Honorable Revius O. Ortique, Jr., to Receive Thurgood Marshall Award
Hon. Revius O. Ortique, Jr., the first African American elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court, will receive the 2000 Thurgood Marshall Award on Saturday evening, July 8, during the ABA Annual Meeting in New York, N. Y.
The Section established the award in 1992 to recognize individuals' long-term contributions to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States.
Retired Justice Ortique has had a distinguished career as a civil rights leader. During his 20 years as a private practitioner, he was co-counsel on landmark civil rights cases involving equal pay for African Americans.
In 1964, Ortique, working with leaders of the American Bar Association, was instrumental in the development of the Legal Services Program of the Office of Economic Opportunity and he served on the program's National Advisory Council from 1964 to 1971. In 1975, when Congress established the Legal Services Corporation, Ortique was appointed to the first of two three-year terms on its Board of Governors.
During his tenure as president of the National Bar Association (NBA) in 1965, the NBA engaged in an intense lobbying effort that resulted in President Lyndon Johnson's nominations of eight African Americans to federal judicial posts, including that of Thurgood Marshall to the U. S. Supreme Court.
In 1978, the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed Ortique as a judge of the Civil District Court for Orleans Parish. He was elected as a justice to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1992.
Justice Ortique recently was appointed to serve as an Alternate Representative of the United States to the fifty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
For more information about the Thurgood Marshall Award Dinner, call the Section office (202/662-1030).