Descendants of Louis A. Martinet from around the country gathered in his hometown of St. Martinville on Monday afternoon honoring his life and legacy.
Officials from the African American Museum and Breaux Bridge Police Chief Albert Leblanc joined the family at city hall in St. Martinville.
Chief Leblanc took a special interest in Martin and dedicated over 20 years to researching and piecing the missing parts of his history together.
Martinet was a prominent radical civil rights activist during the Reconstruction Era in St. Martinville and New Orleans. Martinet helped organize the New Orleans civil rights group Comite des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens) known for its involvement in Plessy v. Ferguson.
He was also a doctor, lawyer, journalist and state legislator. Martinet was the first African-American graduate of Dillard University, once known as Straight University Law School.
Martinet was born into slavery to Belgian father Pierre Martinet who purchased him and his siblings and his mother Marie Louise Benoit. They were than emancipated while his mother's family remained enslaved.
Martinet seeing the vast difference of his life compared to his enslaved family members is what inspired him to become a civil rights activist, according to Martinet's descendants.
The African American Museum proposed projects such as a proclamation day on his birthday, gathering attorneys during black history month for a symposium centered on Plessy v. Ferguson and developing a trail of landmarks of his life in St. Martinville.
Brain Martinet, great-grandnephew of Martinet who currently lives in Washington, also said on the family's agenda was a trip to New Orleans to honor Martinet with a proper memorial service. The descendants of his believe because his death happened during the Jim Crow era he didn’t receive a proper memorial service.
"We decided you know that it's a little late it's 106 years later but we decided that he deserved a marker and so at the beginning of the year we found out,” Martinet said. “No one even knew where he was buried. But we had a researcher in New Orleans who found him in the records. So, we knew where he was so we ordered a little bronze plaque with his name and things and had a little ceremony."
Martinet said 40 Martinet descendants attended the memorial coming from 15 different states.
He said they are all part of a Facebook group spanning from Martinet descendants here in Louisiana to Los Angeles.
Another Martinet descendant, Leslie Russell who came from Chicago with her two children said getting to meet her distant family was ben an experience.
“I just think it's among the most wonderful things I’ve ever experienced because time and circumstance separated us,” Russell said. “And the fact that we could come back together so many generations later under these circumstances to really celebrate the work of someone who made it possible for us to know each other again.”
Today chapters of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society are throughout southwest Louisiana for attorneys with the mission statement of “advocate for the rights and protections of the public.”
Officials from the African-American Museum said we can expect to see Martinet's life in the museum next year.
