The Rev. Avery Alexander marched with Martin Luther King Jr., led bus and business boycotts as well as lunch-counter sit-ins throughout the Civil Rights Movement.

On Oct. 31, 1963, Alexander participated in a sit-in at the New Orleans City Hall basement cafeteria. Police were caught on camera dragging Alexander up the stairs by his heels. 

ā€œAlexander remains a towering figure in the history of Black New Orleans and one of the pioneers of the historic Civil Rights Movement,ā€ the Louisiana Weekly stated in a 2019 article.

Born in 1910 in Terrebonne Parish, Alexander moved to New Orleans with his family in 1927. He graduated from Gilbert Academy in 1939, and from Union Baptist Theological Seminary. He became an ordained minister in 1944. 

Alexander served six terms as a state representative after being elected in 1975. Two years later, he and nine other legislators established the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus.

In 1993, ā€œpolice used a chokehold to subdue Alexander when he participated in a protest against former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke at the Battle of Liberty Place Monument ceremony in New Orleans,ā€ the African American Folklorist states. Nearly two decades later, the city removed the monument, ā€œwhich celebrated white supremacy, from the public space it occupied near the foot of Canal Street.ā€ 

Alexander continued to fight for the rights of others ā€œwell into his 80s,ā€ according to an article in the  Louisiana Weekly. In the article, National Action Now President Raymond Brown said Alexander never ā€œran out of steam and never backed down from a fight. That was one of the things I loved about him.ā€

Following Alexander’s 1999 death, an elementary school and Charity Hospital were renamed in his honor. In 2012, the legislature approved honoring his name at University Medical Center, where his eight-foot statue now stands.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit theĀ Back in the Day archives.

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Tammy C. Barney is an award-winning columnist who spent most of her career at two major newspapers, The Times-Picayune and The Orlando Sentinel. She served as a bureau chief, assistant city editor, TV...