Oral history interview with Moon Landrieu, January 11, 1974
Subtitle: interview A-0089, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: De Vries, Walter, interviewer; Bass, Jack, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Mayors; Politicians; Race relations; Politics and government; School integration
Other titles: Interview A-0089, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Moon Landrieu, January 11, 1974; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Moon Landrieu served as the Democratic mayor of New Orleans from 1970 to 1978. During his tenure, he worked to instigate sweeping changes in race relations, including the appointment of African Americans to serve in various public capacities. In this interview, Landrieu discusses changes in New Orleans politics since 1948, placing particular emphasis on the growing importance of the "black vote." Elected mayor in 1970 with 95 percent of the black vote, Landrieu explains how his administration was responsible for some of the more radical changes in the changing racial landscape of New Orleans politics. For Landrieu, campaigns for voter registration and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were especially powerful harbingers of change in Southern politics. In addition, Landrieu talks about the role of black political organizations; the likelihood of establishing an enduring Populist Coalition that could unite blue-collar whites and African Americans as a powerful political constituency; the relational nature between city politics and state politics; and the role of corruption in political matters.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on March 3, 2008).

Interview participants: Landrieu, Moon, interviewee; Bass, Jack, interviewer; Walter DeVries, interviewer.

Duration: 01:23:13.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 114 kilobytes, 152 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series A, Southern politics, interview A-0089, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Susan Hathaway. Original transcript: 42 p.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.