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One year ago at the Terrebonne Parish NAACP’s celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy the group’s president, Jerome Boykin, made his distaste for then-State Rep. Gordon Dove – and his plans to be the next Terrebonne Parish President – clear and decisive.
The year before that Boykin suggested that local black people should avoid the restaurant in which the lawmaker has an interest.
But Monday afternoon Dove, the newly inaugurated Terrebonne parish president, sat calmly with other local officials at the annual Dumas Auditorium commemoration and accepted Boykin’s welcome.
During formal introductions given from the auditorium stage, Boykin said the man now occupying Dove’s former legislative seat, State Rep. Tanner Magee – who was in the audience – had asked him if there would be “a fight,” referencing Dove’s announced presence on the program.
“There won’t be no fight here today, Mr. Gordon Dove is the parish president. Like we always do, no different, I extended him the invitation to be here today for our celebration,” said Boykin, who then addressed Dove, seated in the front row, directly. “I am glad you accepted our invitation to be here today, on behalf of the NAACP. So in the future things we don’t agree on we’ll fight and the things we don’t agree on we will work together.”
Tensions between Boykin and Dove arose in 2011 following the former lawmaker’s vocal opposition to creation of a minority sub-district for election of parish judges. Proposed by former State Rep. Damon Baldone, but authored and submitted by Baton Rouge legislator Dalton Honoree, the bill would have eliminated the current method Terrebonne uses to select its five district court judges, replacing at large voting parish-wide with a minority sub-district. The at-large method, Boykin and other supporters of change maintain, violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act, by diluting minority votes, thus eliminating the ability of black voters to elect a judge of their choice as a bloc.
Since Dove spoke out against the failed bill on the House floor, barbs between the two men have included Boykin’s likening of Dove to the late Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, and Dove has characterized the long-time Houma activist as “self-serving” and a “divider,” making clear that he neither needed nor desired Boykin’s support.
Asked as he entered the auditorium about his presence in consideration of the prior bad blood, Dove pointed out that the parish president has traditionally attended the event, while accepting warm greetings from a crowd that lingered outside. Ticking off names of the officials who invited him, including Parish Council members John Navy and Arlanda Williams, Dove made no mention of Boykin.
“The parish president attends many events and this is one of them,” Dove said. “I am attending this, as I have attended veteran’s events.”
The question is now in the federal courts, with a trial expected in the spring, in Baton Rouge. Represented by the New York-based NAACP Legal Defense Fund, supporters of change won a recent victory when an attempt by the former Gov. Bobby Jindal and other officials to have the state eliminated from the suit was rejected.
Boykin made no specific reference when he showed the packed audience at the King memorial a YouTube video advocating the change to a minority sub-district to Dove, who watched attentively.
Dove has maintained that the election of former Assistant District Attorney Juan Pickett to the Terrebonne bench vacated by retired jurist Timothy Ellender is proof that a black judicial candidate can win. But attorneys for NAACP members have said Pickett’s election did not come about as a result of an outright election, but because no other attorneys chose to run against him, negating its relevance in regard to the at-large system’s allegedly running afoul of the Voting Rights Act.
Prior to the celebration Pickett as well as Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman – the first black person to hold that position – spoke to a crowd that braved the January chill outside of the Terrebonne Parish courthouse. A march to the auditorium honoring King followed.
During the program the Beacon Light of Houma Music Ministry, a singing group, sang a rousing anthem that brought the hundreds in attendance to their feet. Author and poet Corey Harris gave a motivational speech. Other speakers, including Terrebonne schools chief Philip Martin praised King’s legacy. In addition to Navy and Williams, elected officials who attended include State Sen. Norby Chabert, Magee, and State Rep. Jerome Zeringue.
As he left the gathering Dove was asked for his response to the video.
“It’s in the courts now,” said Dove, demurring from further comment because he is a subpoenaed witness in the court case. •
