Avery Alexander | |
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| Born | Avery Alexander June 29, 1910 |
| Died | March 5, 1999 (aged 88) |
| Education | Union Baptist Theological Seminary |
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Avery Caesar Alexander (June 29, 1910 – March 5, 1999) was an American civil rights leader and politician. He graduated from Union Baptist Theological Seminary and was ordained into the Baptist ministry in 1944. He was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1975 and served in that office until his death.[1]
He participated in voter registration drives in Louisiana prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He helped organize boycotts against businesses in New Orleans which did not hire blacks, including a successful boycott to force the monopoly utility and transit company to hire black bus drivers.
Alexander participated in several marches with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in sit-ins to integrate lunch counters. In a well-publicized and videotaped incident in the basement cafeteria at City Hall on October 31, 1963, he was arrested and dragged upstairs by the heels.[2] In a similar incident in 1993, police used a chokehold to subdue Alexander when he participated in a protest against David Duke at the Battle of Liberty Place Monument ceremony in New Orleans after Alexander repeatedly crossed police lines separating protesters and celebrants.
- ^ "Notable African Americans from Louisiana". New Orleans Public Library. Archived from the original on January 9, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2006.
- ^ Robinson, Plater. "PART V-LECTURE NOTES (section 6: "City Hall: 1963")". A House Divided: A Study Guide on the History of Civil Rights in Louisiana (study guide to the documentary "A House Divided"). Southern Institute for Education and Research. Archived from the original on May 27, 2005. Retrieved January 22, 2006.