"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : Attorney LOLIS E ELIE

Please travel back in time with me to the “Historic Happenings” that took place in Monroe , Louisiana during “The Summer of 1964.” However, before we do that, I would like to mention something that transpired in 1963. In April, 1963, John Reddix( D.D.S. ), president of the local NAACP chapter[ and a leading civil rights leader in Monroe, Louisiana ] made a urgent request of CORE's{ Congress Of Racial Equality }Southern Regional Office that a CORE “Voter Registration Drive” be initiated in Ouachita Parish( at that time, the NAACP chapter in Monroe was all but defunct ). On December 9, 1963, members of C.O.R.E. , Brendon Sexton, Tom Valentine, and Mike Lesser, came to Monroe and took over the old NAACP offices. Now,let’s get to some of the events that occurred here in the city of Monroe, Louisiana in 1964! When the CORE members arrived in Monroe, they found the high school age group to have the most enthusiasm[ they decided to utilize this nucleus for sit-ins to test discrimination and segregation policies of local libraries and public accommodations ]. When the CORE members decided to have sit-ins at several of the local libraries, “22 Black Youth” along with their parents and several CORE members were arrested{ the 22 children were arrested on charges of trespassing, while their parents and CORE workers were jailed on charges of contributing to the delinquency of minors }. Also, CORE members worked with a “Unity Committee” of workers to point up practices of employment discrimination at the segregated paper mill and four container plants of the Olin Mathieson Plant in West Monroe. The first Mass CORE Meeting for Voter Registration in Ouachita Parish was held at Mt Calvary Baptist Church in West Monroe, Louisiana( although 100 people were expected,only 18 Negroes showed up ). Several White police officers were stationed along the way to the meeting to discourage Black People from attending the meeting. The White police officers warned the Black Citizens that they would arrest them if they went to the CORE meeting[ some of the CORE members reported that “the streets in Monroe, La. were patrolled by automobiles with members of the Ku Klux Klan, or the White Citizens' Council, all using citizen's band two-way ra- dios. Their cars were armed with the favorite weapons of the southern bigot, baseball bats and shotguns ]. During the long summer of 1964, “2 9 2” additional Negroes were registered to vote in Monroe. The lone Negro attorney that was dispatched to Monroe with other White attorneys was Attorney Lolis E Elie{ CORE's Chief Southern Attorney }. Lolis was born in New Orleans, a block from the Mississippi River, on Jan. 9, 1930( according to his family ). His parents were Theopile J Elie and Elizabeth Elie. Lolis grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. After High School, he became a merchant seaman for a short time. Somehow or another Lolis ended up in New York City. When WWll broke out, he was drafted into the American army and was stationed in California[ where he was trained as a clerk ]. In the army, a fellow{ an American-Italian } soldier encouraged him to become a lawyer. So once Lolis was released from the army, he use the GI Bill to attend college. Initially, he attended Howard University, but later transferred home to Dillard University in New Orleans. At Dillard, he help organize a sizeable student chapter of the NAACP( the group went undercover in 1956, after the Louisiana legislature required civil rights groups to publicly reveal its members, putting members at risk ). Sometime later, he attended Loyola University. In 1959, Lolis received his law degree from Loyola University law school and established a law firm with Nils Douglas and Robert Collins. During the 1960s, Lolis’s client list included many civil rights figures, who he defended in many high profile civil rights cases in the State of Louisiana! Additionally, he was Chief Southern Counsel for the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1967, Lolis represented Ernest “Dutch” Morial[ Morial would later become the first African-American Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana ]. He also represented the Bogalusa Chapter of the Deacons For Defense, after their members clashed with the Klu Klux Klan in Bogalusa. For approximately 50 years, he used his talents and skills as an Attorney At Law to help improve the the plight of people{ Black and White } in Louisiana. On April 4, 2017, Lolis E Elie died,and we all can be thankful that while he lived, he help paved a way for other aspiring Black Attorneys in Monroe, Louisiana like Atty Louis Scott, Atty George Britton, Atty Carol Powell Lexing, Atty Eddie Clark, and Atty Bobby Manning.