Civil Rights Pioneers

Civil Rights Pioneers

Josephine Dubuclet Decuir brought a lawsuit against the owner of the steamship Governor Allen in 1873 after she was discriminated against regarding her accomodations on the steamship. Madame Decuir was coming home, traveling from New Orleans to Hermitage Landing in Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana. Her lawsuit, Decuir v Benson, was heard in New Orleans where she was awarded $1,000 in damages. The defendant and his heirs appealed the case which eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court as Hall v Decuir. At this highest appeal the first award of $1,000 was overturned with the judgment based on the legalities of who governed private commerce, not as a civil rights issue. This case set the precendence for the famous Plessy v Ferguson where the "separate but equal" statute began.

It was not until 1954 with the Brown v Board of Education case from Topeka, Kansas that the "separate but equal" statute was officially overturned. Madame Decuir's lawsuit is still referred as a precedence today in a variety of cases involving interstate commerce. Ironically, the purpose of her lawsuit was thst she was given lesser accomodations because she was a "woman of color" and she sued on the basis of discrimination, not the laws of interstate commerce.

Today we think about Madame Josephine Dubuclet Decuir and her courage to fight for our civil rights as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v Board of Education decision!

Josephine Dubuclet Decuir, married to Antoine Decuir II, descended from colonial Louisiana and Pointe Coupee inhabitants. They owned Austerlitz Plantation, which was built by Antoine Decuir, Sr. and Madame Pouponne Decoux Decuir around 1830. They were a prominent "free family of color", some of the wealthiest planters in Louisiana and one of the larger slave owners in the American South before the Civil War.