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'''Claude Berwick Duval, I''' (October 24, 1914 – March 3, 1986), was an attorney from his native Houma, [[Louisiana]], who from 1968 to 1980 was a three-term [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] state senator for Terrebonne and St. Mary parishes, having served from 1968 to 1980. He is best known for his profound oratory, his accommodation of Senate colleagues, his unsuccessful 1963-1964 campaign for lieutenant governor, and his opposition to the national holiday on the third Monday of January which honors [[civil rights]] activist [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]
==Background==
After the war, Claude Duval resumed his Houma law practice, which became Duval, Funderburk, and Sundbery. Stanwood Duval established a successful [[insurance]] agency. Both were active in their community. In 1957, Claude Duval was named president of the Houma branch of Rotary International.<ref>Houma, LA, Rotary Club history:http://www.houmarotary.org/HoumaRotaryHistory.cfm</ref>
==Race for lieutenant governor==
==Lieutenant governor campaign==
In 1963, Duval ran for lieutenant governor on the intraparty "ticket" of former [[New Orleans]] Mayor (and also former Ambassador to the [[Organization of American States]]) deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison, Sr. (1912-1964). He was the [[conservative]] balance to the more "moderate" Morrison. In his own race, Duval was pitted against Clarence C. "Taddy" Aycock (1915-1987) of neighboring St. Mary Parish, who agreed with Duval on many issues. Aycock was informally paired with [[John J. McKeithen]] in the Democratic runoff though he was actually an independent candidate who made no alliance with any gubernatorial candidate that year. Aycock had the advantage in experience and name recognition.
There was little evidence of "ticket-splitting," where Morrison supporters backed Aycock, or where McKeithen backers chose Duval. In retrospect, all four men had far more in common than otherwise. Duval in fact was arguably as conservative as Aycock, but in central and north Louisiana, voters perceived Duval unfavorably as a Morrison lieutenant. He had also been Morrison's campaign manager in the unsuccessful 1959 election against [[Jimmie Davis]].<ref>''Minden Herald,'' November 30, 1959, p. 13.</ref>
Other candidates on the Morrison slate were state Representative Jack M. Dyer of Baton Rouge for insurance commissioner, and [[Raymond Laborde]], the mayor of Marksville in Avoyelles Parish for custodian of voting machines, a position later renamed elections commissioner. In 1968, when Duval entered the state Senate, Lieutenant Governor Aycock, presiding officer of the Senate, began his third term in the second-highest state office.
Duval was state senator-elect at the time of the King assassination in [[Memphis]],[[Tennessee]], on April 4, 1968. He issued a statement critical of the direction of the civil rights movement:
