Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes (; November 15, 1849 – August 14, 1928) was a

Louisiana Creole Louisiana Creole is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Also known as Kouri-Vini, it is spoken today by people who may racially identify as white, black, mixed, and Native ...

civil rights activist, poet, historian, journalist, and customs officer primarily active in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. In Louisiana, Desdunes served as a militiaman during the Reconstruction era and fought in the Battle of Liberty Place. Later, he was a member of L'Union Louisianaise and wrote for the weekly of the same name. He also wrote for the daily paper, the ''Crusader,'' and taught at the Couvent School in New Orleans. In 1890, Desdunes was among the founders of the Comité des Citoyens, which fought the 1890 Separate Car Act through legal challenges, leading to the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

Case, '' Plessy vs Ferguson'' (1896). He also wrote an important French-language history of Creoles in America called '' Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire'', the first such book written in French by a member of the Louisiana Creoles of Color. Later in life he moved to

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, where his son Daniel had settled.

Life

Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes was born November 15, 1849, as one of at least five children of Pierre Jérémie Desdunes and Henriette Angélique (Sonty) Gaillard; siblings were Pierre Aristide, Joseph, Elmore, and Sarazin. Their father, Pierre, lived in New Orleans at least as early as 1840 and was probably born in the city. The Desdunes family were Saint Dominican Creole refugees who fled from

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

(now Haiti) during the 1791

Haitian Revolution The Haitian Revolution ( or ; ) was a successful insurrection by slave revolt, self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was the only known Slave rebellion, slave up ...

,Vernhettes, Dan and Hanley, Peter
"The Desdunes Family"
''The Jazz Archivist'', Tulane University, XXVII, 2014, pages 25-45. Accessed February 3, 2016. at which time they gained asylum in New Orleans. Rodolphe's education was likely provided by family and family friends Armand Lanusse and Joanni Questy, as well as at the Couvent School.Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates. ''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience'', Oxford University Press, 2005 Rodolphe's brother Pierre Aristide also became involved in civil rights as an adult. By profession, he was a poet, a cigar maker, a carpenter, and owner of a tobacco plantation. He fought in the American Civil War. He served on the board of directors of the Couvent School, which had been created by Marie Couvent in 1848. In 1873 Aristide married Louise Mathilde Denebourg. Rodolphe married Mathilde Cheval, and they lived for some time with her mother, also named Mathilde. Before 1880, they had children Daniel (born in about 1873), Agnes (about 1873), Louise (about 1874), Coritza (born in 1876), and Wendelle (born winter 1876-1877). The Chevals may have descended from early Cheval settlers of the

Tremé Tremé ( ) is a neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. "Tremé" is often rendered as Treme, and the neighborhood is sometimes called by its more formal French name, the Faubourg Tremé; it is listed in the New Orleans City Planning Districts as ...

district, Pierre and Léandre. In 1879, Rodolphe started a relationship with Clementine Walker, born in 1860 and a daughter of John and Ophelia Walker. Rodolphe and Clementine had at least four children, Mary Celine (March 25, 1879), John Alexander (1881), Louise (1889), and Oscar Alphonse (1892). Clementine died on September 23, 1893. Mary Celine later became known as Mamie Desdunes and was a blues pianist. Clementine lived near

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz ...

's godmother, and Jérémie and Henriette Desdunes were neighbors of Morton's mother. From this proximity, Morton learned the song he recorded as "Mamie's Blues" or "2:19 Blues" and attributed it to Mamie, singing, "Can’t give a dollar, give a lousy dime,/ I wanna feed that hungry man of mine." Other associates of Mamie included performer

Bunk Johnson Willie Gary "Bunk" Johnson (December 27, 1889 – July 7, 1949) was an American prominent jazz trumpeter from New Orleans. Biography Birth Johnson gave the year of his birth as 1879, although Johnson stated on his 1937 application for Socia ...

and promoters Hattie Rogers and Lulu White. Mamie married George Degay in 1898, and died of tuberculosis on December 4, 1911. Oscar was also a musician. After his nephew Clarence's death in 1933, Oscar played with his band, the Joyland Revellers. Rodolphe had three other daughters, possibly by Clementine, named Edna, Lucille, and Jeanne (born about 1893). Harpers1874LouisianaOutrage

Militia

In the early 1870s during Reconstruction, Desdunes was a member of the

New Orleans Police Department The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, while the city itself is div ...

. In 1874, under the command of former Confederate General and then adjutant general of the Louisiana Militia

James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Ho ...

, Desdunes was among the injured in the Battle of Liberty Place, fought between the pro-Republican city, state, and federal forces, and a pro-Democratic, largely ex-Confederate group called the White League. His experience was important to him. He remained a strong supporter of the rights and honors due to the black veterans of the

United States Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded ...

Political and civil service

Desdunes began to attend law courses at Straight University in the early 1870s. He graduated with a Bachelors of Law from Straight University in the spring of 1882. Desdunes was appointed in 1879 as secretary of the parish vice committee upon the resignation of Charles A. Baquie., was an active member of the

Odd Fellows Odd Fellows (or Oddfellows when referencing the Grand United Order of Oddfellows or some British-based fraternities; also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship) is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in 18th-cen ...

, and translated rituals of his lodge, ''La Creole,'' into French. Also, he was a member of Lodge Amité Sincere No. 27. In 1891 he was elected secretary of the Republican state central committee in Louisiana. He was a frequent contributor to Republican politics. In 1892, he was a speaker in a Louisiana Republican organizational rally, calling on blacks to support more moderate candidates with strong Louisiana ties. In 1897, Desdunes's activity included the support of Louisiana State Senator Henry Demas, denouncing lynching, calling for more schools, opposing the

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

, and denouncing the constitutional convention, which he felt sought to deprive black suffrage. He was a member of the Republican Committee until 1900. General Badger

From 1870 to 1885, Desdunes worked for the

U.S. Customs Service The United States Customs Service was a federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. federal government. Established on July 31, 1789, it collected import tariffs, performed other selected border security duties, as well as conducted criminal i ...

in New Orleans as a messenger and as a clerk. He also worked at the Customs office from 1891 to 1896, and from 1899 to 1912. In 1880, Desdunes was appointed assistant cashier of the New Orleans Customhouse by Collector Algernon Sidney Badger. In 1891 Desdunes was appointed chief clerk of the sub treasury in New Orleans. In 1908, as a part of his Customs department duties, Desdunes was supervising the weighing of cargo on a ship when granite dust blew into his eyes, blinding him. He retired the following year and moved to

, to live with his son, Daniel, who was a musician and activist there.

Civil rights activism

In the 1870s, Desdunes became involved in the pro-black rights Young Men's Progressive Association. As part of the

Compromise of 1877 The Compromise of 1877, also known as the Wormley Agreement, the Tilden-Hayes Compromise, the Bargain of 1877, or Corrupt bargain, the Corrupt Bargain, was a speculated unwritten political deal in the United States to settle the intense dispute ...

, most of the federal troops were withdrawn from the South, enabling white supremacists to work more freely to suppress black rights. In 1878, the association, with Desdunes an officer and Thomas J. Boswell as president, were active in condemning lynchings: dozens of blacks had been killed in Louisiana in the 1870s. They noted the murders of Daniel Hill and Herman Bell of Ouachita Parish, Commodore Smallwood, Charles Carrol, John Higgins, and Washington Hill of Concordia Parish, Charles Bethel, Robert Williams, Munday Hill, James Stafford, Louis Postlewait, and William Henry of Tensas Parish. In 1884, Rodolphe and his brother, Aristide, as well as Paul Trévigne, Arthur Estèves, and Louis André Martinet, as a part of a group called L'Union Louisiannais, reopened the Couvent School. Both Desdunes brothers served on the board of directors and Rodolphe also taught.Bell, Caryn Cossé, ''Rappelez-vous concitoyens': The Poetry of Pierre-Aristide Desdunes, Civil War Soldier, Romantic Literary Artist, and Civil Rights Activist'', University of Massachusetts Lowell In 1887, a French-language weekly paper was produced in New Orleans under the same name (''L'Union Louisiannais'') with Eugene Lucy (president), Homer Plessy (Vice President), Rodolphe Desdunes (recording secretary and solicitor), Pierre Chevalier (treasurer), and O. Bart (solicitor). In 1889, Martinet formed the Republican newspaper, the ''Crusader'', and Desdunes was a frequent contributor. Publishing in both French and English, the ''Crusader'' took up the civil rights cause. Desdunes was a part of the American Citizens' Equal Rights Association of Louisiana in 1890, protesting to the state assembly against legislation that imposed second-class status on blacks. He also wrote for other papers in Louisiana, such as the ''Business Herald'' in Donaldsonville in 1904.

Comité des Citoyens

Desdunes was incensed by the 1890 Separate Car Act, writing in an 1891 letter to the editor in the ''Crusader'', "Among the many schemes devised by the Southern statesman to divide the races, none is so audacious and so insulting as the one which provides separate cars for black and white people on the railroads running through the state. It is like a slap in the face of every member of the black race, whether he has the full measure or only one-eighth of that blood." Aristide, Rodolphe and Daniel Desdunes, Louis Martinet, Eugene Luscy, Paul Bonseigneur, L. J. Joubert,

P. B. S. Pinchback Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837 – December 21, 1921) was an American publisher, politician, and Union Army officer who served as Governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873. Pinchback is commonly referr ...

, Caesar Antoine, Homer Plessy and others formed the Comité des Citoyens to organize black civil rights efforts. Rodolphe enlisted his eldest son, Daniel, to violate the act to allow for its challenge in the courts. On February 24, 1892, Daniel boarded a train bound for Mobile, Alabama. While stopped at the corner of Elysian Fields and Claiborne in New Orleans, Daniel was arrested. However, Judge John Howard Ferguson ruled that the Separate Car Act could not be enforced for interstate travel because the US Constitution granted the federal government the authority to regulate only interstate travel and commerce. The Comité then challenged the law again, this time focusing on intrastate travel, and Plessy volunteered to break the law. Luscy, Bonseignure, Rodolphe Desdunes, Joubert, and Martinet secured Plessy's release on bail that same day. When the case, '' Plessy vs. Ferguson'', finally reached the U. S. Supreme Court in 1896, it was found that Plessy's rights had not been violated, Desdunes writing, "our defeat sanctioned the odious principle of the segregation of the races." The Comité des Citoyens activists Albion Tourgee and James C. Walker defended in both cases. About that time, both the Comité and the ''Crusader'' disbanded.

Historian and poet

Desdunes was very interested in the history and art of Creoles in Louisiana. From July through October 1895, Desdunes published translated excerpts from Joseph Saint-Rémy’s five volume work, ''Pétion et Haïti'', for the ''New Orleans Crusader''. Just before losing his sight, Desdunes finished a book about the contribution of Creoles to Louisiana history, ''Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire'', which was published in Quebec in 1911. In the book, Desdunes uses personal reminiscences and scholarly biography to explore the lives of remarkable men in letters, fine arts, music, war, peace, and teaching. The story starts with the role of free black soldiers under General

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

in the

Battle of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...

in the War of 1812 and continues to explore the contribution of creoles to Louisiana and to the United States. It contrasts this with the hatred, contempt, and injustice that were faced by the men described and all blacks faced. In this way, Desdunes' work follows the example of ''La Campagne De 1814-15'' by Hippolyte Castra, a commonality that Desdunes points out by including Castra and Castra's activities in his book. The introduction of the original edition was written by Louis Martin. In Omaha, he continued to work on his poetry, submitting his work to various outlets. He also became close to others in the Omaha black community, particularly Father John Albert Williams, who praised Desdunes as "Omaha's Blind Negro Poet" in the ''Omaha World-Herald''. His poems in the Herald included praise for black soldiers serving in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, "To the French High Commission (Hommage de la population de couleur.)", and a tribute to Nebraska entitled "Aksarben, Eloge", both of which appeared in 1917. o Headline ''Omaha World-Herald'' (Omaha, Nebraska) Saturday, October 6, 1917 Page: 4

Death

He lived in his own house in Omaha with his wife, and died on August 14, 1928, of

cancer of the larynx Laryngeal cancer is a kind of cancer that can develop in any part of the larynx (voice box). It is typically a squamous-cell carcinoma, reflecting its origin from the epithelium of the larynx. The prognosis is affected by the location of the tumo ...

. His remains were sent to New Orleans and he was interred in a family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.