A Mentor and a Role Model: Louis Doran of Houston (July 30, 2025)
by Scott Sosebee
Some people become well known because they achieve great feats. Others have greatness thrust upon them by events, and still others seem destined for notoriety from birth. Those are the people that history remembers, the ones that have their names in the books, on monuments, and on the lips of many people. But what about those who helped make the people history remembers? What about the role models that taught and inspired historical figures to greatness. Do they not deserve some of the praise and adulation? I think so, and one such person is Louis Doran, an African American businessman who served as a mentor to many young men in Houston’s Fifth Ward.
Born in Louisiana, Louis Doran moved to Houston to live with a sister after his mother died at the age of three. After high school and a short stint in junior college, Louis Doran set up C&L Shoe Repair on Lyons Avenue. Like so many other African American businessmen in the early and mid-twentieth century, Doran became a civic leader as well as mentor to the community. African American neighborhoods were cohesive and tight-knit, and many people such as Doran believed it was their civic duty to not just make a living for their family, but to also become a voice and example for their community.
Doran did much of his work by example. He worked long hours, six days a week to make his small business prosperous, and he insisted that his children work right beside him after school and on Saturdays. Although he did not shy away from confrontation with the racist practices of Jim Crow, he firmly believed that hard work and responsibility was the avenue for progress for African Americans and that with entrepreneurial success would come social advancement. “Papa Lou” as he became known, taught such principles to his children, but he also instilled that same lesson to other young men who worked for him, more than five hundred by his count over the course of parts of five decades.
He hired young men from the neighborhood and then instructed them in his creed: work hard, work long, save your money, and always attend church and school. He insisted that his young workers make good grades and lead a Christian life. He offered incentives for good grades and gave the shoe shine boy who had the highest grades ten dollars during each grading period, a sum that in most of those years was quite a reward. He also gave each one of his workers a Christmas bonus every year, and for many that bonus was the difference between their family making it through the year or not. When his young employees graduated from high school he gave them another generous gift, and he also helped out with expenses for those who wished to continue their education.
Some of the most notable of Doran’s former workers are former Congressman Mickey Leland, boxing and business tycoon George Foreman, and Houston dignitary and also former congressman Craig Washington. Foreman recalled how “Mr. Doran got onto to me about the crowd I was hanging out with,” and he chastised the future heavyweight champion for fighting and doing poorly in school. Still, Louis Doran was always in Foreman’s corner, and even bought him his first boxing cape. Of course, he made sure that “C&L Shoe Repair” was stitched on the back. Late Congressman Leland credited Doran as one of the inspirations for his success.
As the years went on the C&L Shoe shop became an institution in the Fifth Ward, and a mandatory stopping point for politicians and celebrities. Jackie Robinson, Floyd Patterson, Hank Aaron, Count Basie, and “The Greatest” Muhammed Ali visited Doran at his shop. John Wayne even stopped by to get his boots re-soled while he was in Texas filming The Alamo. Doran was active in the community as well, serving on numerous boards, and was active in his home church, Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church. Ultimately, KTRK, the ABC affiliate in Houston, awarded him its “Jefferson Award for outstanding public service.”
Louis Doran, through work and thrift, became a successful businessman, but he never forgot his roots or his community. He lived his whole life in the same community that he built his business, and along with his wife Bertha raised six children in the community he lived to serve. All of his children went on to degrees of success, and one daughter served as a District Judge for twenty years. When he died in 1997, more than one thousand attended his funeral, including hundreds of those young men he had mentored through the years. I think that monuments are great, but perhaps better than stone are the lives touched during a lifetime. In that regard, Louis Doran—even if his name is not etched in history books—left behind quite the legacy.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.