Ernest Morial
On this date in 1929, Ernest Morial, a Black politician, was born.
He was born the youngest of six children in Louisiana and nicknamed Dutch. The Morial family was devout Catholics, and he began his education at St. Louis Catholic School. He later attended Xavier Preparatory School. Morial graduated from Xavier University in 1951. At Xavier, the only historically Black Catholic College in the country then, he became president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first Black Greek Fraternity.
Morial was mayor of New Orleans (1978-1986), a lawyer, and a judge in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and Juvenile Court, Orleans Parish. He was also the first Black assistant U.S. attorney and the first elected to the Louisiana Legislature since Reconstruction. Ernest Morial died on Dec. 24, 1989.
