
When it came to desegregating public schools in Louisiana, Antoine Marcel “Mutt” Trudeau Jr. was at the forefront.
Appointed as attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Trudeau Jr. served as co-counsel on a number of civil rights cases from 1955 to 1978. According to the Amistad Research Center, he was best known for working to end school segregation in southeast Louisiana. He also was involved with voter registration drives in Plaquemines Parish.
In 1964, Trudeau Jr. was one of four attorneys representing Black families who sued the Jefferson Parish School Board to desegregate schools.
According to a 2014 Times-Picayune article, the Rev. Arthur Dandridge Jr. and several other Black parents filed the lawsuit, Dandridge v. Jefferson Parish School Board, on behalf of student Lena Vern Dandridge and 15 other minors. It focused on four all-Black and 15 all-white schools.
The suit resulted in school desegregation, which began in certain areas of the parish in 1965, the article states. In 1971, a federal court ordered system-wide desegregation.
Born on March 27, 1927, Trudeau Jr. graduated from local Catholic schools, and earned degrees from Xavier University and Southern University Law School. He also fought in World War II.
“Trudeau held numerous distinguished positions in his professional and civic life,” the Amistad Research Center states. Those positions included assistant city attorney, president of the NAACP State Conference of Branches, president and member of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans Board of Directors and president of the Safety Industrial Life Insurance and Sick Benefit Association.
On a federal level, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Trudeau Jr. to the Presidential Commission on Government Contracts.
A father of four married to Audrey Aramburo, Trudeau Jr. died on Oct. 23, 1978. He is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery and Mausoleum in New Orleans.
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