Dorothy Mae Taylor (Dorothy Mae Delavallade), 1928-2000
Biographical Statement
Dorothy Mae Delavallade Taylor was born August 10, 1928 in New Orleans, the youngest of thirteen children born to Charles Henry and Mary Delavallade. She was educated in the Orleans Parish School system and furthered her education at Southern University (Baton Rouge). She married Johnny Taylor, Jr. in 1948 and started her career in public service as an activist in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), demanding equal supplies for the black schools from the Orleans Parish School Board. Following desegregation of the school system she was instrumental in desegregation of the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) and active during the fight for voter registration. Her first political post was as Deputy Clerk in Civil District Court and by 1971 her work and support in the community helped her become the first African American woman to be elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives. She served as a state congress woman until 1980. She worked on issues of health care, child care, discrimination and inhumane conditions in Louisiana’s prisons. In 1986 she was the first African American woman to be elected to the New Orleans City Council serving until 1994. In 1992 she presented an ordinance to the Council demanding that the traditional and segregated Krewes of Mardi Gras allow anyone who applied to become members of the society in order to integrate these clubs. Mrs. Taylor passed away on August 18, 2000.