Arnold Hirsch collection of Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial Oral History Interviews

Arnold R. Hirsch (1949-2018) was born in Chicago, Illinois. He later served as a professor at the University of New Orleans between 1979 and 2010. He is best known for his book Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960 (1983), where he discusses the housing segregation and racial struggles in Chicago following two decades after World War II. His work covers the second Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North and the segregation that they experienced, which he argues was not a natural process. During his time at the University of New Orleans, Hirsch also served as the Ethel & Herman L. Midlo Endowed Chair and the director of the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies.

Ernest N. Morial (1929-1989) was born in New Orleans in 1929 and is best known for being the 57th mayor of New Orleans, serving from 1978 to 1986, and being the first African American to hold this position. Morial began his career as a civil rights lawyer in New Orleans who fought alongside A.P. Tureaud and others alike. Before serving as mayor of New Orleans, Morial was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1967 to 1970. Morial’s long career in New Orleans politics cemented his name to be one of the most well-known in the city, even 40 years after his service as mayor.

Sybil Morial (1932- ) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Eudora Arnaud and Clarence C. Haydel. The wife of the first African American mayor of the City of New Orleans, Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial, Sybil Morial spent her career in the education field, first as a public-school teacher and then later, as a dean at Xavier University in New Orleans. A community activist, Morial has served on numerous boards and committees that focus on women’s professional advocacy through her memberships with the International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation and the affiliated Louisiana Women’s Forum. Other organizations that she has served over the years include The Links, Inc.; Advocates for Science and Mathematics Foundation; the Youth and the Arts National Committee; HMO Louisiana, Inc. and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana; The Public Law Center; PICO National Network; the Southern Institute for Education and Research; among other. Morial served as president and chair of the I’ve Known Rivers Afro-American Pavilion Louisiana World Exposition (1982-1985).

Maurice Landrieu is a former politician, judge, and mayor of New Orleans, and was born in New Orleans in 1930. Landrieu attended Loyola University for his undergraduate and law degrees and joined the United States Army upon graduating, leaving after three years. He began his political career in the 1950s when he opened his own law practice and taught accounting classes at Loyola University. Landrieu was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1960 and was elected Councilman-at-Large in 1966. Landrieu was elected mayor of New Orleans in the 1970 election and reelected in 1974, preceding Ernest Morial. During his time in politics Landrieu oversaw desegregation of city government, obtained federal funds for revitalization of low-income neighborhoods, and was involved in the planning and construction of the Superdome in New Orleans. Landrieu also served as the president of the United States Conference of Mayors in 1975-1976. After leaving the mayoral office, Landrieu served as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was a judge of the Louisiana 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals from 1992 until his retirement in 2000, and was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in 2004. His son Mitch Landrieu became mayor of New Orleans in 2010 and his daughter Mary Landrieu is a former U.S. Senator for Louisiana.

Raphael Cassimere Jr. was born in New Orleans in 1942. In the 1960s Cassimere was heavily involved in the fight for equal rights during the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans. He led and was a part of the NAACP Youth Council, and in 1971 became the first black instructor at the University of New Orleans, then called Louisiana State University in New Orleans. He was a professor of History at the University of New Orleans for 37 years before his retirement.

Henry E. Braden, III was born in 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He attended Gilbert Academy and Xavier University, both in New Orleans before receiving his medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1944. He served in the military as part of the medical corps and later became President of the Louisiana State Medical Association and Chair of the Tulane Medical Center Board of Governors. Among his accomplishments, Dr. Braden served as the first African American member of the Orleans Parish Medical Society, Chief of Staff at Flint-Goodridge Hospital, a board member for both New Orleans Charity Hospital and Tulane University, and member of several Carnival organizations, including Rex and the Knights of Babylon. He was also active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the New Orleans Opera Association, and a board member of the Amistad Research Center. In 1974, the Institute for Human Understanding named Dr. Braden one of their “Ten Outstanding Men” and in 1976 he served as a Presidential Elector for the State of Louisiana. He died in 1994.

Allan Katz spent 25 years working as a political reporter at the Times Picayune/States-Item newspaper, beginning in 1962. He later became the editor at the Kenner Star, and hosted several television shows including the Louisiana Newsmaker. Katz also worked for the Orleans Parish School Board. Katz’s career involved covering the 1963 Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans and black politics, particularly the career of Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the first black mayor of the city of New Orleans.

Note written by Jenidza Rivera