Daniel F. Desdunes (c. 1870 – April 24, 1929) was a civil rights activist and musician in New Orleans and Omaha, Nebraska.

This would be a test case to enable the New Orleans Comité des Citoyens to challenge the law in the courts.

Shortly thereafter, another member of the Comité des Citoyens, Homer Plessy, was selected to board an intrastate train.

In the meantime, Desdunes became a musician, directing bands, orchestras, and minstrel shows and playing many instruments, including the cornet, the violin, the baritone horn, and the trombone.

In 1904 Desdunes moved to Omaha, which had become a destination for African Americans from the South during the Great Migration to northern cities.

Rodolphe and Clementine had at least four children together: Mary Celine (in 1879), John Alexander (1881), Louise (1889), and Oscar (1892).

Other associates of Mamie included performer Bunk Johnson and promoters Hattie Rogers and Lulu White.

Mamie was born March 25, 1879, married George Degay in 1898, and died of tuberculosis on December 4, 1911.

[3] Daniel F. Desdunes attended public schools in New Orleans and went to Straight University, a historically black college.

Madia died March 3, 1930, while visiting her sister, Geneva Mabry in Brooklyn, NY.

[6] In 1890, the Separate Car Act was passed by the Louisiana State Legislature, segregating public transportation.

Aristide, Rodolphe and Daniel Desdunes, Louis Martinet, Eugene Luscy, Paul Bonseigneur, L. J. Joubert, P. B. S. Pinchback, Caesar Antoine, Homer Plessy and other leaders who had been free men of color before the Civil War formed the Comité des Citoyens to organize black civil rights efforts.

Albion Tourgee and James C. Walker were the lead defense counsel team in both cases.

Also, Desdunes occasionally played second trombone in the band under Prampin, while his orchestra's repertoire included overtures from the operas Raymond and Lucrezia Borgia.

[9] The Nashville singers toured nationally, from Maine to California,[3] and Desdunes' role included a noted arrangement of music to go with the work of group comedians Harris and S. H.

[10] Extending beyond band and orchestra duties, in March 1899 Desdunes joined with Skinner Harris to form a comedy show which performed under the Nashville Students umbrella.

[15] Desdunes songwriting began in this period, including songs, "Gim Me Mine" and "I'm Certainly Feeling Right Today" (the later co-wrote by Harris), as well as a comedy musical act called "The Impecunious Coon".

A. Copeland (assistant stage manager), William Bostrick (musical director), George Bryant (band manager), Jack Johnson (vocal director), Ray Trusty, Author (Daddy) White, Frank Clemens, E. M. Ousley, Miss Helen Taylor, Madie Dodd, Hattie Raymond, Mammie Garland Clemens, and Eva Harris.

[3] In Omaha, he worked as a janitor[3] and continued his music, quickly creating a band with William Lewis as manager.

They even took some pleasure in saying that Fort Desdunes, near Calais, was named for Dan, and that his music inspired their fighting.

[34] Jeff Smith was billed in the group as America's greatest colored cornet soloist.

Other soloists in 1919 included J. Frank Terry on Trombone, and Harry Morton on baritone horn and vocalist.

[35] Desdunes left the Chamber of Commerce, where he had been head of the billiard department for 15 years, on March 31, 1920, to allow for more time to focus on music.

In 1924, Billboard reported that the band was very popular and was especially noted for their performance of Robert Nathaniel Dett's "Listen to the Lambs".

That year his performers were: Irene Cochran (contralto), Levi Broomfield (tenor), Walter Bell (baritone); Jeff Smith, William Countee, Frank Perkins, Carl Daniels and James Francis (cornets); Robert Oliver, Theodore Adams, Leonard Gaines, Joseph Drake, E. Cook, Millard Lacey, Raymond Lattimore and Herbert Waldon (clarinets); Henry McGill, Thomas Roulette, Thomas Perkins and William Keeler (saxophones); Arty Watkins, Wallace Wright, Hubert Glover and Samuel Greylous (trombones); Harry Morton (baritone); Robert Brown, Harold Hoblins and John Pollard (horns); William Lewis, Ted Morton, A. G. Lancaster and Sherman Phillips (tubas); Holland Harrold, Simon Harrold and Charles Harrold (drums), Don Morton (comedy roller skater and saxophone),[3] and Sam Grievous (reeds).

[50] Omaha historian Jesse J. Otto cited testimony which noted that Dan Desdunes' New Orleans band was well known as early as 1892 for their "novelty" of "swinging the beat."

Otto also argues that Desdunes created a culture of teaching and nurturing in Omaha's African American community that produced artists like Lloyd Hunter, Preston Love, Wynonie Harris, Lester Abrams, Buddy Miles, and Luigi Waites, among others.