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‘No man can imprison the desire to be free’: Remembering Rudy Lombard [1]

['Khalil Gillon', 'More Khalil Gillon', 'Verite News']

Date: 2023-12-13

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the death of Rudy Lombard, a New Orleans civil rights icon.

Lombard organized one of the first anti-segregation lunch counter sit-ins in New Orleans, served as a national vice president of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and worked closely with other civil rights activists of the time, including Oretha Castle Haley.

Lombard was born in Algiers in 1939. His father was vehemently opposed and unwilling to accept the system of segregation, a sentiment that was passed down to Lombard, he said. Because of this, Lombard got involved in civil rights activism at a fairly young age.

“First time I was involved in a demonstration was in elementary school,” Lombard said in 1988. “I threw a ball into a park that was reserved for whites and encouraged the other kids to come and play. The neighbors had called the police and it created a big hoopla.”

As a young man, Lombard worked as a longshoreman, joining the all-Black International Longshoremen’s Association, Local 1419. In 1960, Lombard became a co-founder of the New Orleans chapter and national vice president of CORE while studying at Xavier University. Lombard, who also served as senior class president at Xavier, was a student when he led one of the city’s first anti-segregation lunch counter sit-ins at McCrory’s five-and-ten cents store on Canal Street.

Lombard, Haley and two other young activists, Cecil Carter and Sydney “Lanny” Goldfinch, were arrested and convicted of criminal mischief. This would culminate in the landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Lombard v. Louisiana, which overturned their convictions and set a precedent for future lunch counter sit-in cases.

During this time, Lombard also served as the logistics director of CORE’s Freedom Rides, a months-long protest to test the enforcement of the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court case Boynton v. Virginia, which ruled that segregation in facilities provided for interstate travelers, such as bus terminals, restaurants and restrooms was unconstitutional. Lombard helped train some of the 400 Freedom Riders, as he said in a 2014 interview.

Lombard would continue to work for civil rights throughout the 1960s, organizing numerous voter registration drives. He also worked in public health and earned a PhD in urban planning from Syracuse University.

Another one of his passions, cooking, led him to write a cookbook in 1978. “Creole Feast: 15 Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets,” was written with the late Nathaniel Burton, a longtime chef at the Pontchartrain Hotel.

In 1986, Lombard ran for mayor of New Orleans, competing against Sidney Barthelemy and William Jefferson. He was motivated to run because he believed conditions for African Americans hadn’t improved despite the city’s first Black mayor, Dutch Morial, Lombard said in a 1988 interview. (Barthelemy won the mayoral seat in a runoff against Jefferson; Lombard finished fourth.)

Lombard moved in 1998 to Chicago, where he later began running health fairs around the Evanston neighborhood. He highlighted the health issues that have plagued African American communities, such as prostate disease and diabetes. Lombard got involved in this work after he received a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2003. He would later recover but received more unfortunate news when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a decade later.

Lombard died on Dec. 13, 2014 at the age of 75 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, surrounded by family and friends.

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If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola on Facebook @VeriteNewsNola on Twitter. If you have any other questions, contact managing editor Tim Morris. ‘No man can imprison the desire to be free’: Remembering Rudy Lombard <h1>‘No man can imprison the desire to be free’: Remembering Rudy Lombard</h1> by Khalil Gillon, Verite News December 13, 2023 Today marks the ninth anniversary of the death of Rudy Lombard, a New Orleans civil rights icon. Lombard <a href="https://veritenews.org/2023/02/08/rudy-lombard-led-sit-ins-at-lunch-counters-to-end-segregation/">organized</a> one of the first anti-segregation lunch counter sit-ins in New Orleans, served as a national vice president of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and worked closely with other civil rights activists of the time, including <a href="https://veritenews.org/2023/10/13/this-week-in-history-civil-rights-activist-oretha-castle-haley-died/">Oretha Castle Haley</a>. Lombard was born in Algiers in 1939. His father was vehemently opposed and unwilling to accept the system of segregation, a sentiment that was passed down to Lombard, <a href="https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A84975">he said</a>. Because of this, Lombard got involved in civil rights activism at a fairly young age. “First time I was involved in a demonstration was in elementary school,” Lombard said in 1988. “I threw a ball into a park that was reserved for whites and encouraged the other kids to come and play. The neighbors had called the police and it created a big hoopla.” As a young man, Lombard worked as a longshoreman, joining the all-Black International Longshoremen’s Association, Local 1419. In 1960, Lombard became a co-founder of the New Orleans chapter and national vice president of CORE while studying at Xavier University. Lombard, who also served as senior class president at Xavier, was a student when he led <a href="https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1357">one of the city’s first anti-segregation lunch counter sit-ins</a> at McCrory’s five-and-ten cents store on Canal Street. Lombard, Haley and two other young activists, Cecil Carter and <a href="https://www.nola.com/opinions/lanny-goldfinch-fought-for-black-peoples-rights----and-paid-for-it-opinion/article_150b2d74-3e81-5b32-825a-5dffde26dc92.html">Sydney “Lanny” Goldfinch</a>, were arrested and convicted of criminal mischief. This would culminate in the landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/373/267/">Lombard v. Louisiana</a>, which overturned their convictions and set a precedent for future lunch counter sit-in cases. During this time, Lombard also served as the logistics director of CORE’s <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/freedom-rides">Freedom Rides</a>, a months-long protest to test the enforcement of the 1960 U.S. Supreme Court case <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/364/454/">Boynton v. Virginia</a>, which ruled that segregation in facilities provided for interstate travelers, such as bus terminals, restaurants and restrooms was unconstitutional. Lombard helped train some of the 400 Freedom Riders, as he said in <a href="https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/chi000862/">a 2014 interview</a>. Lombard would continue to work for civil rights throughout the 1960s, organizing <a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/dr-rudolph-j-lombard-changed-lives-and-america/#:~:text=From%201962%2D63%2C%20Lombard%20organized,He%20was%20a%20standard%2Dbearer.">numerous voter registration drives</a>. He also worked in public health and earned a PhD in urban planning from Syracuse University. Another one of his passions, cooking, led him to write a cookbook in 1978. “Creole Feast: 15 Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets,” was written with the late Nathaniel Burton, a longtime chef at the Pontchartrain Hotel. In 1986, Lombard ran for mayor of New Orleans, competing against Sidney Barthelemy and William Jefferson. He was motivated to run because he believed conditions for African Americans hadn’t improved despite the city’s first Black mayor, Dutch Morial, Lombard said in a 1988 <a href="https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A84975">interview</a>. (Barthelemy won the mayoral seat in a runoff against Jefferson; Lombard finished fourth.) Lombard moved in 1998 to Chicago, where he later began running <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/24/18443008/evanston-health-educator-rudy-lombard-was-new-orleans-civil-rights-icon">health fairs around the Evanston</a> neighborhood. He highlighted the health issues that have plagued African American communities, such as prostate disease and diabetes. Lombard got involved in this work after he received a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2003. He would later recover but received more unfortunate news when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a decade later. Lombard <a href="https://obits.nola.com/us/obituaries/nola/name/rudy-lombard-obituary?id=12868401&_gl=1*1stoisq*_gcl_au*Mjc4NzExMjA5LjE3MDEyNzY4NDA.">died</a> on Dec. 13, 2014 at the age of 75 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, surrounded by family and friends. This <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org/2023/12/13/this-week-history-rudy-lombard/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://veritenews.org">Verite News</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/veritenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/cropped-Verite-icon.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://veritenews.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=11248" style="width:1px;height:1px;"> Copy to Clipboard

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