Fred S. LeBlanc
Encyclopedia
Frederick Saugrain LeBlanc, Sr., known as Fred S. LeBlanc (July 24, 1897 – June 11, 1969), was a 20th century politician
in the U.S. state
of Louisiana
who served two terms as his state's attorney general and was firmly allied with the anti-Long
faction
of the predominant Democratic Party
.
. He thereafter graduated in 1920 from the Louisiana State University Law Center. From 1941-1944, he was the mayor
of Baton Rouge. In 1944, LeBlanc was elected state attorney general
in the first administration of Governor Jimmie Davis
. Also victorious on the Davis ticket was the lieutenant governor candidate, J. Emile Verret
, who defeated Earl Kemp Long for the second office in a runoff election. LeBlanc was unseated in 1948 by Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Jr.
, the choice of the successful gubernatorial candidate that year, Earl Long. LeBlanc instead ran with Long's opponent, former Governor Sam Houston Jones, who fared poorly in the 1948 contest. Bolivar Kemp, the new attorney general was a brother-in-law of Cajun
humorist and chef
Justin Wilson
.
In 1952, LeBlanc returned to office as attorney general as a candidate on the Robert F. Kennon
intraparty ticket. He defeated the Long choice, Joe Arthur Sims
of Hammond
in Tangipahoa Parish
.
minister. Jemison tested a new ordinance
allowing black passengers to fill up empty seats from the rear of the bus so long as whites could have access to the front seats. Jemison sat in a front seat of a bus. The bus company suspended two drivers for not complying with the ordinance. The drivers' union called a four-day strike, which ended when Attorney General LeBlanc declared the ordinance unconstitutional on the premise that it violated Louisiana's segregation laws. Blacks then formed the United Defense League, organized a free-ride network so that passengers could avoid using the city buses, and filed suit against the city to desegregate the buses. The Baton Rouge experience was observed by Martin Luther King, Jr.
, who wrote that Jemison's "painstaking description of the Baton Rouge experience proved invaluable" to him two years later in the Montgomery bus boycott
in Montgomery
, Alabama
.
On June 23, 1953, Jemison called off the boycott after the city council passed a new ordinance under which the first-come, first-served, seating system of back-to-front and front-to-back was reinstated, with the first two seats on any bus reserved for white passengers and the back bench left for blacks. Anyone else could sit on any of the rows in the middle. To comply with state segregation laws, blacks and white were prohibited from sitting next to each other within this arrangement. While a number of boycotters had wanted to challenge segregation directly, the majority backed the municipal compromise.
, the choice of Earl Long, the runaway winner of the governor's race that year. Oddly, LeBlanc had years earlier tutored Gremillion in the law. LeBlanc ran in 1956 on the ticket of deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., the mayor of New Orleans, who made the first of his three failed gubernatorial bids.
After his tenure as attorney general, LeBlanc was soon elected as a judge
of the 19th Judicial District in East Baton Rouge Parish. In this capacity in the summer of 1959, LeBlanc signed the long-remembered letter which committed his old rival, Earl Long, to undergo psychiatric treatment for paranoid schizophrenia. Long later said that signing the order was the "happiest day" of Judge LeBlanc's life.
Judge LeBlanc was also known for imposing stiff penalties and sky-high bail
on civil rights demonstrators who came before his court.
In December 1965, LeBlanc presided over a death-penalty case in Baton Rouge stemming from the shooting of a convenience store
clerk. A capital punishment
watchdog group claimed that the trial was "rife with serious constitutional errors: suppressed mitigating evidence, perjured testimony, and ineffective assistance of counsel." Repeatedly, Judge LeBlanc refused defense requests to delay the trial.
LeBlanc died while still serving as a district judge. He was succeeded by John S. Covington, the appointee of Governor John J. McKeithen.
Though LeBlanc is mentioned in Who's Who in America in several editions during the 1940s
, there is no biographical information included in the national publication, not even his date of birth.
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of 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 two terms as his state's attorney general and was firmly allied with the anti-Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
faction
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...
of the predominant Democratic Party
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...
.
Background
LeBlanc graduated in 1916 from Catholic High School in Baton RougeBaton 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...
. He thereafter graduated in 1920 from the Louisiana State University Law Center. From 1941-1944, he was the mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Baton Rouge. In 1944, LeBlanc was elected state attorney general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
in the first administration of Governor Jimmie Davis
Jimmie Davis
James Houston Davis , better known as Jimmie Davis, was a noted singer of both sacred and popular songs who served two nonconsecutive terms as the 47th Governor of Louisiana...
. Also victorious on the Davis ticket was the lieutenant governor candidate, J. Emile Verret
J. Emile Verret
J. Emile Verret was the Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana from 1944 to 1948, having served under the first of the two nonconsecutive gubernatorial terms of James Houston "Jimmie" Davis. Verret defeated former Governor Earl Kemp Long in the party's runoff election for the second-ranking...
, who defeated Earl Kemp Long for the second office in a runoff election. LeBlanc was unseated in 1948 by Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Jr.
Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Jr.
Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Jr. , was the Democratic attorney general of the U.S. state of Louisiana from 1948–1952 during the administration of Governor Earl Kemp Long. He was allied with the Long faction in state politics....
, the choice of the successful gubernatorial candidate that year, Earl Long. LeBlanc instead ran with Long's opponent, former Governor Sam Houston Jones, who fared poorly in the 1948 contest. Bolivar Kemp, the new attorney general was a brother-in-law of Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
humorist and chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
Justin Wilson
Justin Wilson (chef)
Justin E. Wilson was a southern American chef and humorist known for his brand of Cajun cuisine-inspired cooking and humor. He was a self-styled "raconteur" and a staunch political conservative....
.
In 1952, LeBlanc returned to office as attorney general as a candidate on the Robert F. Kennon
Robert F. Kennon
Robert Floyd Kennon, Sr., known as Bob Kennon , was the 48th Governor of Louisiana, serving from 1952-1956. He failed to win a second non-consecutive term in the 1963 Democratic primary....
intraparty ticket. He defeated the Long choice, Joe Arthur Sims
Joseph A. Sims
Joseph Arthur Sims, Sr. , was a Democratic operative from Hammond, Louisiana, who was associated with his state's Long political faction. As the legal advisor to Governor Earl Kemp Long, he obtained Long's discharge from the Southeast Louisiana State Hospital in Mandeville in St...
of Hammond
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond is the largest city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,049 at the 2009 census. It is home to Southeastern Louisiana University...
in Tangipahoa Parish
Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Tangipahoa Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana, one of the Florida Parishes. The parish seat is Amite City, but the major city is Hammond. As of 2006, the population was 113,137...
.
1953 Baton Rouge bus boycott
LeBlanc became involved in the summer of 1953 with a short-lived municipal bus boycott called in Baton Rouge by T.J. Jemison, an African-AmericanAfrican 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...
minister. Jemison tested a new ordinance
Local ordinance
A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...
allowing black passengers to fill up empty seats from the rear of the bus so long as whites could have access to the front seats. Jemison sat in a front seat of a bus. The bus company suspended two drivers for not complying with the ordinance. The drivers' union called a four-day strike, which ended when Attorney General LeBlanc declared the ordinance unconstitutional on the premise that it violated Louisiana's segregation laws. Blacks then formed the United Defense League, organized a free-ride network so that passengers could avoid using the city buses, and filed suit against the city to desegregate the buses. The Baton Rouge experience was observed by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, who wrote that Jemison's "painstaking description of the Baton Rouge experience proved invaluable" to him two years later in the Montgomery bus boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...
in Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
.
On June 23, 1953, Jemison called off the boycott after the city council passed a new ordinance under which the first-come, first-served, seating system of back-to-front and front-to-back was reinstated, with the first two seats on any bus reserved for white passengers and the back bench left for blacks. Anyone else could sit on any of the rows in the middle. To comply with state segregation laws, blacks and white were prohibited from sitting next to each other within this arrangement. While a number of boycotters had wanted to challenge segregation directly, the majority backed the municipal compromise.
Defeat in 1956
LeBlanc was unseated in the 1956 Democratic primary by Jack P.F. GremillionJack P.F. Gremillion
Jack Paul Faustin Gremillion, Sr. , was the Democratic attorney general of Louisiana from 1956-1972. He was a member of the Earl Kemp Long political faction. Though he opposed school desegregation, he was a party loyalist and was an elector for the John F. Kennedy--Lyndon B. Johnson presidential...
, the choice of Earl Long, the runaway winner of the governor's race that year. Oddly, LeBlanc had years earlier tutored Gremillion in the law. LeBlanc ran in 1956 on the ticket of deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr., the mayor of New Orleans, who made the first of his three failed gubernatorial bids.
After his tenure as attorney general, LeBlanc was soon elected as a judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
of the 19th Judicial District in East Baton Rouge Parish. In this capacity in the summer of 1959, LeBlanc signed the long-remembered letter which committed his old rival, Earl Long, to undergo psychiatric treatment for paranoid schizophrenia. Long later said that signing the order was the "happiest day" of Judge LeBlanc's life.
Judge LeBlanc was also known for imposing stiff penalties and sky-high bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
on civil rights demonstrators who came before his court.
In December 1965, LeBlanc presided over a death-penalty case in Baton Rouge stemming from the shooting of a convenience store
Convenience store
A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...
clerk. A capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
watchdog group claimed that the trial was "rife with serious constitutional errors: suppressed mitigating evidence, perjured testimony, and ineffective assistance of counsel." Repeatedly, Judge LeBlanc refused defense requests to delay the trial.
LeBlanc died while still serving as a district judge. He was succeeded by John S. Covington, the appointee of Governor John J. McKeithen.
Though LeBlanc is mentioned in Who's Who in America in several editions during the 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
, there is no biographical information included in the national publication, not even his date of birth.