One evening in 1969, New Orleans politics was about to change dramatically. At issue was the mayor’s office. Back then, each political party had primaries to determine its candidate, but since nearly everyone in the city was registered as a Democrat, whoever won the Democratic primary would, in effect, be elected.
Televised debates were still popular then, ever since John Kennedy and Richard Nixon had starred in the first presidential debate in 1960. (The debate, it has been argued, gave the election to underdog Kennedy since he looked better on camera than sweaty Nixon.)
By ’69, TV debates were being used in practically every important election.
On stage that night were Moon Landrieu and Jimmy Fitzmorris. Both were council members at large; both had known each other for a long time; both claimed to be friends. There would be, however, one factor that, for many voters, would set the two apart: race.
Later in his career, Fitzmorris would recall in a NOLA.com article that the election turned on a reporter’s question during the televised debate. The question: “Would he promise to hire a Black man to head a major city department?”
And his answer: “I said, ‘No, I would not,'” Fitzmorris recalled saying. “I would not promise to hire a Black man, nor would I promise to hire a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew or a Chinaman. I would hire the best qualified people regardless of race, creed or color.”
Fitzmorris’ answer made sense as an argument for open-mindedness, but politically it was a disaster compared to Landrieu’s answer: He said “yes.”
Fitzmorris did not mean for his answer to sound the way it did. He was responding to the word “promise,” which meant that he wanted to keep the doors open to the best choices available regardless of race. Landrieu on the other hand was on an ideological mission, there needed to be Black officials in city government.
Both Fitzmorris and Landrieu had won Black support in the past but on this election, Landrieu would win an unheard of figure, more than 90 percent of the minority ballots.
There was also another factor. Something had changed. In 1965, the federal voting rights act passed. The law took away some of the rules, such as voter testing, that had kept some Black voters from registering. With the change, the Black voting numberers rapidly increased. In the past, Black political leadership depended heavily on the the guidance of ministers. Among the heavyweights nationally were Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. In New Orleans, A.L. Davis and Avery Alexander were political/spiritual leaders. But after the voting rights passed, new groups, many organized by young men, emerged as a way of corralling the newly liberated Black votes. They had an alphabet full of acronym names including BOLD (Black Organization for Leadership Development), SOUL, COUP and, in the Treme neighborhood, TIPS. They became the new power brokers and were skilled at delivering the votes.
As mayor, Landrieu gave the highest appointive position to Terrence Duvernay, a Black man from an old New Orleans family. Among the other newcomers was Sidney Barthelemy who was appointed Director of the Welfare Department. Barthelemy would eventually be elected councilman at large and then serve two terms as mayor, a legacy of the Landrieu years.
Jimmy Fitzmorris would get involved in state politics and was twice elected Lt. Governor. In 1979, he ran for governor, but barely lost. Among those who endorsed him in his statewide elections was Moon Landrieu and Fitzmorris would have strong Black support in New Orleans.
Politics was changing across the country, but in few places was it as identified with one man as in New Orleans, with Landrieu. The sidewalks leading to Holy Name church on St. Charles Avenue were crowded this past Saturday. The funeral gathering included warriors from the Landrieu years now older but proud of the change they helped to bring about. On this day they were going to honor God and Moon.
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