1. Moon Landrieu was the last White mayor of New Orleans until 2010, when his son Mitch was elected mayor.
19 Facts About Moon Landrieu
1. 2.
Moon Landrieu went to Jesuit High School and received a baseball scholarship to Loyola University New Orleans, where he played college baseball as a pitcher.
3.
Moon Landrieu earned a Bachelor of Arts in business administration in 1952 and a Juris Doctor in 1954.
4.
In 1962, Moon Landrieu ran for New Orleans City Council and lost.
5.
Moon Landrieu was elected the mayor of New Orleans in the election of 1970 to succeed fellow Democrat Victor Schiro.
6.
In that contest, Moon Landrieu received support from 99 percent of the black voters.
7.
On May 3,1970, the day before he took his oath of office as mayor, Moon Landrieu received a death threat by telephone, but authorities quickly caught the culprit.
8.
When Moon Landrieu took office in 1970, African Americans made up 19 percent of city employees; by 1978, this number had risen to 43 percent.
9.
Moon Landrieu obtained federal funds for the revitalization of New Orleans' poor neighborhoods, and he promoted the involvement of minority-owned businesses in the city's economic life.
10.
Moon Landrieu advocated the creation of the Downtown Development District to revitalize the New Orleans CBD, and worked to promote the city's tourism industry.
11.
Moon Landrieu's tourism-related projects included the Moon Walk, a riverfront promenade facing the French Quarter, the $163 million Louisiana Superdome, and renovations of the French Market and Jackson Square.
12.
Moon Landrieu authorized the 1972 New Orleans Housing and Neighborhood Preservation Study.
13.
Moon Landrieu was reelected in 1974 and served until April 1978.
14.
Moon Landrieu was the last white elected mayor of New Orleans until his son, Mitch, was elected in 2010.
15.
Moon Landrieu was elected to serve as a judge of the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1992, and he served until his retirement in 2000.
16.
In 2004, Moon Landrieu was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.
17.
Moon Landrieu legally changed his first name to "Moon" in 1969 during his first mayoral campaign.
18.
Moon Landrieu died at home in New Orleans on September 5,2022, at age 92.
19.
Moon Landrieu's death was confirmed by longtime aide Ryan Berni.