Court Report of Raphael Cassimere, Jr. and CV

    Court Report of Raphael Cassimere, Jr., Ph.D. 

Personal & Professional  

I am a native of New Orleans and a product of its public 
schools. I received both the B.A. and M.A. in history from the 
University of New Orleans. In 1971, I received the Doctor of 
Philosophy in history from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. 
My dissertation was titled, "The Origin and Early Development of 
Slavery in Maryland, 1633-1715." I have been married to Inez 
Hale Cassimere and we have one son and a daughter. We presently 
reside in New Orleans. 

I returned to New Orleans in 1971 as an assistant professor 
in the History Department at the University of New Orleans where 
I am presently an associate professor. At UNO I have taught on a 
consistent basis courses in American, Afro-American, Louisiana 
and Constitutional history. My serveral publications include 
articles on Louisiana's dual system of higher education, public 
school teacher salary equilization cases, and the impact of 
racial polarity voting in New Orleans. 

In addition to having taught and researched Louisiana 
history for more than fifteen years, I have conducted several 
oral history interviews, including more than thirty hours of 
taped interviews with the late Chief Justice John B. Fournet who 
provided me with a wealth of information on Louisiana government 
during the first half of this century. I have testified in 
several cases as an expert witness and the court cited my 
testimony in ruling favorably for the plaintiffs in each case. 

My public and community service has been lengthy and varied; 
ranging from service as an officer of the NAACP at every level to 
service on several state and city commissions. I was appointed 
by Governor McKiethen to the Executive Committee of the Louisiana 
Bicentennial Commission on the American Revolution. In 1975 
Governor Edwards appointed me to the Election Code Revision 
Commission. I served as secretary from 1975-1980 as we completed 
revision of the state's present election code. Governor Edwards 
also made me a founding member of the Louisiana Black Culture 
Commission. From 1982-86 I served on the Vieux Carre Commission, 
three of those years as chairman. I also served for three years 
as a member of the Historical Pharmacy Museum Commission. 

Precis of Testimony  

Plaintiffs requested that I testify about Louisiana's policy 
toward its Black citizens from its beginning to the present. The 
state of Louisiana's policy of treating enslaved Black Americans 
is well documented. It is sufficient to re-state only a few 
basic facts. Throughout the period of enslavement, blacks were 
treated as property and accorded few more rights than the law 

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deemed absolutely necessary to render the slave fit for service 
and at the same time to protect the master's property rights. 
Accordingly, slaves were sold apart from their families, punished 
more severly than whites, denied any political participation in 
the body politic. Even the occasional slave who managed to 
secure freedom existed at the mercy of a hostile society that 
believed that the natural condition of blacks was slavery. 
During the antebellum period, Louisiana showed increasing 
hostility toward free blacks and ultimately placed an absolute 
ban on further emancipation. Only a tragic civil war brought an 
end to slavery. Emancipation did not result, hoever from 
voluntary state action , but as a result of intervention of the 
victorious Union. 

The end of slavery was not the end of racial discrimination. 
While it is true that Black males received the right to vote and 
a number of them won political offices, it resulted from further 
intervention by the U.S. Congress through the passage of several 
civil rights laws. It must be noted that while Black men held on 
to the franchise until the end of the 19th century, it became 
increasingly more difficult to exercise an independent ballot 
after the departure of the last federal troops in 1877. White 
planters resorted to a tactic of "bulldozing"-that is-casting 
votes for their black sharecroppers without even the formality of 
the latter appearing at the poll. Finally in 1898, Louisiana 
rewrote its constitution and included a section on suffrage which 
had the effect of eliminating practically all Black voters. For 
example in 1896, there were more than 130,000, black registrants; 
in 19Q4, there were less than two thousand black voters 
throughout the state. The 1896 total would not be reached again 
for more than one-half century. 

During the late 19th century, Louisiana began to legally 
establish a society based on racial separation: in public 
accomodations, schools, jails, circuses and even houses of ill 
repute. This policy rigidly enforced separation, but never 
accorded equal treatment to black citizens. For example in 1900, 
none of the state's public high schools were open to blacks. 

Black citizens remained politically impotent even after the 
U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the grandfather clause. Louisiana 
merely replaced it in 1921 with an understanding clause, poll 
taxes and the white primary which restricted membership in the 
Democratic party to whites. The white primary was invalidated 
in 1944 and Black registration gradually increased during the 
next decade. However, the potential black officeholders were 
further handicapped by laws requiring majority votes for 
successful candidates and a requirement that prohibited single 
shot voting in multi office elections. 

Without political influence, black citizens faced 
discrimination in state civil service employment, salary 
differentials for black and white teachers, exclusion from higher 
paying jobs, inadequate school buildings, supplies, and books and 
a denial of entry into white universities and professional 

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schools. The state separate but equal policy was never breached 
until and only when change was ordered by the national 
government. And change frequently came slowly and with 
resistance. Meaningful school desegregation did not take place 
for nearly two decades after Brown. Public transit, 
accomodations and state owned facilites were desegregated either 
by federal court order or by congressional statutes. Voter 
registration barriers did not fall until after the passage of the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965. Even after black voter registration 
increased, there remained further barriers to political 
participation, including electoral districts which prevented 
black voters from electing candidates of their choice. As late 
as 1983 the state legislature designed congressional districts in 
a manner which minimized black voting strength. This was only 
remedied after a federal court ordered the change. 

Many officials concede that the legacy of slavery, racial 
segregation and denial of political opportunities was an 
unfortunate part of the state's past history. Now, however, they 
insist, the state pursues a color blind policy toward all of its 
citizens. It is indeed true that the more visible features of 
the past discriminations have been eliminated, but it must also 
be remembered, that in no case did these changes in policy result 
from a change in attitude by state officials, but only by federal 
intervention. Nor is it correct to suggest that the state no 

longer pursues such a policy. Within the decade of the eighties, 
the state and many of its political subdivisions have been found 
to violate the rights of black citizens in the manner in which 
they elect certain officials, judicial, executive and legislative, 
and presently the state of Louisiana is under court order to end 
a racially identifiable dual system of higher education which 
works to the disadvantage of Black citizens. 

Black citizens must still rely on the federal government to 
protect them against civil rights violations in housing, public 
accomodations, employment and police misconduct. The state 
Department of Justice routinely declines to enforce what it 
considers fedeally protected civil rights despite provisions in 
Louisiana's own constitution making such practices illegal. 

In summary, it appears that while progress has been made in 
eliminating legal barriers to full participation by all Louisiana 
citizens, until the state evidences a willingness to remove 
remaining barriers on its own initiative, there is still a need 
for federal intervention. 

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CURRICULUM VITAE  

Born: March 2, 1942 

Raphael Cassimere, Jr. 

Associate Professor 

Appointed at UNO: 1971 

Field of Specialization: Colonial American History, Afro-
American History, and American 
Constitutional History 

Education: 

B. A., University of New Orleans, 1966 
M. A., University of New Orleans, 1968 
Ph.D., Lehigh University, 1971 

Professional Experience: 

Associate Professor, University of New Orleans, 1977-present 
Assistant Professor, University of New Orleans, 1971-1976 
Associate, Moravian College, Fall 1969-1970 
Visiting Instructor, University of New Orleans, Summer 1969 

Professional Organization Memberships and Activities: 

American Historical Association 
Archives of Louisiana 
Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History 

Related Activities: 

Vieux Carre Commission, 1982-1936 )Chairman, 1983-84, 1984-
85, 1985-86) 

Historical. Pharmaceutical Museum Commission, 1983-1986 
Louisiana Black Cultural Commission, 1984-1988 
Louisiana Election Code Commission, 1975-78 
Louisiana Advisory Bicentennial Commission, Executive 

Committee, 1972 
Chairman, NAACP, Southwest Region, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982 

Grants, Awards, and Honors: 

AMOCO Foundation Award for Excellence in Undergraduate 
Teaching, UNO, 1984 
Tureaud Black Citizenship Medal for Meritorious 
Service, NAACP, 1982 

Ford Foundation Fellow, 1970-71 
Henry L. Moses Fellow, 1968-70 

Research in Progress: 

Origin and Early Development of Maryland Slavery 

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CURRICULUM VITAE: Raphael Cassimere, Jr. (page 2 - continued) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Raphael Cassimere, Jr. 

Research in Progress: (continued) 

Desegregation of Higher Education in Louisiana 
Oral History: 20 hours taped interview with former Chief 

Justice John B. Fournet, Louisiana Supreme Court 

Articles: 

"Crises of Public Education in Louisiana," Integrateducation  
(September - October, 1975), 8-13. 

"Equalization of Teacher's Saleries in Louisiana," 
Integrateducation (July - August, 1977), 3-7. 

"Blacks in New Orleans," New Orleans Ethnic Culture, (New 
Orleans Conference on Ethnicity, 1977). 

"Race Relations and Polarity Politics in New Orleans," 
Perspectives on Ethnicity in New Orleans (October, 
1981). 

Essay review of Africa Remembered: Narratives by West  
Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade, ed. by Philip 
Curtin and Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census by Philip 
Curtin in Journal of Black Studies (December, 1972), 
251-255. 

"A Historical Note on the Fragmentation of Public 
Administration in New Orleans," Louisiana •Business  
Survey, (October, 1981). 

UNO Prisms with Jerah Johnson et al. (New Orleans, 1983). 

Forthcoming Publications: 

"Plessy Revisited: Louisiana's Dual System of Higher ePIA-Lj 
Education" Equity and Excellence - 

"Achieving Through Adversity" Proceedings of 1987 American  
Print Conference  

4 Biographical Sketches in Louisiana Dictonary of Biography  

Papers and Critiques at Professional Meetings: 

"Who Guards the Guardians?: The Question of a Police Review 
'Board," a paper, Symposium on City Governance, New 
Orleans, October, 1972. 

"Contributions of Civil Disobediance to Social Change in 
Rural Societies," a paper, Rural Sociological Society, 
Baton Rouge, August, 1972. 

"The Transformation from Servants to Slaves," New Orleans 
Area History Seminar, March 1974. 

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CURRICULUM VITAE: Raphael Cassimere, Jr. (page 3 - continued) 

Papers and Critiques: (continued) 

"Equalizing Teacher Saleries in Louisiana." a paper, 
Symposium of Departments of History & Political 
Science, S.U.N.O., November, 1976. 

"A New Look at Slavery," Symposium on Blacks in Louisiana, 
Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans, April, 1977. 

"Civil v Common Law: Louisiana and its People," Louisiana 
Committee for the Humanities, New Orleans, March, 1977. 

"Blacks in Louisiana," New Orleans Public Library Jamalaya 
Series, October, 1978. 

"Blacks in New Orleans," Conference on Ethnicity, New 
Orleans, Fall, 1977. 

"Blacks in Higher Education Since 1954," chairman and 
discussant, Association for the Study of Afro-American 
Life and History," Washington, D.C., October, 1977. 

"Rural Blacks in the Twentieth Century," discussant, 
association for the.Study of Afro-American Life and 
History, New York City, October, 1979. 

"The Resources of Amistad Center," commentator, Association 
for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, New 
Orleans, October 1980. 

"Reinterpreting Slavery," commentator, Reopening Ceremonies 
for Amistad Collection, New Orleans, November 1980. 

"The Future of Blacks in Public Education," chairman and 
• discussant, NAACP National Convention, July 1981. 
"The Effects of Slavery" opening address, Black History 

Celebration, U.N.O., February 1982. 

Other Professional Activities: 

Expert Witness testimony: 

Ma or V. Treen (1983) 
Citizens for a Better Gretna V. Gretna (1985) 

Coalition for Fair Redistricting v. Jefferson (1988) 

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