Dorothy Mae Taylor: The Woman Who Changed Mardi Gras

The Woman Who Changed Mardi Gras

In 1992, Dorothy Mae Taylor did something that shook New Orleans to its foundations. She authored a city council ordinance requiring Mardi Gras krewes to sign anti-discrimination affidavits as a condition of their parade permits. It sounds simple. It was seismic.

The old-line krewes — Comus, Momus, Proteus — had been the exclusive domain of white, wealthy, socially connected New Orleanians for more than a century. Their membership rolls were secret, their balls were invitation-only, and their exclusion of Black members was understood by everyone and acknowledged by no one. Taylor forced it into the open.

The backlash was fierce. Comus and Momus — two of the oldest and most prestigious krewes in Carnival history — stopped parading rather than comply. Proteus initially stopped too, though they eventually returned. For New Orleans' white establishment, Taylor's ordinance was an unforgivable assault on tradition. For everyone else, it was long overdue.

But the ordinance was just one chapter in a career that made Dorothy Mae Taylor one of the most consequential political figures in New Orleans history. Born in 1928, Taylor was a civil rights activist who became the first African American woman elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1971. LSU named her Legislator of the Year her first full year in office. She went on to serve on the New Orleans City Council, becoming the first Black woman to serve as council president.

Governor Edwin Edwards appointed her to head the Department of Urban and Community Affairs, making her the first African American woman to hold a Louisiana cabinet position. She ran the Central City Neighborhood Health Clinic. She mentored a generation of political leaders.

Taylor died in 2000, but the Mardi Gras she left behind is more inclusive than the one she grew up in. The krewes that chose to stop parading rather than open their doors made their choice. The city moved on without them. That's Dorothy Mae Taylor's legacy: she forced New Orleans to decide what kind of city it wanted to be. And ultimately, the city chose inclusion.