Frank Voelker Sr.

Frank Voelker Sr.
Judge of the Louisiana 6th Judicial District
In office January 1, 1937 – July 2, 1963
Preceded by	Francis Xavier Ransdell
Succeeded by	Clifton C. Adams
Personal details
Born	(1892-08-30)August 30, 1892 Lake Providence East Carroll Parish Louisiana, USA
Died	July 2, 1963(1963-07-02) (aged 70) Lake Providence
Cause of death	Heart attack
Resting place	Lake Providence Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Isabel Ransdell Voelker
Relations	Franxis Xavier Ransdell (father-in-law) U.S. Senator Joseph E. Ransdell (uncle by marriage) David Ransdell Voelker (grandson)
Children	Five children, including: Katherine Voelker Cain (1919–2008) Isabel Voelker Hathorn (1923–2003) Frank Voelker Jr. Flournoy "Flo" Voelker Guenard (1924–2016)
Parents	Clemens August and Kate Ashbridge Voelker
Alma mater	Christian Brothers Academy Tulane University Law School
Occupation	Attorney; Judge
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Battles/wars	World War I

Frank Voelker Sr. (August 30, 1892 – July 2, 1963), was an attorney and judge of the Louisiana 6th Judicial District Court of his native Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish in the northeastern delta of Louisiana. The 6th district also encompasses Madison and Tensas parishes south of East Carroll. He served from 1937 to his death in 1963.

Background

Frank Voelker was born in 1892 in East Carroll Parish. His father, Clemens August Voelker (1855–1926), was a planter and politician of German descent. Clemens Volker was elected to the police jury, the parish governing body. Frank's mother was the former Kate Ashbridge, a descendant of an English-American antebellum family in the area. His younger brother, Stephen Voelker (born 1900), became a businessman. In 1930 Stephen organized the Tallulah Production Credit Association in Tallulah, Madison Parish, which in 1937 lent some $1.5 million to farmers.

Frank Voelker was sent to Christian Brothers Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. He received his legal degree from the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans.

Career

Military and law career

Voelker served in the United States Army during World War I. After the war, he set up a law practice in Lake Providence. He practiced for about two decades before running and being elected as state district judge in 1936.

Judicial career

Voelker was repeatedly re-elected as judge, serving on the state court for twenty-six-and-a-half years, from 1937 until his death. He was elected five times without opposition. Voelker was an alternate delegate to the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago to nominate the Roosevelt-Truman ticket.

African-American voter registration

Voelker upheld a conservative view of Southern society and did not support the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In the summer of 1962, Judge Voelker attracted national attention for challenging U.S. District Judge Edwin F. Hunter in Lake Charles regarding the pending voter registration of twenty-eight African Americans. They would be the first members of their race registered to vote in East Carroll Parish since 1922. Few blacks had been allowed to register since 1898, when a new state constitution instituted measures that enabled discriminatory administration of barriers to voter registration. Voelker said that Hunter had overstepped his judicial limits by acting in an executive authority in ordering the registration of the black citizens. The East Carroll Parish voter registrar, Cecil Manning, resigned and closed the office on June 14 rather than allow the new registrants to be placed on the rolls. Blacks had been largely excluded from the political system since 1898 by whites' discriminatory application of barriers to voter registration.

But Hunter acted under a provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, signed into law two years earlier by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ultimately, the judge registered the new black voters. Backing up Hunter, U.S. district judge Benjamin C. Dawkins Jr. of Shreveport issued an injunction against racial discrimination in the registration of voters. The 1960 provision was strengthened and made uniform across most of the United States in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Marriage and family

Voelker married Isabel Ransdell, one of six daughters of Francis Xavier Ransdell and his wife. He was a longtime Louisiana state representative, who ran unsuccessfully one year for nomination as governor against Huey Pierce Long Jr..

Frank and Isabel Voelker had five children. Son Frank Voelker Jr., became an attorney and gubernatorial candidate. Frank Jr. was a city attorney in his native Lake Providence for nearly two decades. After serving in the state administration, he established a practice in New Orleans.

During the second administration of Governor Jimmie Davis, Voelker, Jr. was appointed as the chairman of the Louisiana State Sovereignty Commission, authorized in 1960 by the legislature to develop alternatives to resist integration. It was modeled on the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Voelker, Jr. resigned to run in 1963 as a gubernatorial candidate in the Democratic primary, but he withdrew from the race after placing poorly.

The senior Voelker died in 1963 and is interred at Lake Providence Cemetery in East Carroll Parish.

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References

Legal offices
Preceded by Francis Xavier Ransdell	Judge of the Louisiana 6th Judicial District (then 9th District) in Lake Providence Frank Voelker Sr. 1937–1963	Succeeded by Clifton C. Adams

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