"Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes" (November 15,1849-August 14,1928)

Was a prominent editor,author,and civil rights activists from New Orleans,Louisiana.He is best known for his work in Plessy v.Ferguson,the most important civil rights case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 19th
Century,and a book he wrote about the history and culture of Creoles in Louisiana.He was born in New Orleans.His daddy was a Haitian exile and,his mama was Cuban.Rodolphe came from a family that owned a tobacco plantation and manufactured cigars.He was a law student at Straight University in the early 1870s.He also worked for the United States Customs  House in New Orleans first as a messenger from 1879-1885,and as a clerk from 1891-1894,and again from 1899-1912.
Rodolphe grew up and experienced young adulthood in New Orleans at a time when public facilities and public schools were integrated.The political environment in Louisiana,began to change in the late 1880s.The State Legislature began enacting laws that segregated African American and whites in public spaces.
In 1889 Rodolphe became editor of the Crusader,a weekly African American newspaper printed in French and English which was created to
inform and rally African American and Creole  community leaders to challenge the encroaching segregationist laws.He and the publisher,
Louis A.Martinet,called for equal rights and urged legal action against  segregation.
Through the Crusader,Rodolphe & Louis helped a new national civil rights group,the American Citizens Equal Rights Association (ACERA).A delegation of ACERA addressed the Louisiana Legislature  in 1889 but with no effect.Within weeks,most African American ACERA members dropped out due to white intimidation and the Legislature passed ACT 111 of 1890 ("The Separate Car Act"),which segregated  railroad passenger cars  for the first time.
Rodolphe & Louis formed a second committee,Comite des Citoyens ("Citizens Committee"),to fight the new segregation
law.They enlisted the support of a wealthy Creole Aristides Mary,who would prove critical in funding the upcoming legal battle 
against segregation.
Rodolphe son,Daniel,challenged the law in February 1892.He was arrested,but acquitted since his train travel was interstate.Four months later another Creole,Homer Plessy,challenged the law by traveling within Louisiana.The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled against Homer in 1896.That case set the legal battle
precedent which allowed the establishment of "separate but equal" facilities across the United States.Rodolphe never again became involved in legal or political activity against segregation.In 1911 he wrote  Our People Our History:Fifty Creoles Portraits,which was frst  published in French in 1911.
The book recorded lives of prominent Creoles in New Orleans.He also return to his job at the New Orleans Customs House.While supervising the weight of cargo on a ship in 1911,granite dust blew in his eyes leaving him mostly blind.He retired in 1912.Rodolphe who preferred to speak Creole and enjoyed cugars,spent the last 17 years of his life in various stages of blindness.He died from cancer of the larynx at the home of his son Daniel,in Omaha Neberska.