Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

R ODOLPHE L UCIEN D ESDUNES
(1849-1928)
Over a life that spanned the decades from Reconstruction through Progressivism, Rodolphe
Lucien Desdunes followed his calling as a writer, poet, and educator to advance the cause of civil
rights in New Orleans. Known most prominently for his seminal history of Francophone African-
American Creoles Nos Hommes et Notre Histoire, Desdunes is also remembered for co-founding the
activist Comité des Citoyens. This group brought the legal action leading to the United States
Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which from 1896 until 1954 allowed “separate but
equal” public facilities in public accommodations.
Born in New Orleans and a life-long Republican who served as secretary of the Republican State
Central Committee, Desdunes graduated with a law degree from Straight University. With several
other prominent Creoles such as Walter Louis Cohen (q.v.), he worked at the U. S. Customhouse
in New Orleans, the principal Federal patronage job of the day. In 1874, he fought the White
League at the Battle of Liberty Place and was wounded. During the following years he became dedicated
to the Odd Fellows organization and wrote for newspapers such as the Republican Crusader.
With his brother Aristide and a group called L’Union Louisiannais, Desdunes in 1884 reopened the
Marie Couvent (q.v.) School for poor blacks. There, both brothers served on the board of directors,
with Rodolphe teaching history.
The Louisiana Legislature’s 1890 passage of the “Withdraw Car Act” (better known as the “Separate
Car Act”) had forced blacks and whites to sit in separate railway cars. In response, Desdunes and others
planned to challenge the law. His son Daniel was the first to stage a violation, but his arrest was
voided because it occurred on an interstate train. In June 1892, Homer Plessy (q.v.) volunteered to
be arrested the Comité securing his immediate release. Subsequent legal proceedings culminated in
the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the arrest had not violated Plessy’s rights and that the state
law was acceptable. The Comité soon disbanded and Desdunes turned to history, beginning a multiyear
effort to capture the biographies of notable New Orleans African-American leaders. He wrote Nos
Hommes et Notre Histoire in the early twentieth century, after he had withdrawn from activist politics.
Desdunes married Mathilde Cheval, by whom he had five children. Less admirably, he subsequently
lived with Clementine Walker and had four more children. One daughter became the wellknown
blues pianist Mamie Desdunes.
Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes.
THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION, 59-110-L.
E LIZA J ANE N ICHOLSON
(1849-1896)
Although by her own words, Eliza Jane Poitevent Nicholson “was the wildest girl in her class,” she
ended as one of New Orleans’ most successful business women. Nicholson took a stodgy, financially
troubled nineteenth century newspaper full of business news and built it into the city’s most long-lived
and successful daily. Through her leadership, The Daily Picayune came of age, living on to become The
Times-Picayune, a decades-long daily monopoly that until the age of the Internet influenced politics,
supported culture, identified society, promoted sports, and was the go-to place for checking obituaries.
Among Eliza’s innovations at The Daily Picayune were the “big Sunday paper,” loaded with features,
including the Weather Frog; bordered advertisements, and the concept of the family newspaper with
content aimed at men, women and children. Nicholson created the Society Column, authoring it herself
for years. With an eye for newspaper talent, she promoted promising writers such as Catherine
Cole, Grace King, and Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, better known as “Dorothy Dix.”
Set against these accomplishments of the first woman in America to run a major daily paper was
Eliza Nicholson’s personal life. Raised practically alone by an aunt in the backwoods of Mississippi,
BIOGRAPHIES
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