Revius Oliver Ortique, Jr. was born in New Orleans on June 14, 1924, the second of four children. Though raised in the Upper Ninth Ward, their parents told them that they would excel. Both parents were determined that their children were going to college, even though they themselves did not. Their mother graduated from high school; their father stopped at the 8th grade. He worked as a messenger and then laborer for the railroad.
Growing up, young Ortique had to climb stairs to get to the "colored section" of the movie theatre. While traveling to Wicker High School, he had to stand in the back of the bus while white people sat in front of him.
His mother got a job as domestic to put his older sister into college. Ortique spent his first year at Xavier University on a scholarship. The next year he transferred to Dillard University because tuition was cheaper. During the war, he and his brothers joined the service. They would be able to use the G.I. Bill when they were discharged.
After the war, Ortique went back to Dillard to finish his undergraduate degree. He married Miriam Marie Victorianne Ortique and then went to Indiana University. While taking graduate courses for his masters degree, he also signed up for and took law classes. No one had said he couldn't. The law dean didn't even know. Ortique went on to get his masters degree, but did not finish his law degree: he had run out of G.I. Bill time.
Eventually, he went back to law school.
From there, Revius Ortique would go on to become a major figure in both the local and national civil rights movement, mingle with presidents, serve on the New Orleans civil court bench, and become the first African American elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
