Former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu, who led the desegregation of city government during his tenure from 1970 to 1978, died Monday at the age of 92. Landrieu, who went on to become Jimmy Carter’s secretary of housing and urban development, is also the father of two other influential Louisiana Democrats, former Sen. Mary Landrieu and former Mayor Mitch Landrieu.
The elder Landrieu, born Maurice Landrieu, got his start in politics in the 1950s as a member of the political organization led by Mayor deLesseps “Chep” Morrison, who won elected office by beating the Old Regulars political machine that dominated the city for decades. All notable white Louisiana politicians at the time, even political reformers like Morrison supported keeping the state’s Jim Crow laws in place, but Landrieu would recount that his close friendship with future Xavier University President Norman Francis, who was Loyola Law’s first Black student, helped show him that change was badly needed.
Landrieu won his first office in 1960 when he was elected to the state House even as Morrison was losing the Democratic nomination to lead the state to former Gov. Jimmie Davis, an arch segregationist who portrayed the mayor as an integrationist. Landrieu, though, made a name for himself as one of just two members who voted against anti-school integration bills in the face of massive pressure: Walter Isaacson writes, “On his first week as a young Louisiana legislator, two powerful old politicians cornered Moon Landrieu in an elevator, poked their fingers in his chest, and threatened that if he voted against their racial segregation bills, they would destroy him.”
Landrieu went on to win a City Council seat on his second try in 1966, and he used his post to pass desegregation measures, promote the creation of a Human Relations Committee, and vote to remove the Confederate flag from the chamber. Landrieu went on to run to succeed termed-out Mayor Victor Schiro in a campaign that spanned from 1969 to 1970, and it was during that effort that he legally took on his longtime nickname “Moon” even though his advisers wanted him to identify himself on the ballot as “Maurice E. Landrieu.”
Landrieu, though, had to overcome serious opposition in a crowded field. The most prominent candidate was former City Councilman Jimmy Fitzmorris, who had narrowly failed to unseat Schiro in a 1965 bid managed by none other than Landrieu. Fitzmorris took a strong first in the all-important Democratic primary with 35% (Louisiana wouldn’t adopt its current all-party primary system for several more years), while Landrieu only made the runoff 19-17.
It was during this second round that both men were asked at a debate if, unlike Schiro and past mayors, they’d appoint a Black man to head a major city department. Landrieu answered yes and added he’d appoint African Americans “in significant numbers” because of their continuing underrepresentation in city government. Fitzmorris, though, recounted replying, “I would hire the best qualified people regardless of race, creed, or color,” a statement he says cost him the campaign. Landrieu ended up prevailing 54-46, with analysts estimating that 90% of Black voters and 40% of white voters cast a ballot for him, and he had no trouble in the general.
Landrieu made good on his word to appoint considerably more Black people to municipal jobs, including to the powerful post of chief administrative officer; the mayor also filled an open seat on the City Council by picking the civil rights leader A.L. Davis to be the body’s first African American member. Landrieu further left his mark on the city by promoting its vital tourism industry and successfully pushing for the Superdome to be located at its current site downtown, a decision that political analyst Clancy DuBos credits as “economically transformational because it kept downtown from collapsing.”
Landrieu, though, joined other city and state officials in 1973 in remaining silent when an arsonist murdered 32 patrons in a gay bar called the UpStairs Lounge in what at the time was the deadliest attack on LGBTQ Americans. The mayor, who continued his trip to Europe despite the mass murder that just happened in his city, recounted in 2020, “It’s one of the regrets I have. I should have found a way to come home immediately … But in my mind, at the time, the event was over by the time I got home.” The City Council this June formally apologized for the local government’s indifference to the tragedy five decades ago, which one member condemned as “beyond ridiculous.”
Landrieu, who had no trouble winning a second term, was succeeded in 1978 by the City’s first Black mayor, Dutch Morial: The only white person who has led this majority-Black city since then is Mitch Landrieu, who served from 2010 to 2018. The elder Landrieu went on to join Carter’s cabinet before serving as a local judge from 1992 until his 2000 retirement from public office. Landrieu, though, re-entered the political arena during Sen. Mary Landrieu’s unsuccessful 2014 re-election when the two starred in a series of spots, with the former mayor using one to joke, “And now you know why Putin won’t let her into Russia.”