Katrina, Climate Justice and Fish Dinners: Social Justice Lawyer Colette Pichon Battle
Bayou Vincent
Pichon Battle’s extensive South Louisiana French Creole Catholic family live in Slidell along Bayou Vincent, which connects directly to Lake Ponchartrain. Free people of color, on her mother’s side, who have lived there since the 1700s they can trace their roots back to France. Many in the community still spoke French when she was growing up. Their roots include people from the Chocktaw Nation. In the past they farmed tiny plots, fished and trapped, and later became master carpenters and craftsmen. Her grandfather actually built the home she and her mom grew up in.
Pichon Battle always knew she was going to become a lawyer. “I was known as Coco in my family and Coco was always going to be a lawyer,” she said. A family reunion questionnaire asked 8 year old Coco what she wanted to be when she grew up and her response was a lawyer! Her interest in becoming a lawyer was fueled by reading about Thurgood Marshall and watching Clair Huxtable.
Mom was her biggest inspiration. Mom attended segregated public schools before graduating from Southern University at New Orleans. Mom was one of the first African Americans in the Peace Corps where she spent years teaching in Morocco. As a French teacher, she took students to France nearly every year.
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