Former New Orleans Mayor Moon Landrieu — whose early, lonely stand against segregationists in the Louisiana legislature launched a political career at the forefront of sweeping changes on race — died Monday, a family friend confirmed. He was 92.
“He died peacefully this morning surrounded by family,” Berni told The Associated Press.
The white politicians who had a lock on power on Louisiana said he’d dug his political grave, but he held onto his House seat in 1963 and then won a city council seat in 1965 with strong support from Black voters, whose influence was beginning to be felt at the polls. “If you embark on a campaign to end racial discrimination in your hometown, you will need nerves of steel, a will of iron, skin like leather and testicles of brass to withstand the slings and arrows,” he said. “I have myself these past eight years been known in some quarters as ‘Moon the Coon,’ an epithet that has caused me some pain at times, but that is also a badge of honor that bears testimony to what we try to do.
As Black voters gained influence, the coalition that elected Landrieu to the maximum two terms helped make Ernest “Dutch” Morial the city’s first Black mayor, in 1978. Several of Landrieu’s nine children continue his legacy in law and politics: Mitch, also a two-term New Orleans mayor, is now President Joe Biden’s infrastructure coordinator; Mary, who served three terms as a U.S. senator, is now a policy adviser with a Washington law firm. Madeleine became dean of the law school at Loyola University New Orleans, and Maurice is a federal prosecutor.
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