Emmitt James
Douglas
Emmitt James Douglas (October 14, 1926 – March 25, 1981) was an
African-American businessman 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.
Douglas
was born in Newellton in northern Tensas Parish in north-eastern
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 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 1964.
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. he is
honoured by the naming of the Emmitt J. Douglas Park on Tenth Street
in New Roads.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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