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==
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.
==Opposition to Martin Luther King holiday==
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:
<blockquote>
The American flag flew at half-mast to [honor] a man who aided and abetted the [[Communism|communists]] of North Vietnam, as he publicly supported the draft card burners and sought to undermine and betray our fighting sons in Vietnam.<br>
In the avalanche of propaganda, hypocrisy, and falsehood that followed the death of King, the President, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], and national figures, together with the news media, have undertaken to eulogize and commit to martyrdom Martin Luther King [Jr.], who, under the guise of non-violence, caused violence wherever he went.<br>
The The voice of truth is not heard in the land. All has been forgiven, all has been forgotten. None seem to remember that only the day before his death, King openly declared his intention to violate law and order—a federal court order. This was nothing new, since he had previously violated a federal court order....<br>We We witness in our major cities looting, theft, burglary, arson, robbery, murder-all, indeed, a fitting tribute to an advocate of violence.<br>'I call upon all men, the responsible Negro community as well as the white, to face the facts and truth and to dispel from all minds the falsehood and hypocrisy that have been visited upon us by our leaders and the news media. If the men who died in [[World War II]], in [[Korea]], and [[Vietnam]] should return, they would cry out in horror at the eulogizing of a man who. . . aided and abetted the enemies of this nation, who preached disobedience of law and who incited violence and riot.<br>
I know I speak against the tide of overwhelming emotion ... but let the voice of truth be heard in the land. If it is possible, let the voice of reason be heard. Then may the Negro and the white communities join together in a truthful and realistic effort to build a better society.'''</blockquote>
==Duval in the state Senate==
Once in the state Senate, Duval spoke eloquently and for long periods on nearly any topic brought before the body. Some called him the "Cicero of the Louisiana Senate." He was also helpful to colleagues in obtaining office space and other personal favors. In 2006, the state Senate posthumously honored him with the dedication of the Senate building known as "Duval Hall."
Duval's social conservatism also included opposition to the proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]]. When the measure failed to gain ratification after an extended deadline in 1982, Duval recalled that "in the Sixties everybody was obsessed with their [sic] rights. Everybody worried about their [sic] rights. Rather than rights, people should talk more about their responsibility to their country."<ref>Anabelle Armstrong, "ERA foes celebrate, challenge," ''The Baton Rouge Advocate,'' July 1, 1982.</ref>
In 1970, Duval told the Central Louisiana Press Club in [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] that he was considering entering the gubernatorial field because he said the state "needs a new look established on old values."<ref>''Minden Press-Herald,'' September 23, 1970, p. 1.</ref> Ultimately, he did not file in a race won by [[U.S. Representative]] [[Edwin Edwards]].
In 1970, Duval told the Central Louisiana Press Club in [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]] that he was considering entering the gubernatorial field because he said the state "needs a new look established on old values."<ref>''Minden Press-Herald,'' September 23, 1970, p. 1.</ref> Ultimately, he did not file in a race won by [[U.S. Representative]] [[Edwin Edwards]]. After he left the state Senate, Duval's political contributions went mostly to [[Republican Party|Republicans]]. There is no indication, however, that he himself switched parties. Among recipients of his donations were the Ronald W. Reagan presidential campaign, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, [[Republican Party|GOP]] Congressman William Henson Moore, III, of Baton Rouge, who ran for the [[U.S. Senate]] in 1986, and Democratic and later Republican Congressman Wilbert Joseph "Billy" Tauzin, Jr., of Lafourche Parish]]. Duval's contribution to Moore came in the spring of 1985.
==Family and death==
Claude and Betty Duval are interred at Magnolia Cemetery in Houma. Duval was [[Episcopalian]]. In addition, to the Senate office facility, Duval is honored through the "Senator Claude B. Duval Scholarship" given at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
==References==
{{reflist}}
*Chauvin Funeral Home, Houma, Louisiana, obituary information on Claude B. Duval.
Several Several other sources are no longer available.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duval, Claude B.}}
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category: World War II]]
[[Category:United States Marine Corps]]
[[Category:Episcopalians]]
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]