St. Martinville Council tables Willie Francis Drive

The question of whether there should be a Willie Francis Drive in town was tabled by the City Council Monday, July 21, ostensibly in dispute over which street should get the honor.
Nary Smith, an unsuccessful candidate for council, has been campaigning to have Randolph Street renamed for Francis, a black teenager who became famous in the 1940s for having survived execution by electric chair only to be successfully electrocuted a year later.
Smith – a former assistant police chief here and a litigant against the city in suit alleging age, sex and race discrimination – said the sordid event in history deserves to be benchmarked because of the heroics of Francis’s white attorney.
“Mr. Bertand DeBlanc took the case knowing if he wins, he still loses, but he knew it was the right thing to do,” Smith said.
“This is not about trying to separate the races,” he said, “because it’s really about a white and black man back in the day in St. Martinville, and to show how we have come a long way.”
Smith said he has obtained signatures from 99 percent of the residents of the three-block Randolph Street.
An objection was raised by Debra Landry, who represents Randolph Street. Landry produced documentation giving Francis’ address as 800 Washington St.
“If you’re going to change the name of a street, it has to be the proper street,” she said.
City attorney Allan “Sprinky” Durand, DeBlanc’s great nephew who had written an award-winning screenplay about the botched execution and its follow-up, said someone once showed him house on Randolph Street purported to be Francis’s residence, but that he had no documentation to back it up.
Durand said the initial report from the sheriff’s office is in the clerk of court’s files and may or may not give an address for the suspect.
“Investigation files were not that thorough back in those days,” he said.
Smith vowed to bring the issue back up after further investigation.
“Our ancestors, both black and white, let this happen,” he said. “History isn’t always pretty but it is what it is.”