By Linda Stamato
As Black History Month has just come to a close, it feels fitting to end with the story of Norman C. Francis — a man many may not know, and many more should.
Francis, who died last week at 94, served as president of Xavier University in New Orleans for 46 years and was a force for the common good at the city, state and national levels, according to his obituary in The New York Times.
He was an educator, a mensch, a civil rights advocate and an extraordinary leader whose absence leaves a vacuum. His example will continue to inspire those committed to justice and equality.
In 1952, Francis became the first Black student to integrate Loyola University Law School.
“It was something you had to do,” he told an Xavier interviewer in 2019. “The goal was really to shake up things, to start being serious about civil rights.”
He was serious.
In 1968, Francis ended a four-decade tradition of white nuns serving as president of Xavier, the nation’s only historically Black Catholic university. By the time he retired in 2015, he was among the longest-serving college presidents in American history.
Under his leadership, enrollment doubled and the endowment grew from $2 million to $161 million. With a strong emphasis on science, Xavier became a leading institution for educating Black medical students and is consistently cited for sending more Black students to medical school than any other four-year college in the United States.
Francis also played a direct role in the civil rights movement. In 1961, when Freedom Riders arrived in New Orleans battered and bloodied, he sheltered them in a dormitory and held a news conference to welcome them. Earlier, as a young lawyer, he had defended students arrested during sit-ins at a segregated lunch counter; their case ultimately prevailed at the Supreme Court.
His influence extended into public life. Moon Landrieu, a law school friend who became mayor of New Orleans in 1970, relied on Francis for counsel as he worked to integrate city government. Landrieu’s son, Mitch, later recalled: “Norman helped guide him through that the whole way. There wasn’t a difficult issue that Norman Francis didn’t give him advice on. Counsel, advice, suggestions, guidance — it wasn’t like, a little bit.”
Born March 20, 1931, in Lafayette, La., Francis was the fourth of five children. His father variously was a barber, bellhop and railroad worker. Though poor, the family placed a high value on education. Francis began working at age 10, delivering lunches, and graduated as valedictorian of St. Paul Catholic School in 1948. A scholarship brought him to Xavier, where he worked in the library and served as class president before earning a degree in mathematics in 1952.
Law school proved formative. “It erased forever, if I had any doubts, about whether I was talented enough to compete with another race that was felt by others to be superior,” he later told the Times.
He earned his law degree in 1955, served in the U.S. Army in Germany and joined a pioneering Black law firm representing civil rights clients. In 1957, he became dean of men at Xavier. He accepted the presidency on the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed Francis chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority to coordinate rebuilding efforts. In 2006, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Throughout his life, Francis remained determined to confront racial prejudice. “Mr. Francis remained perplexed throughout his life by the foolishness of racial prejudice and was determined to combat it,” the Times obituary noted.
“I guess it has followed me all of my life, which I’ve spent trying to eliminate, if you will, the effects of what was created by Plessy v. Ferguson. And trying to change the hearts and minds of people about who we are, and why we’re all one and the same, ultimately,” he said, referring to the infamous 1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Louisiana’s “separate but equal” treatment of Blacks.
Our work is not finished. But it builds on foundations laid by leaders like Norman Francis — a man who expanded opportunity, strengthened institutions and helped bend the arc of the nation toward justice. As Black History Month reminds us, his example still matters.
WATCH LINDA STAMATO ON NJ PBS ‘STATE OF AFFAIRS’
Linda Stamato is a trustee of the Morristown and Morris Township Library Foundation, and a member of the nonprofit Corporation for New Jersey Local Media. At Rutgers, where she is a Faculty Fellow, she is co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. She also is a former commissioner on the Morristown Parking Authority.
Opinions expressed in commentaries are the authors’. They do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
Morristown has a long history of people stepping forward in pivotal moments.
When you chip in to Morristown Green, you’re helping your neighbors stay informed, strengthening our civic backbone, and carrying on the spirit that’s defined this town since its earliest days.
Rally for local news.
I appreciate your writing. Nobody called you annoying or anything else.
One of these days, Chris, it’s possible that I just may write something you appreciate. In the meantime, of course, I do acknowledge that you read what I write, so that’s something, but, of course, what my writing does is to provide you with yet another opportunity to criticize, no matter what the topic is. The life and legacy of Norman Francis, consequential without a doubt, can’t even generate a positive response from you. Instead, a column that gives a great man visibility, a man who set an extraordinary example, becomes an opportunity to insult me. Nice contribution!
Amazing how wrong, how annoying I can be. But, you need targets evidently. Keeping up with these constant criticisms must be exhausting for you.
Thank you for your contributions and revelations. Must be an exhausting feat at Rutgers.
As someone who grew up in Morristown (MHS class of 1969) and as a New Orleanian of almost 50 years, I want to thank you, and the Morristown Green, for your commentary and remembrance of Norman Francis, the former President of Xavier University in New Orleans who was a renowned civil rights leader in our community.