Louis A. Martinet

Louis André Martinet (December 28, 1849 - June 7, 1917) was a lawyer, publisher, medical doctor, civil rights activist and state legislator in Louisiana during the Reconstruction era.[1][2]

He was born December 28, 1849 in St. Martinville, Louisiana to Hipolite Martinet and Marie Louise Benoi.[1]

He served as a state representative in the Louisiana House of Representatives from St. Martin Parish from 1872 until 1875.[3]

He was admitted to the bar in Louisiana in December 1875.[4] Then obtaining his first class law degree from Straight University Law School the following year in 1876.[3] He was a notary and set up his notarial practice in 1888 which continued to operate until his death in 1917.[1][3]

In February 1879 he was appointed to the City Board of School Directors, re-filling the position he had vacated the previous year in May 1878.[5]

In 1882 he was made the Special Deputy Surveyor for the Port in New Orleans.[6] Later the same year in he married Miss Leonora V. Miller,[7] and later they had two children although one died while still an infant.[3]

He published The New Orleans Crusader (1889 - 1896) newspaper[8] and was active opposing segregation.[3][9]

In the 1890s he obtained a medical degree from the Flint Medical College in New Orleans.[3]

The Louis A. Martinet Legal Society is named for him. In 1984 the Louis Martinet Society organized efforts to elect more Black judges in News Orleans.[10]

He survived an attempted assassination May 5, 1896 when he was accosted by a drunk Matthew J. Ryan who placed his revolver in Mr Martinets stomach.[11] Bystanders saved Martinet by overpowering Ryan and handing him over to the police.[11]