About Attorney Ebony Morris of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana

Attorney Ebony Morris

Ebony S. Morris is an associate attorney based in the New Orleans office of Garrison, Yount, Forte, & Mulcahy, L.L.C. She is a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University (B.A., cum laude, 2011) and Southern University Law Center (J.D., cum laude, 2014). She became a member of the Louisiana Bar in 2014 and is admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana and the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, New Orleans Bar Association, Greater New Orleans Chapter of Louis A. Martinet Society (2020-2021 President-Elect), Defense Research Institute, Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, and the National Bar Association. She is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated.

Ebony has extensive experience in defending premise liability, product liability, trucking liability, retail and hospitality liability, and mass tort litigation matters. In those areas, Ebony represents product manufacturers, corporations, national franchise restaurants, insurers, and their policyholders through all phases of litigation. She has successfully obtained summary judgment in favor of a premises owner seeking additional insured status under a commercial general liability policy and has successfully obtained summary judgment in favor of a restaurant franchise owner in a premises liability matter.

Recently, Ebony was selected for inclusion in the 2020 and 2021 Louisiana Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” List, The National Black Lawyers “Top 40 Under 40,” the 2020 Lawyers of Color “Hot List,” and the National Association of Women Lawyers 2021 Rising List. She was also named as a nominee for the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance’s 2020 Young Outside Counsel of the Year Award, and she received the 2020 Outstanding Young Woman Lawyer Award from the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division.

Source: Reprint from the National Black Lawyers Website

Press Conference Held to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the M.C. Moore Deseg Case

Press Conference at the African American Heritage Museum
Photo Credit: Antoinette Harrell

On April 29, 2015 a press conference was organized by Antoinette Harrell and Charles Terry to announce the upcoming events that will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of M.C. Moore's desegregation lawsuit against the Tangipahoa Parish School System.

The press conference was held at the African American Heritage Museum in Hammond, La., Several of the late M.C. Moore and Willie Mae Moore daughters was in attendance; Joyce, Katherine, Betty and Jeanette. Two son-in-laws, Charles Terry and Henry Jackson talked about the legacy their father-in-law left.

Joyce couldn't hold back her emotions as she talked about how hard it was for her. "When people asked me if I was the same Joyce associated with the case, I told them no it wasn't me," said Joyce.

Henry Jackson recalled standing guard with other African American men all night with guns to protect the Moore family after the Moore home was shot at in 1965.

Osa Bett Williams candidate for State Representative District #72 of Hammond recalled marching when A.Z. Young came through Hammond, LA.

Pat Morris of the president of the Tangipahoa Parish spoke about the opposition she faced from both blacks and whites in Tangipahoa Parish. The case was reopened in 2007 at the urging of the Greater Tangipahoa Parish Branch NAACP because of numerous complaints of the school system's wronging of African-American children and African American employees.

Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of M.C. Moore Desegregation Lawsuit in Tangipahoa Parish

The late M.C. Moore

Hammond, LA - May 3, 2015, will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Mr. M.C. Moore's desegregation lawsuit against the Tangipahoa Parish School System. The lawsuit was initially filed on behalf of his daughter, Fannie Moore, who was disenfranchised and not given an opportunity to receive an equitable and fair education, which is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Fifty years later, the question remains whether or not education in the lives of Black Children matter; the answer is emphatically, yes it does, because the fight continues for equity in this school system. Unfortunately, there is very little resolve towards settling this decades-old desegregation lawsuit.

Moreover, many are keen to talk about or write pieces about what happens or does not happen in the public school system in Tangipahoa Parish. Consequently, I process and attempt to find balance with personal ties to the conflicts in Tangipahoa Parish race relations and injustices found in our school system that have had my attention for decades now.

As we begin to reflect on the importance of this lawsuit, we think of the lawsuit being filed in 1965.  As a result of this filing, Mr. Moore was ostracized. For instance, he and his family were threatened, and his livelihood and means of providing for his family were taken away through his logging business being sabotaged, which resulted in his having to bake cakes to sell to provide for his family. Men guarded his home at night after his home was shot into early one morning. His wife heroically crawled through grass and weeds to a neighbor’s home to call the police because their telephone lines were cut on the outside of their home. Those bullet holes remain in Mr. Moore’s home to this very day. Despite having his life threatened and his livelihood compromised, Mr. Moore pressed on. Thank you, Mr. Moore, for your courage and tenacity in ensuring equality for African-American children, and ultimately all children. 

After this case was filed and opened in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, with the late Honorable Alvin Benjamin Rubin as the presiding judge, the Tangipahoa Parish School System was forced to integrate its public schools in 1969. Judge Rubin ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating, in pertinent part, that the Tangipahoa Parish School System was segregated and did not provide equitable educational access to African-American students. As a result, the school board was ordered to reinstate the jobs of all terminated African-American employees as one of the wrongs the Tangipahoa Parish School System committed following forced integration in 1969.

The plaintiffs’ case was led by Attorney Nelson Dan Taylor, Sr., who is now the Lead Attorney in the Moore Case.  This case was Attorney Taylor’s first case as an attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund.  Unfortunately, the school system did not comply with Judge Rubin’s order, and the case became dormant following Honorable Alvin Benjamin Rubin's untimely death. 

The case was later reopened in 2007 at the urging of the Greater Tangipahoa Parish Branch NAACP because of numerous complaints of the school system’s wronging of African-American children and African American employees. Evidence was provided to prove that the same segregated conditions still exist in Tangipahoa Parish School System. The test case used to reopen the M.C. Moore desegregation case was the case of Coach Alden Foster, who became the first African-American head high school football coach hired in Tangipahoa Parish. Coach John Williams was reportedly the first African-American head high school football coach in Tangipahoa Parish. However, after speaking to several others, including Coach Williams, we discovered that he was not given the position of head football coach at Hammond High School in Hammond, Louisiana, despite being appointed by Judge Rubin. Instead, Coach Carmen Moore, a white coach, was named as the head football coach at Hammond High.  

The discourse of this article is too long to write all of what has happened over the past fifty years in the Moore Case, however, a Master Thesis done by Dr. Wayne Brumfield is found in the Southeastern Louisiana University public library. 

As we commemorate the lawsuit’s 50th anniversary, let us remember to thank God for the stamina of Mr. Moore, his trials endured, and triumphs he and others made for every child attending school in the Tangipahoa Parish School System.  Let us be mindful, as well as thankful for all of the accomplishments seen and unseen in this case having been reopened, because without such, sitting conservative judges would have dismissed this case due to its inactivity. 

While there are some thirty-six unopened desegregation cases, let us be mindful that the M.C. Moore lawsuit has set a precedent for subsequent desegregation cases. As President of the GTPB NAACP, and as I walk in the shoes of the late Mr. M.C. Moore, I feel his pain many times, and my heart breaks as I continue to witness the disenfranchisement of African-American children in the Tangipahoa Parish School System. Despite the many wrongs of this school system, I am reminded by Ecclesiastes 9:11 that “the race is not given to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor the bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happened to them all.” With these words in mind, the fight for equality will not end, and it cannot until “justice rolls down like a mighty stream” for every student and employee in this school system. There can be no other way, and no person will be left behind. 

The Moore family and Antoinette Harrell has organized several events to commemorate the legacy of M.C. Moore. They began by getting the Parish Council to issue a Proclamation  proclaiming May 3, 2015 as M.C. Moore Educational Awareness Day. On Wednesday, April 29, a press conference will be held at 10:00 am at the African American Heritage Museum in Hammond, LA., at 1:45 p.m. that Wednesday afternoon Joyce Marie Moore, Henry Jackson, Charles Terry and Pat Morris, President of the Tangipahoa Parish NAACP will speak at Southeastern Louisiana University Department of Sociology, Professor Rebecca Hensley. A wreath laying ceremony at Holly Garden cemetery will take place on Sunday, May 3rd at 4:00 pm, and on Sunday evening at 6:00 pm, a worship service will be at the First Church of God In Christ, Attorney Nelson Taylor will be the keynote speakers. On Monday, May 4, at 6:00 pm a panel discussion will be held at the First Church of God in Christ. On Tuesday, May 5, the Moore Family will be featured on NOATV Cable Access television “ Nurturing Our Roots “ Educational Talk Show with producer and host Antoinette Harrell. The Moore Family are asking citizens of Tangipahoa Parish to join them as they honor the legacy of M.C. Moore a pioneer  who changed the educational system in Tangipahoa Parish to ensure that African American children get a quality education. 

Tangipahoa Parish 50th Anniversary Desegregation Commemoration