General Beauregard's Forgotten Civil Rights Campaign-- Part 2: 1873

Continued from September 24, 2015, post.

After the War, P.G.T. Beauregard worked with the Louisiana Lottery and his name and efforts help provide it with legitimacy.

However, largely forgotten was that he was an early proponent of equal rights between races in Louisiana.  He served as an outspoken leader of a short-lived and ultimately failed unification movement.

It was a coalition of prominent blacks and whites in New Orleans who called for integrated schools, public places, transportation and voting rights for black men.  This all occurred two years before Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and nearly a century before the enactment of the 20th Century Civil Rights legislation.

Beauregard served as the group's chairman.  And, he had been a Confederate general, about the last person you'd expect to lead a group calling for the equality of the two races.

--Old Secesh