Homer A. LaTour (1833-aft1873)

Harrisonlatour 17:02, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Homér A. (Omér) LaTour (January 24, 1833-After 1873) was a prominent early politican in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Lousisiana. Records show he began his career as a Deputy Court Clerk in the Opelousas, St. Landry Parish Courthouse. His name appears on an estate record dated July 13, 1858. The Lafayette Advertiser, and early Louisana newspaper, dated September 20, 1873 has him listed in an article as President of the Board of Police, Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.

Early life
Church records indicate that Homér A. (Omér) LaTour was born in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, LaTour one of eight children. His grandfather, Captain Jean (Jérome) Grasset LaTour and his father was born in the Bergerac, Dordogne, France. The family migrated to Lousiana. As a child growing up, he worked in his father's gunsmith shop.

Board of Police
Louisiana Police Regulations of Saint Landry Parish

Like the Black Codes, police regulations restricted the freedoms and personal autonomy of freedmen after the Civil War in the South. The Saint Landry Parish, Louisiana police regulations offer merely one example of the lengths Southern legislatures went to in preserving as much of the master-slave dynamic as possible. Louisiana possessed a large free black population prior to the Civil War, concentrated primarily in New Orleans, and offered more rights and freedoms to them than many Northern states. A virulent racism still pervaded the state, however, as freedmen were characterized as children in need of care and supervision by White employers, clergymen, and public officials. Some Louisiana politicians desired to expel all Blacks from the state following the war, but a commitment to maintaining as much of the antebellum status quo as possible prevailed. Slavery and the ideology on which it was based had ceased to exist only in name.

The regulations strove to hinder freedmen's ability to move about freely, binding them as much to the direct oversight and authority of the employer as possible. In many cases the employer was actually the employee's former master, effectively negating any real differences from slavery. The regulations sought to limit economic freedom and ensure that each former slave was in constant employment of "some White person," therefore effectively proscribing any chance of upward economic mobility and autonomy. In addition, laws enacted to keep freedmen from meeting "after sunset" and from preaching "to congregations of colored people" betrayed a deep-seated fear of African-American political and social organization that would pose a threat to White authority and order.

Children

 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of PARENTS NAMES
 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of PARENTS NAMES