page_title: Edith Rosenwald Stern
section_title: Political involvement and civil rights
hierarchical_section_title: Edith Rosenwald Stern / Political involvement and civil rights
context_page_description: Edith Rosenwald Stern was a philanthropist and champion of educational causes in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was instrumental in formation of the Stern Family Fund and was recognized as being willing to support causes for which she had conviction even if the causes were controversial. Examples of her controversial philanthropy included supporting voter registration of African-Americans in the American South, the anti-nuclear movement, public-interest law firms, organizing union and tenant groups, and initiation of challenges by shareholders who wanted corporations to become more socially responsible. Additionally, as political causes, Stern stood for anti-corruption, political fairness at the voting polls, and higher education for African-Americans. She was a patron of the arts including the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra and promising young artists, especially musicians.
context_section_description: By 1945, Stern became involved with other women in New Orleans organized to break established political machines in the city. To this end, Stern worked on behalf of politician Chep Morrison who was then a candidate for mayor. Stern organized the "Women's Broom Brigade", aimed at "a clean sweep" of New Orleans city government. As leader of the group, she organized a march of women carrying brooms across the city ultimately going to the Jerusalem Temple. The Morrison candidacy won the election, and Stern continued to work on behalf of reform of local government.
  Stern subsequently took on the issue of voter fraud and worked with the Voter Registration League, as well as the League of Women Voters, on this issue. She organized efforts to educate future voters in New Orleans, including bringing voting machines into local high schools to familiarize young people with the voting process. Mayor Morrison appointed her to the Parkway and Park Commission of the City of New Orleans.
  In 1952, as part of her efforts on the U.S. presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson, Edith Stern hosted then-candidate Stevenson for several days at Longue Vue House during an extended campaign stop in Louisiana. During this campaign season, Stern also hosted John F. Kennedy at her home. At one point during this visit, Stern hosted a dinner party that included Stevenson, Kennedy, and entertainer Ethel Merman, as well as other politically active New Orleanians. Considering the Republican-leaning of her husband Edgar and some of the guests, these events enabled interactions across party lines in this campaign stop. During these campaign events, the Sterns conceived of the idea of Pontchartrain Park, a suburban-style middle-class neighborhood for African-Americans during the Jim Crow South, a project that the Sterns ultimately backed.
  Stern continued her involvement in Democratic Party politics at both the local level and national level. In 1960, she attended the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California, in a private box to watch the nomination of John F. Kennedy. Following Kennedy's inauguration as President of the United States, he appointed Stern to the National Cultural Center Advisory Committee on the Arts. Locally, Stern directed the Stern Family Fund to support the Institute of Politics, which is an organization at Loyola University that helped prepare young politicians for their careers.
  For the 1970 New Orleans mayoral election, Stern supported the candidacy of Moon Landrieu. Following his election victory, Landrieu was seen locally as being the first true liberal to hold the post, and he was the first New Orleans mayor to fully engage African-Americans in city government. As mayor, he continued to rely on Stern's advice and counsel through his terms of office.
  As a member of the board of directors of the Stern Family Fund, Edith Stern made frequent use of the fund to advance causes of African-American education, civil rights, civic responsibility, and corporate responsibility. Engagement in matters of corporate responsibility was controversial among the fund's board, and Stern's son resigned from the board in protest over this policy. The Sterns also directed significant aid to historically black colleges such as Dillard University.
  Stern received near daily hate mail as a result of her efforts on civil rights.
  Beginning in 1967, Stern established a fund to aid in the legal defense of Clay Shaw who was alleged to have conspired to assassinate John F. Kennedy. Although Stern was a strong supporter of President Kennedy, Stern was casually acquainted with Shaw through their mutual interest in French Quarter restoration projects. Following Shaw's acquittal of the legal charges, Stern commissioned Shaw to carry out restoration projects of homes that Stern owned, especially in the New Orleans French Quarter.
  In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Stern led several significant fund-raising efforts in New Orleans to benefit the Women's Division of the United Jewish Appeal.
caption: Depiction of a Women's Broom Brigade
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