Toulouse, Charlotte J.

James R. Toulouse, noted civil rights attorney, was born April 14, 1919 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He graduated from Albuquerque High in 1936 and attended the University of New Mexico on a football scholarship, graduating in 1940. He worked as the sports editor for the Albuquerque Tribune, 1938-1943 and married Charlotte Mae Johnson in 1941.

After serving with the Navy during World War II, Toulouse attended Georgetown Law School. While in Washington, D.C. he worked for Senator Clinton P. Anderson (D-NM). A lifelong Democrat, Toulouse was active in party politics in New Mexico. After graduating in 1949 he joined the New Mexico law practice of W. Peter McAtee. Eventually he formed the firm, McAtee, Toulouse, Marchiando, Ruud and Gallagher. This firm dissolved in the mid 1960s and Toulouse headed his own law firm until his death in 2002.

Toulouse was a lifetime member of the First Presbyterian Church, a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association and volunteered legal services for the NAACP. In 1986 he received the Courageous Advocacy Award from the New Mexico Bar Association.

Charlotte J. Toulouse was born in Marysville, Kansas in 1921. She moved to Albuquerque where she met James R. Toulouse, whom she married in 1941. While her children were young she was involved in children's issues serving on the New Mexico Committee on Children & Youth. After a stroke, she became an advocate for the rights of the disabled and the elderly as a member of the Disability and Health Program Advisory Committee and Statewide Independent Living Council. In 2000 "The Charlotte Toulouse Award for Contributions to Communication Between People with Disabilities and Disability Researchers" was established by the Southwest Conference on Disability.

Charlotte was appointed to the New Mexico Committee on Youth & Children in 1964 (also called Governor's Committee on Youth & Children). The purpose of this committee was "to act as a state clearinghouse for all statistical and program information on Children and Youth; to collect facts and statistics on, make special studies of, conduct open hearings about, determine major urgent needs of children and youth and make periodic reports to the Governor and Legislature prior to each legislative session." Additionally they were to establish a statewide youth council and act as official agency to coordinate New Mexico's participation in White House Conference on Children and Youth.

Politically active, she was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, serving as a delegate to three Democratic National Conventions and on the Democratic Caucus for Disabled Americans and the Committee on Rules for the national conventions.

She was on the board of directors of New Mexicans for Jobs & Energy. The mission of that organization was "to help create in New Mexico an educated informed and active public which supports development of domestic energy resources, many of which lie in New Mexico, along with responsible and balanced practices to conserve natural beauty and pleasant living conditions." The organization planned to conduct annual series of energy workshops in all regions of New Mexico stressing the importance of a reliable, economically-priced energy supply and the safety features and advantages of nuclear energy, they also wanted to organize energy action committees statewide for the purpose of involving citizens in the solution of energy problems, to develop long-term and short-term strategies for sound economic development in New Mexico based on energy resources.

She was also a political advisor to the Program Review Committee of the Battelle Memorial Institute Project Management Division. The Program Review Committee was composed of thirteen persons nominated by national organizations as representative of various social, political, industrial, labor, environmental, and technical interests. The purpose of the committee was to provide the public with the opportunity to review the DOE nuclear waste programs.

In 1993 she and her husband, James, were honored with the "Keep the Dream Alive" award given by the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Celebration Committee. Charlotte passed away in 2005.

Sources: UNM Vertifical File-Toulouse, James R. - Attorney; Jojola, Lloyd. "Activist Was 'Grand Dame' of State Politics," Albuquerque Journal, March 21, 2005

From the guide to the James R. Toulouse and Charlotte J. Toulouse Papers, 1939-2001, 1969-2001, (University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research)