WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2008 — In his more than a half century of standing up for the rights of those marginalized in the nation’s legal system, Justice Revious Ortique was a trailblazer for removing barriers unfairly instituted based on poverty and race for millions of people, both in his home state of Louisiana and across the nation. Justice Ortique, who passed away on June 22, 2008 at the age of 84, was a former president of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and a member of the board of directors for the Legal Services Corporation. He also served as New Orleans' first African-American civil district court judge, the first African-American chief judge of that court and in 1992 he was named the first African-American member of the Louisiana Supreme Court. He attended New Orleans public and parochial schools, received his B.A. degree in Sociology from Dillard University in 1947, his M.A. degree from the University of Indiana in 1949 and his J.D. from Southern University Law Center in 1956. He was president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans for five terms and was elected president of New Orleans community relations council, where he was “chief negotiator” for the peaceful desegregation of lunch counters, hotels and other public facilities.

# # #

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoting all of its resources to advocating equal access to justice for all Americans. NLADA champions effective legal assistance for people who cannot afford counsel, serves as a collective voice for both civil legal services and public defense services throughout the nation and provides a wide range of services and benefits to its individual and organizational members.