Home / Full timeline / Ernest Nathan “Dutch” Morial, the first Black mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, dies of an apparent heart attack in New Orleans at age sixty.
Ernest Nathan “Dutch” Morial, the first Black mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, dies of an apparent heart attack in New Orleans at age sixty.
1989 (Dec 24)
Emest Nathan "Dutch" Morial, the first Black mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, died of an apparent heart attack in New Orleans at age sixty. Morial was born in New Orleans on October 9, 1929, to Walter and Leonie Morial. He became the first Black law school graduate of Louisiana State University in 1954. Morial's public service career began in 1960 when he was elected president of the NAACP chapter in New Orleans. He worked with civil rights activist A. P. Tureard in filing suits against segregation in public facilities and institutions in the city. In 1965, Morial became the first Black assistant U.S. attorney in Louisiana, and in 1967 the first Black legislator since the Reconstruction era. He also served as a member of the State House of Representatives from 1967 to 1970, and became the first Black elected to Louisiana's 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1973 In 1977, on the strength of a huge Black vote, Morial became New Orleans' first Black mayor. As mayor for two terms, he faced rampant floods in 1978, a police strike that crippled the city's annual Mardi Gras festival in 1979, and a financially plagued World's exposition in 1984. Morial left office in 1986 following an unsuccessful attempt to amend the city charter to allow the mayor to serve a third four-year term. Nationally, Morial had been a president of the National Conference of Mayors, a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and one of the key Black advisors to Democratic presidential candidate Michael S. Dukakis in 1988. After Morial's death, his predecessor, former mayor Moon Landrieu, remarked: "Dutch was the first Black individual to achieve high public office in this state....That alone I think is a very significant achievement."
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.