Company and Douglas Fine Foods Grocery, both in Baton Rouge.
. Douglas retained as his attorney Murphy Bell, also a former NAACP state president.
In 1976, Douglas quarreled at the national NAACP convention in Memphis
, Tennessee
, with executive director Roy Wilkins
, who postponed his planned retirement from the organization by an additional year. Wilkins criticized certain board members as having conducted a "campaign of vilification" against him, questioning his integrity, health, and competence. Wilkins had threatened lawsuits against the offenders. Douglas took a microphone and rebuked Wilkins: "I resent allegations against board members unless they are named."
Douglas died at the age of fifty-four of a heart attack at New Roads General Hospital. He and his wife are entombed at the St. Augustine Catholic Church Mausoleum in New Roads.
Douglas is honored by the naming of the Emmitt J. Douglas Park on Tenth Street in New Roads.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
man from New Roads
New Roads, Louisiana
New Roads is a city in and the parish seat of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, United States. The center of population of Louisiana is located in New Roads . The population was 4,996 at the 2000 census. The city's ZIP code is 70760...
, 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...
, who served as president of his state's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP) from 1966 until his death.
Background
Douglas was born in NewelltonNewellton, Louisiana
Newellton is a town in northern Tensas Parish in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population is 1,227 in the 2010 census, a decline of 255 from 2000. Newellton is some 65 percent African American. It is just west of the Mississippi River on Lake St. Joseph, an ox-bow lake....
in northern Tensas Parish
Tensas Parish, Louisiana
Tensas Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is St. Joseph. In 2010, the population of Tensas Parish was 5,252; it is the least-populous of all sixty-four parishes....
in northeastern Louisiana to Samuel Frederick Douglas and the former Fannie Rose Armstrong. He was educated at the segregated
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
since defunct black schools in Newellton and from Tensas Rosenwald in St. Joseph
St. Joseph, Louisiana
St. Joseph is a town in and the parish seat of Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,340 at the 2000 census. The town is 69 percent African American. St. Joseph is the entry community to Lake Bruin State Park located on Lake Bruin, a relatively clear oxbow...
. He was a classmate of Andrew Brimmer
Andrew Brimmer
Andrew Felton Brimmer is a noted economist, academic, and business leader who was the first African American to have served as a governor of the Federal Reserve System.- Early life and education :...
, later the first African American named to the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907...
. The institutions closed in 1970, when Tensas Parish public schools were desegregated.
Brimmer then attended the historically black Roman Catholic-affiliated Xavier University
Xavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana , located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college with the distinction of being the only historically black Roman Catholic institution of higher education...
in New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. Thereafter, Douglas entered 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...
, where he reached the rank of master sergeant
Master Sergeant
A master sergeant is the military rank for a senior non-commissioned officer in some armed forces.-Israel Defense Forces:Rav samal rishoninsignia IDF...
. From 1950–1952, he was stationed in Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, and Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Thereafter, he was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and a salesman for Southern Barber and Beauty Supply Company in Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...
. On July 24, 1949, in New Roads, the seat of Pointe Coupee Parish
Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana
Pointe Coupee Parish, pronounced "Pwent Koo-Pay" and , is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is New Roads. As of 2000, the population was 22,763....
, Douglas married the former Audrey Marie Daisy (1920–1991), daughter of farmer Thomas Daisy (1898–1975) and the former Lillian Pourclau (1897–1985). The Douglases had one child, Kordice Majella Douglas (born 1955). Kordice Douglas is a graduate of the Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
and practices law in Baton Rouge.
Douglas was active in 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...
politics at a time when his party dominated most of his native state. He headed the New Roads NAACP from 1965–1981 and served on the national board of the organization from 1967–1981. Governor Edwin Washington Edwards appointed Douglas to the Prison System Study Commission. He served in 1975 on the Commission on Judicial Compensation for City, Parish, and Municipal Courts. He was a member of the St. Augustine Catholic Church in New Roads, where he resided from 1949 until his death. He had lived in New Orleans from 1942–1946 and in Baton Rouge from 1946–1949. He was a district manager for Standard Life Insurance Company and Supreme Life Insurance Company and the proprietor of Douglas Barber and Beauty Supply Company and Douglas Fine Foods Grocery, both in Baton Rouge.
NAACP activities
Douglas pushed to accelerate school desegregation, a gradual process completed in all sixty-four parishes by August 1970, including Douglas' native Tensas Parish, which is predominantly African American. In 1970, Douglas was arrested when he attempted to dine at an all-white establishment in Baton Rouge. The incident occurred six years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
. Douglas retained as his attorney Murphy Bell, also a former NAACP state president.
In 1976, Douglas quarreled at the national NAACP convention in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, with executive director Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ....
, who postponed his planned retirement from the organization by an additional year. Wilkins criticized certain board members as having conducted a "campaign of vilification" against him, questioning his integrity, health, and competence. Wilkins had threatened lawsuits against the offenders. Douglas took a microphone and rebuked Wilkins: "I resent allegations against board members unless they are named."
Douglas died at the age of fifty-four of a heart attack at New Roads General Hospital. He and his wife are entombed at the St. Augustine Catholic Church Mausoleum in New Roads.
Douglas is honored by the naming of the Emmitt J. Douglas Park on Tenth Street in New Roads.