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downright vicious. Old-line krewes threatened to end Mardi Gras by refusing to parade if this ordinance was enforced. Mrs. Taylor held public hearings that forced the club members to answer questions they didn't even ask in private. Nearly all of the old-line krewes were found to be “all-male and all-white”; they not only excluded Blacks but also women, gays, Jews and
Italians. Embarrassed and humiliated, the krewes of Momus, Comus, and Proteus decided to follow up on their threats and issued a press release stating that they would no longer parade on the streets of New Orleans. Soon articles were being written assailing Mrs. Taylor as a racist and berated her on posters and T-shirts as “The Grinch who Stole Mardi Gras.” Racial tensions in the city reached a fevered pitch. Even so, some 15 years after the ordinance was unanimously passed by the City Council and nearly six years after Mrs. Taylor had passed away, certain segments of the community were still angry as evidenced in an interview given to NPR in 2006 by the city's daily newspaper columnist James Gill, “I think you cannot deny that she is remembered among white people here as the vixen who tried to destroy Mardi Gras, and who to some extent succeeded.” “I think Dorothy was just trying to protect everyone’s rights under the law,” insisted Sidney Barthelemy. “Her intent was never to destroy Mardi Gras — she simply wanted to make sure a certain class of people didn’t discriminate against others…. and that was indeed a noble cause.” “What Mrs. Taylor was simply saying is that if you benefit from public funding that you have to be accessible to the public… and the enemies to the openness of that theory spun it into something that they figured the public could relate to – so they spun it into an attack on Mardi Gras,” Jay Banks told The Louisiana Weekly. “Mrs. Taylor knew that many lucrative business deals were being made in those private clubs that most people didn’t have access to, and more times than not, it related to business deals that involved tax dollars. Those businessmen were benefiting, but if you or I were in the same business, we didn’t have the opportunity to sit at their table and have that discussion. That is how the whole thing started.” “We would write letters to the Picayune about the discrimination ordinance but none of them were ever published,” Banks told The Louisiana Weekly. “But those rants espousing hatred and viciousness always got published and it became apparent to me who the Picayune had aligned itself with – they never had any intention of showing the real issue behind the story and it is unfortunate that to many whites, this was her lasting legacy. But when it came time to stand up for what she believed in, Mrs. Taylor didn’t mind getting hit upside the head – if she thought it was the right thing to do. In hindsight it turned out to be a good thing….” Banks added. “It helped make Mardi Gras into something bigger and better than it ever was… Consider this: When Momus, Comus, and Proteus cancelled their parades, they said that they were going to move their parades to other parishes, namely Jefferson. It’s been nearly 20 years now and although Proteus has taken a step into the 21st century and returned to the parade schedule, I’m still waiting for the others to show up elsewhere… It was all a smokescreen — they used the ordinance as a scapegoat to walk away from parading when they could no longer afford to parade anyway; and the ones that stuck around are bigger and culturally friendly; and as a result Mardi Gras is better than it ever was… I believe her legacy will be long remembered if folks will just understand that she saw a wrong and simply tried to make it right. She will be remembered for the light that she was in.” (Taken from article originally published in the June 13, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper)
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Clinic from 1980, she also worked to develop
African-American leaders among her staff, and mentored a number of future politicians in the state. In 1984 she was appointed by Governor Edwin Edwards as head of the state Department of Urban and Community Affairs, becoming the first African-American woman to hold a cabinet position.
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Taylor began her career in public service in the Parent
Teacher Association (PTA), demanding equal supplies and funding for African American children from the Orleans Parish School Board. She was vital to the desegregation of the New Orleans Recreation Department, as well as voter registration. While
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After her legislative service ended in 1980, Taylor became director of the
Central City Neighborhood Health Clinic, operated by the Total Community Action Agency in New Orleans. She worked to develop other African-American political leaders from these agencies, and some of her proteges went on to
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She was also active in civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, gaining more resources for facilities for
African Americans in the city. She worked in issues of health care, child care, racial discrimination and inhumane conditions in state prisons. As Director of the Central City Neighborhood Health
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In 1992 Dorothy Mae Taylor authored an ordinance insisting that all Mardi Gras krewes stop discriminating and institute an open admission policy for anyone seeking to join their organizations, if they chose to use city services to hold their parades. The reaction to this ordinance was swift and
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After her election to the state house, Taylor was uneasy about being the first
African-American woman to serve there. She said that she "prayed and prayed … and the answer to my fear came to me in church one Sunday morning when the choir began to sing, ‘If
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to head the state
Department of Urban and Community Affairs, the first African-American woman to hold a state cabinet position. In 1985, she received the "Humanitarian Award" from the
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The final ordinance required krewe captains to sign an affidavit certifying that they are not discriminating as a condition for obtaining a parade permit. The
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in 1994. She was chosen as council president in 1987. Her tenure on the council coincided with that of Mayor
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in the state House. He had been elected as the first black juvenile court judge in
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working as a deputy clerk in the New
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232:(August 10, 1928 – August 18, 2000), was an educator and politician in
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Taylor died in New Orleans in 2000, eight days after her 72nd birthday.
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referred to Taylor as "the firebrand of the New Orleans City Council."
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526:"Remembering Dorothy Mae Taylor: The First Lady of 1300 Perdido St"
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Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives
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was an intern in Taylor's City Hall office while he attended the
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stopped parading in New Orleans as a result of the new law, but
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Louisiana State Representative for District 20 (Orleans Parish)
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Louisiana State Representative for District 20 (Orleans Parish)
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goes with me I’ll go anywhere.’ It was then that I knew that
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592:"Mardi Gras is more open, thanks to Dorothy Mae Taylor"
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383:krewe, after some hesitation, adopted Taylor's
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187:Charles H. and Mary Jackson DeLavallade
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524:Michael Radcliff (June 14, 2011).
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171:Johnny Taylor, Jr. (married 1948)
679:New Orleans City Council members
590:James Gill (February 15, 2012).
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230:Dorothy Mae DeLavallade Taylor
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554:"Dorothy Mae Taylor Papers"
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216:Civil rights activist
96:Two at-large members:
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489:"Dorothy Mae Taylor"
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269:in 1971 to succeed
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206:Southern University
16:American politician
402:More on Mardi Gras
250:Head Start Program
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100:Peggy Wilson
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92:Succeeded by
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659:2000 deaths
654:1928 births
362:term-limits
246:New Orleans
234:New Orleans
133:New Orleans
61:Preceded by
648:Categories
503:2021-07-14
472:References
465:Liberalism
389:James Gill
379:, and the
212:Occupation
201:Alma mater
162:Democratic
126:1928-08-10
565:Louisiana
561:Thibodaux
429:Biography
184:Parent(s)
168:Spouse(s)
137:Louisiana
86:1986–1994
82:In office
55:1971–1980
51:In office
497:Archived
453:Politics
358:at-large
344:Governor
176:Children
637:Missing
415:Portals
385:liberal
381:Proteus
557:(PDF)
373:Momus
283:Jesus
605:2014
577:2014
537:2014
371:and
144:Died
139:, US
120:Born
287:God
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
