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Judge Freddie Pitcher

SBM June 15, 2023 1 Comment Blog, Count Time

A pioneer, the first African American elected to a judgeship in Baton Rouge, LA; served as a District Court and Circuit Court of Appeals judge; Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center; and author. Our Living Legend gives his history and describes the importance and value of relationships and coalition building in becoming an agent of change.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Freddie Pitcher, Jr

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Judge Freddie Pitcher

Judge Pitcher served as Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center from 2002-2015. He also served on the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal, where he authored more than 200 judicial opinions. He was a judge for the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge; an associate justice ad hoc on the Louisiana Supreme Court; a special counsel in the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Louisiana; and an assistant district attorney for East Baton Rouge Parish.

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening it’s 4:00 PM. Stand up it’s count time, time for every man and woman to stand up and be counted. Welcome to another edition of Count Time podcast. I am brother LD Azobra. Thank you for joining us today.

Today I have a long lost friend, a brother, a mentor, and I guess we can say he’s been the first in everything. Not just Baton Rouge, probably in the state. When I think about it. He’s been the first in everything. The first brother of African descent to run for the city judge in Baton Rouge, state court and the appeals court. And also he was the chancellor of Southern University. Here we go. Say, here come the judge. Here comes the judge. Everybody know that he is the judge. We got Judge Freddie Pitcher. Welcome to Count Time.

FP
Thank you, LD. It is great to be here.

freddie pitcher and family1

LD
Wonderful to have you. I’ll let you all know I have to beg and crawl and everything else to get him here. I’ve been asking for two years for him to come on.

FP
But I’m here.

LD
How long the book been out now?

FP
The book has been out since July of last year, titled View from the Bench Breaking Barriers.

LD
View from the Bench by Judge Freddie Pitcher, Jr. Graduate of Southern University. First, McKinley blue and gold. McKinley, then went to blue and gold at Southern University.

FP
Right on.

book signing

LD
We want, in the beginning to encourage everybody to go get a copy of this book because he has contributed and still contributing so much to his community, so much to our society. You always had utmost respect and the way you’ve carried yourself. You were one of the outstanding men in our communities that we all looked up to and looked forward, looked to for so much. And by you being the first, that mean you have carried a whole lot of weight on your shoulders for many, many years. What have that been like? Because the community have high expectations for you.

freddie pitcher

FP
Absolutely. The thing a lot of times people don’t realize the weight actually that you do carry. Being the first in a position. And when I was elected to the Baton Rouge City Court as the first African American black to be elected to that court, I knew that I had to be about the business of making sure that I acquitted myself in a way whereby all people, black people, can know that I was going to do the right thing. And I didn’t want to do anything that would in turn, embarrass my people, my family and black people in general. Because once you break that barrier, because that’s why the title breaking barriers, once you break that barrier, you don’t want to end up doing something that would in turn shut things down for close the door so nobody else can come behind you. I was there to open up the door, break the barrier, so we can not necessarily have a floodgate of blacks coming to the bench, but have open that door up so people will know that we too, can do this job.

Judge Henry Allen

SBM June 8, 2023 2 Comments Blog, Count Time

Our Living Legend a 93 year old trailblazing former justice of the peace gives a Scotlandville history lesson along with great stories from his life and time serving as Justice of the Peace. An interesting glimpse of African-American life 1940’s – 1970’s.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Henry Allen

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Judge Henry Allen

sign

Today. We we got a living legend who has given so much to his people, to the great community of North Baton Rouge. You know, we love coming to North Baton Rouge because there’s a lot of great things that happened and still happening in North Baton Rouge. But this young man have contributed so much of his time, his life, his efforts in keeping the community, keeping the unity in this community, and we appreciate him for that. We have here today, Henry Allen, one of the former state justice of peace here in North Baton Rouge. Welcome to Count Time.

HA
Thank you, sir.

LD
Thank you for allowing us to come in your home today and your lovely daughter Wanda for being here and being so accommodating. But we just want to sit here and be able to dig deep into some history. Right now, how old are you?

HA
93 in January.

LD
That means you a capricorn. You’re a leader.

HA
A leader. Very good person, I’ll put it that way.

LD
And a little stubborn.

HA
Well, sometimes, but determined, though.

Dr. Donald Andrews

SBM June 1, 2023 1 Comment Blog, Count Time

Insightful discussion of North Louisiana Delta life in the 50’s, the start of his academic journey and the importance of education for our future. An economist and Dean of Southern University College of Business, our Living Legend has over 30 years of experience in teaching, research and service.

Click for Southern University School of Business

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Donald Andrews

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Dr. Donald Andrews

Dean Andrews received a bachelor of science in Business Administration, majoring in Economics from Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1971. He completed a master of science in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1974. In 1980, Andrews completed a doctor of philosophy in Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M University in College Station with fields in economic theory, finance and resource economics.

We got what the we got the main man who’s at the helm of running this great institution have been here for quite some time, dear brother, a dear friend, Dean Donald Andrews. Welcome to Count Time.

DA
Well, glad to be here, Mr. White, and glad to be here with you. We have the utmost respect for you and the things you’re doing in the community. So I just really want to thank you for this opportunity.

LD
I know a lot of other people might do you like this and they might say, well, but who is Donald Andrews? That’s Agnes Andrew’s husband.

DA
I stand in the shadow of five foot two young lady and proud to be there.

LD
Now we’re going to have some fun today. We’re going to get to know you, give us some history. How did you end up at Southern University?

DA
Well, it’s a long story. I grew up in a small village in northeast Louisiana. Northeast Louisiana and what people refer to as the Mississippi Delta country. We were so poor, we didn’t even know we were poor. I had to leave the Delta to find out how poor I was. But I was fortunate. I was very lucky that I grew up next to a retired school teacher. She had gone to school at Tougaloo College, had taught school.

James Wayne – Memorial Day

SBM May 25, 2023 7 Comments Blog, Count Time

Our Living Legend is an attorney and decorated soldier who served in the Army during the Vietnam War. This episode is full of history and colorful stories about the military and growing up in North Louisiana. There will be more to come from Attorney Wayne.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend James Wayne

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Attorney James Wayne

Memorial Day is an annual day of remembrance to honor all those who have died in service to the United States during peace and war.

Now, we got a young man here today who seemed like he’d been missing, missing in action for quite some time, but we’ve located, we located him and he’s ready to roll, to tell his story, to tell his history, to share the history from which he came in the history of Baton Rouge. Welcome Mr. James Jim Wayne to Count Time.

JW
Thank you very much. It’s good to be here.

LD
All right, whole lot to talk about. He got so much history, so much to share. And also he’s an attorney who created and started the Capital Area capital Area legal Services. Legal services years ago.

JW
And before that it was LaFourche legal Services.

LD
All right? That was before Capital Area. Who started the LaFourche legal service?

JW
I did because I was helping the farmers. See, at that time, legal service, free civil legal service was only for Baton Rouge, a little program in Shreveport and one in Monroe. That was it. Then when I got involved and I promised the Martin Luther King Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, if they give me a fellowship, I will try to get legal services, free legal service throughout the state, which I did.

LD
How you get in relationship with Mart Luther King Foundation to even ask for that?

JW
When I came from Vietnam, I wanted to go to law school and I wanted to work in foreign services, and I just want to get a PhD law degree and pursue my dreams. So when I came from Vietnam, they had a program sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, but they needed funding, so the Gillette Foundation start putting up the money. And General Casey, who was my hero in Idol family, helped me. And so he called me and said, there’s a program called the Woodrow Wilson Foundation in honor of Dr. King. And so it came out in the army times that they only taken Vietnam veterans and who had a degree undergrad degree and who wanted to get a terminal degree could qualify. There was over 5000 of us that applied for the job, for the position, 5000 nationwide. And surprisingly, quite a few of us from Louisiana qualified. I was one of them and went to Memphis, Tennessee, at the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. King was assassinated.

They interviewed, they narrowed it down to about 500 and they were going to take 50 out of that 500.I tell you who else was in that class who got a Woodrow Wilson fellowship. Name of Dr. King was James Schaefer’s. Engineering student from Southern. We were classmates. He was from Ruston.

Keith Beauchamp – TILL

SBM May 18, 2023 0 Comments Blog, Count Time

A Trailblazer, our Living Legend filmmaker and civil rights activist to the highest order discusses his connection to Emmett Till and the development of the documentary and recent film. Learn about the 1955 Trinity Killings and their role in the establishment, growth and effectiveness of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Keith Beauchamp

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Filmaker Keith Beauchamp

Today. We got someone here that flew all the way from the big what’s called the Big Apple, New York. He flew down here to do this special interview with LD. Well, I’m just joking, but I appreciate it. Welcome to Count Time, Mr. Keith Beauchamp.

KB
Thank you.

LD
You’ve been busy. Got a lot going on. We’re going to find out why and what’s going on. I like to first thank my girl, my ride and die, you know, the one who get it all done for me, ms. Mada McDonough. Thank you, Ms. Mada, for making this happen. This is what she do. And I got my daughter here. She back on the scene. I got Samia. She going to be working it today.

Let’s kind of get this out the way now because it’s important because Southern University is putting on an opera downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the Shaw Center. Tell us about what’s going on with that.

KB
Well, apparently there’s an opera, which is about the Emmett Till Case, which I’m very excited about. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of participating and supporting many plays and musicals about Emmett Till, which is surprising within himself. And so Southern University have their project on Emmett Till case. I’m here in town to support, to lend my support and to support all those who’s there because it’s a very important story that we must continually, continually tell.

keith beauchamp and mama till — Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley and Keith Beauchamp

LD
You started working on a movie quite a few years ago.

KB
Well, not just the movie. The movie itself has taken me 29 years to produce. But I also produced a documentary, the Untold Story of Emmett Lewis Till that went out in theaters in 2005. That led to the reopening of the Emmett Till case in 2004.

LD
Hold on, so you’re saying because of your documentary, they reopened that case?

KB
Yes, that was me yesterday. Okay, but my most recent project is Till, which is about the story of Emmett Lewis Till, who was a young African American boy who, in 1955, he was 14 years old, went to the Mississippi Delta to visit relatives. And within one week’s time, he was abducted from his great uncle’s home and tortured from one of the oldest taboos of the south addressing a white woman in public.

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Diana Kimble

SBM May 11, 2023 5 Comments Blog, Count Time

Description of life growing up in Colfax, LA by an expatriate living in Pram Pram, Ghana. Our Living Legend describes the trauma of the Colfax massacre and its effects on her family and community which lead to a long journey of self-discovery and finally peace on the continent of Africa.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Diana Kimble

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Diana Kimble

We in the big town, the big city, the village I don’t know which one you want to call it, of Colfax, Louisiana. We know where this massacre had taken place 150 years ago, and we got a special guest here who has been with us once before. Her name is Ms. Diana Kimble. Welcome to Count Time.

DK
Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. Love telling this story because it needs to be known. Love telling the truth.

LD
The truth need to be known. You had the big celebration of the massacre this past weekend, and on Thursday, some things taking place. So kind of first of all, tell us about who is Diana Kimble?

DK
Okay. And I will pronounce the name the way my mother gave it to me, dinah. Dinah May Kimble.

LD
How you spell Dinah?

DK
D-I-A-N-A. Diana, is a European way of pronouncing dinah. So when I went to Ghana and we’ll get into that some more, I saw someone, the nurse with the same spelled the same way. I said, how do you pronounce your name? She said dinah. So I said my mother was correct.

LD
What was it like growing up in a small village of Colfax?

DK
Safe, secure, and loved? As long as you were on this side of the track divide. I had a wonderful family. I was the last born of three girls, no brothers?

Henry Turner, Jr.

SBM May 4, 2023 1 Comment Blog, Count Time

Our Living Legend gives a look behind the scenes of the Baton Rouge Blues Era and its impact on the music industry. A teenage Henry Turner, Jr. began his career in funk and blues music traveling the juke joint circuit accompanied by Zack the Cat, a shotgun in the trunk, 38 under the seat, 22 in the pocket and a six inch knife type of bluesman. Our Living Legend talks about the Listening Room, a new type of creative art venue; speculates on what happened to Michael Jackson; cultural economy and the reasons for the Baton Rouge Soul Food Festival.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Henry Turner, Jr.

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Henry Turner, Jr.

Well, up here in Louisiana and you know what time of the year it is now. It’s getting hot. The spring is here, the animals are moving there’s. A lot of things will happen, but in Louisiana, it’s blues season. Yes, it is. It’s that time of the year. We gonna celebrate. One of Louisiana’s greatest culture is the music and dance and blues in Louisiana. And we have here today our music business entrepreneur. The legendary guitar player, Mr. Henry Turner Jr. Welcome to Count Time.

HTJ
Amen. It’s great to be here on Count Time. Brother Lyman. I’ve been following your legacy, though, man. So it’s a pleasure to be on the set with you, man, and really being able to be of service to the community.

LD
That’s what you have been doing for so long, serving the community. And that’s why we chose you as our special guest to kick the blues season off with blues fest starting, then we’re going to have the soul food festival. And we’re going to get to all this good information. But first we’re going to kind of start breaking down the history, the story of Henry Turner Jr.

The 6th Annual Baton Rouge Soul Food Festival will be held May 20 and 21 at Riverfront Plaza, 300 S. River Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, from 11:00am to 8:00pm daily. The family friendly event is free to the public. It features blues, soul, R&B, gospel and Christian music, along with a Vendor’s Village, a judged Soul Food Cooking Contest and Pioneer Award for contributions to the Soul Food industry.

A Pre-party will be held on Thursday, May 18 at Henry Turner Jr.’s Listening Room located at 2733 North Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, from 7:00pm midnight. Admission is $30.00 and includes a Soul Food buffet and No-host bar. For more information call 225-802-9681 or visit www.brsoulfoodfest.com.

A. P. Tureaud

SBM April 27, 2023 0 Comments Blog, Count Time

Epic look at creole life in New Orleans from the 1800’s to the mid seventies, legendary lawyer A.P. Tureaud, Sr. and the fascinating life and wisdom of Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Jr. and his family. Our Living Legend is an educational consultant, artist, civil rights activist and public speaker. He is a retired school administrator with more than 30 years serving the White Plains Public Schools in New York. He was the first black undergraduate student at Louisiana State University, entering in 1953 by suing the school. A great example of the importance of knowing your history and the complications that brings.

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Alexander Pierre Tureaud, Jr.

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with A.P. Tureaud, Jr.

Chapters

(00:00) – Introduction

(01:00) – A.P. Tureaud, Sr.

(05:50) – Education in Louisiana

(10:43) – Charlie Hatfield – Roy Wilson (LSU Law School)

(15:59) – A.P. Tureaud, Jr. sues to enter LSU

(28:30) – The Fight

(34:00) – A.P. Tureaud, Jr. starts school

(54:50) – Civil Rights, Despair and Freedom

(01:13:25) – Life after LSU

(01:33:25) – Passé Blanc

(01:41:30) – Creole Life

(01:59:08) – Graduate School

(02:17:40) – Family

(02:30:29) – Return to LSU

(02:42:43) – White Chicks

(02:51:00) – Life is too Short to be Unhappy

Now, today is one of them days that we know the Lord has made, and we gonna rejoice and be glad in it, because I have here all Count Time guests are very, very special, but I have a true living legend sitting before me and before us, who has one of the most powerful stories to tell and share. His story goes back so far. His dad is part of this story and this the one and only Mr. AP Tureaud. Welcome to Count Time.

ap tureaud sr 1921 — A.P. Tureaud, Sr. (1921)

APT
Well, thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. And I hope that I can give your audience some of the kind of information that I think might inspire them to go on and continue the work that so many of us have started many years ago.

I’m a product of New Orleans. I grew up in the Creole neighborhood of the 7th Ward, and I’m one of six children. My father was one of twelve children, and my mother was one of ten children. My father was AP Tureaud Sr, whose father was a contractor and a carpenter, and they lived in the Marigny near the riverfront, near the French market. And he was born in 1899 and he was the third to last child in that family. He was one of six boys and six girls. His father left the family when he was a teenager and went to New York to live with his mother and his step brothers, and the family had to fend for themselves. My father was very industrious and very smart, and although his older brothers were in the construction business, he did not like construction work. He wanted to go to school and finish high school.

There was no black high school in New Orleans at that time. So he got a job as a strike breaker on the Illinois Central Railroad, went to Chicago, eventually went to New York, and ended up in Washington, DC, where he got a job in the law library that serves the Supreme Court as a clerk. He was still a teenager, and he enrolled in Dunbar High School. But because he had to work during the day, he didn’t finish high school until he was 21 years old.

LD
Hold on. So he went and got a job at a law library as a teenager.

A.P. Tureaud, Jr. Artist — The Four Ladies – First Place in Art Show

APT
He had taken a civil service exam before he left New Orleans because somebody had said to him, they’re giving exams for jobs. He took this exam, and he never heard what happened to his test results until he got to New York. The examining board had sent him a letter in New Orleans that he had made a very high score, and so his mother sent it to his older brother in New York, where he was living, and they had offered him a job in Washington, DC. And the law library, which served as Supreme Court. He worked there for several years.

And he was a researcher. When he graduated from Howard University Law School, he got an award for having one of the highest grades in legal research. And he was a meticulous person with details, and he always wanted everything to be precisely accurate, although he was very calm and quiet spoken. He was very smart, but he was a guy who didn’t have any ego. He was self effacing, and he just was easy to get along with.

LD
That’s where you get it from.

APT
Well, I get some of that from him. My mother, on the other hand, was a Dejoie. Her family, the Dejoie, were she was a pharmacist. She had been to Howard University. Her father, two of her uncles, two of her brothers had gone to pharmacy school. The older relatives went to pharmacy school during Reconstruction because in New Orleans during Reconstruction, there was a school of pharmacy law and medicine at University of New Orleans and at Strait, which became Dillard University. And so my mother’s family, they were well off. They had two drug stores. My grandfather, Joseph Jules Dejoie, was one of the founding members of the Louisiana Life Insurance Company with his cousins.

https://www.aptureaudlegacy.org/

https://lasc.libguides.com/c.php?g=509972&p=3487035

https://amistad-finding-aids.tulane.edu/agents/people/1374

Tureaud family at Amistad Research Center

Bagatelle Plantation ancestral home of Adolphe Tureaud. His father was Augustin Marius Tureaud the owner of Bagatelle. Adolphe served three terms in the LA Reconstruction Legislature.

A.P. Tureaud, Sr. a student at Howard University School of Law

A.P. Tureaud, Jr. LSU Black Alumni Event 1988

A.P. Tureaud, Jr. Merchant Seaman Union Card (age 17)

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Dr. Stephen Finley

SBM April 20, 2023 0 Comments Blog, Count Time

One of the most important episodes we have presented. Our Living Legend, a scholar of religious theory, makes sense of African-American religion and culture in a way that you won’t get anywhere else. He explains why we misunderstand the Nation of Islam, the Mother Wheel and what we don’t remember about Martin and Malcolm. An episode for all “races.”

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Dr. Stephen Finley

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Dr. Stephen Finley

This is another one of these great days. Awesome guest. He is one of our Living Legends. He is truly a legend. He’s an author, professor. He’s got so many different titles. And he’s also now the chairman at LSU, the African African American and Studies program that had just become a full fledged department. A year ago. I think I was at the ceremony when you all made that the launch program.

SF
That’s right. You sure were.

LD
Which was done first class. And you had your mentor there to speak. So that was a wonderful event. So we got here today, Dr. Stephen Finley. Welcome to Count Time.

SF
Thank you, Brother LD. And thank you for being in my home, and I hope you feel welcome.

LD
Oh, man, I truly do. Thank you for having me here today. You’ve got so many different dynamics that we could come from here, but we’re going to focus on this wonderful book that you’ve written.

SF
Yeah, well, I don’t know if I’m quite a living legend, but I appreciate that.

LD
We are excited to have you here because there’s so many different and also it’s the time of let me see, your book is written it’s about the NOI? And I’m curious. Let me first ask you, are you a practicing Muslim?

SF
No, this is all research for me.

LD
It’s all research. You’re not a practicing Muslim? You’ve never been part of the Nation of Islam?

SF
Never. I have friends in the Nation of Islam, many of whom are also professors and scholars, by the way, but a few others are just members of the Nation of Islam who are actually pretty significant, like Ilya Rashad, who I consider a friend, who’s part of the research department of the Nation of Islam. And he has written a book himself, as members of the Nation of Islam often do, on the Nation of Islam and UFOs, and that’s how we connect it.

LD
But this book here is on a whole other level. I appreciate that the title book is in and out of this world, and it really is how you say that it’s celestial material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam is the secondary title. So, I mean, we got to figure out what all that means.

SF
I hope I can unpack that for you.

https://www.lsu.edu/hss/aaas/

Richard Sexton

SBM April 13, 2023 0 Comments Blog, Count Time

Our Living Legend is a fine art and media photographer, author and teacher whose work has been published and exhibited worldwide. He is best known for his architectural photography publications and exhibitions.

Click for Richard Sexton Studio

Count Time Podcast Living Legend Richard Sexton

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra Interview with Richard Sexton

I have someone here. I guess I’ve been chasing him for quite some time now, but I finally ran him down, everybody I finally ran him down. Someone I met several months back. And I was I had an interest in you, what you was doing, and I just something about your presence, it just captivated me. I have here today Mr. Richard Sexton. Welcome to Count Time.

RS
Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

LD
We are delighted to have you here, because it’s kind of the first that’s what was interesting to me. Like, why would I have any interest in him anyway? Why would I have an interest in this guy? Because you are what you call an artist.

RS
You call it in the world of art, but it’s a photographer.

LD
So you got into photography. But I guess when I saw your work the day we was at this activity in Pointe Coupee Parish.

RS
For the exhibit that Kathy Hambrick curated there in the parish, and it’s the day they had they commemorated the plaque miss Jane Pittman Oak in honor of Ernest Gaines, who had incorporated that tree in his book the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. That he wrote sitting under that past that tree every day. Every day up on River Lake Plantation.

And there was a store on that lakeland road where the oak tree was beside the road. And as a child, he would walk by that tree, which is a monumental tree. It’s huge. It’s a huge, big oak tree. It’s a big Louisiana oak. And so it’s actored in the book that he would write as an adult years later.

tree

LD
Well, did you take a picture in front of that plaque?

RS
I did, I did. I have it on my website so you can see it there.

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