Louis Berry (October 9, 1914 – May 3, 1998) was the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

permitted to practice law in his native formerly segregated city of

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana.

Background

A son of Frank Berry Sr., a tailor and grocer in Alexandria, Louis Berry graduated in 1941 from historically black Howard University School of Law in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

On August 1, 1945, Berry became the first African-American admitted to the practice of law in

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

since A. P. Tureaud in 1927. Berry hoped to join Tureaud's law practice, in

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, but Tureaud could not financially take on another lawyer at that time. Instead, Berry practiced with John Perkins, who was licensed in

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, not Louisiana. In 1947, with the opening of Southern University Law Center in

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

, several black lawyers were recruited to join the faculty. Berry served as dean of Southern Law Center from 1972 to 1974.

Legal practice

Berry returned to his native Alexandria sometimes prior to 1950. Under the custom of the time, a new lawyer had to be introduced to the local bar association. When other white attorneys turned down Berry and privately ridiculed him, Camille Gravel, a high-powered criminal defense lawyer with political connections in both Baton Rouge and Washington, called Berry and offered to introduce him to their legal colleagues. This action was considered politically courageous in the segregated system of the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

. Berry filled the role as the only black lawyer in Alexandria much as Jesse N. Stone, later the president of the Southern University System in Baton Rouge, had done in

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

. Berry worked with black ministers in Rapides Parish to register African-American citizens under the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights move ...

. Passage of the law, signed by

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Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

, led to a large increase in black voter participation in Alexandria. The former civics test covering highlights of the

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was dropped as a condition for registration. The ''Alexandria Daily Town Talk'' attributed much of the improvement in living conditions in the black community to Berry's activism. The newspaper quoted Berry as having said: "Young people will be surprised to know the conditions under which blacks had to exist at the time, for they really had no rights that anybody was bound to respect." In 1996, some two years before his death in Lafayette, Louisiana, Berry was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. Camille Gravel had been inducted a year earlier in 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Louis 1914 births 1998 deaths Louisiana Democrats People from Alexandria, Louisiana Politicians from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Lawyers from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Academics from Louisiana Howard University School of Law alumni Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists African-American activists 20th-century American lawyers