UL Lafayette student Victoria Throop’s paper about a Lafayette woman’s legal victory over the Internal Revenue Service almost 40 years ago is the winner of the Jefferson Caffery Research Award.
The Caffery Award is given yearly to an undergraduate or graduate student who conducts scholarly research using Special Collections materials in Edith Garland Dupré Library on campus.
Throop, of New Iberia, La., will earn a master’s degree in history this semester. She combed through the legal papers and correspondence of Barbara Hansen. The Lafayette housewife battled the IRS over Louisiana’s “head and master” property laws, which gave husbands decision-making autonomy regarding jointly-owned property. They also made wives responsible for debt incurred by their husbands, including taxes owed the IRS.
In Hansen’s case, the IRS considered her liable for her husband’s income, even though the marriage had crumbled, and she hadn’t been privy to his earnings the previous year. Throop detailed the case in a research paper titled “Her Day in Court: Barbara Hansen’s Crusade against Louisiana’s Head and Master Clause.”
“Her tenacity is what impressed me the most,” Throop said of Hansen’s five-year legal battle, which began in tax court and ended in federal court.
The fight was carried out with a limited budget. Hansen represented herself and orchestrated a grassroots campaign that enlisted the help of organizations such as the League of Women Voters. She won her case in 1979 in a landmark ruling by the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The victory paved the way for the abolishment of Louisiana’s head and master clause the following year.
Hansen’s efforts, as outlined in Throop’s research paper, were featured in a “Good Housekeeping” magazine article.
The Caffery competition is judged by a panel that includes members of the Dupré Library committee and library staff members.
A winner, who receives a $500 prize with the award, is chosen based on factors such as quality of research, and writing content and clarity.
The Caffery award is provided by a fund established in 1967 by Ambassador and Mrs. Jefferson Caffery. A 1903 graduate of UL Lafayette, Caffery served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Columbia, Cuba, Brazil, France and Egypt.
Materials in the library’s Jefferson Caffery Louisiana Room, the University Archives and Acadiana Manuscripts Collections, the Rare Book Collection, Ernest J. Gaines Center, the Cajun and Creole Music Collection and microforms can be used for research.
Learn more about the Caffery award at http://louisiana.libguides.com/caffery
Photo info: Dr. Christine Briggs, director for the Center for Gifted Education, left, and Dr. Bruce Turner, assistant dean of Special Collections, present the Jefferson Caffery Research Award to this year’s winner, graduate student Victoria Throop.