Representative James Domengeaux

James R. Domengeaux (January 6, 1907 – April 11, 1988) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge who served as a Democratic Representative from Louisiana in the United States Congress from 1941 to 1949. Representing Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district for four consecutive terms, he participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history that encompassed World War II and the immediate postwar years. A cultural activist of Cajun and Louisiana Creole descent, he became best known later in life for his efforts to preserve and promote the French language in his native state.

Domengeaux was born on January 6, 1907, in Lafayette, Louisiana, to J. Rudolph Domengeaux and the former Marthe Mouton. Raised in a French-speaking, Catholic, Cajun milieu in south Louisiana, he attended Mount Carmel Academy and Cathedral High School in Lafayette. He pursued higher education at the institution now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then called Southwestern Louisiana Institute, where he completed his undergraduate studies. Seeking a legal career, he moved to New Orleans for further education, studying at Loyola University and then Tulane University Law School, from which he received his law degree in 1931.

In 1931, Domengeaux was admitted to the Louisiana bar and launched a law practice in Lafayette. He quickly established himself in the legal profession and became the senior member of the firm Domengeaux and Wright, which operated from 1931 to 1984. Under his leadership, the firm expanded beyond Lafayette and maintained offices in New Orleans, Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish, and Opelousas, the seat of St. Landry Parish in south central Louisiana. In 1962, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, further solidifying his standing as a prominent Louisiana attorney.

Domengeaux entered national politics as a member of the Democratic Party and was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana’s 3rd congressional district in 1941. Serving four terms, he remained in office until 1949. His tenure in Congress coincided with World War II and the early Cold War era, a time of major domestic and international challenges. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his south Louisiana constituents, contributing to the legislative work of the period. After leaving Congress, he returned to his legal practice and continued to be active in public affairs and civic life in Louisiana.

In 1968, long after his congressional service, Domengeaux accepted an appointment from Louisiana Governor John McKeithen, a fellow Democrat, to preside over a newly created state-chartered organization, the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, commonly known as CODOFIL. As president of CODOFIL, he spearheaded a statewide effort to reintroduce and strengthen French education in Louisiana’s public schools from the elementary through high school levels. He pursued this goal in part by recruiting teachers from France, Belgium, Quebec, and other French-speaking regions and nations, a strategy that sometimes placed him at odds with segments of the educational establishment who favored hiring local instructors.

Domengeaux’s work with CODOFIL marked a dramatic shift from earlier decades in which Cajun children had often been punished for speaking French in school, a practice that had significantly reduced the number of native French speakers in Louisiana. He sought to reverse this decline by promoting French as a living language of culture and education. In 1976, he arranged for French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to visit Lafayette, symbolically reinforcing Louisiana’s historic ties to the Francophone world. In the 1980s, he embraced French immersion education, under which children were taught a variety of subjects in French for roughly 60 percent of the school day, replacing the less effective model of brief, daily language lessons.

As a charismatic and sometimes combative public figure, Domengeaux used CODOFIL not only to promote language instruction but also as a watchdog organization defending Cajuns from perceived slights. He publicly condemned the use of the term “coonass,” which he regarded as an ethnic slur against Cajun people, and he criticized certain forms of commercialized “Cajun humor,” including that of the popular entertainer Justin Wilson, whom he faulted both for political differences and for what he viewed as stereotypical portrayals of Cajun culture. He also drew criticism from some quarters for emphasizing continental French over Cajun French and for his reliance on foreign teachers, but he remained steadfast in his belief that strong links to the broader Francophone world were essential to preserving Louisiana’s French heritage.

For his decades of work to preserve the French language and culture in Louisiana, Domengeaux received numerous honors. Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge awarded him an honorary doctorate. The French government bestowed upon him the Order of the Legion of Honor, and Belgium honored him with the Order of the Crown. On November 11, 1986, coinciding with Veterans Day, Lafayette Mayor William Dudley Lastrapes and Louisiana Governor Edwin Washington Edwards proclaimed “Jimmy Domengeaux Day” in recognition of his contributions. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette established an “Eminent Scholar Chair in Foreign Languages” in his honor, and CODOFIL’s supporting foundation created the Bourse James Domengeaux (James Domengeaux Scholarship) to further French-language study.

Domengeaux married Eleanor St. Julien (1921–2004); the couple had no children. He continued his leadership of CODOFIL and his advocacy for French language and Cajun culture into the final years of his life. James R. Domengeaux died on April 11, 1988, and he and his wife are interred at St. John’s Cemetery in Lafayette, Louisiana. The organization he led for the last two decades of his life, CODOFIL, continues to coordinate French education in Louisiana, and his legacy endures in the state’s ongoing efforts to sustain and revitalize its French linguistic and cultural heritage.