Moon Landrieu: The Mayor Who Changed New Orleans Forever

The Mayor Who Changed New Orleans Forever

Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu was born in 1930 in New Orleans — the city he would reshape more dramatically than any mayor since Reconstruction. He grew up in a working-class family, attended Loyola University, served in the Korean War, and came home to practice law. But Moon Landrieu wasn't built for courtrooms. He was built for politics.

He served in the Louisiana Legislature in the 1960s, where he was one of only two white legislators to vote against segregation bills. That alone tells you everything you need to know about the man. In a state where supporting civil rights could end your career overnight, Landrieu voted his conscience and dared voters to do something about it. They elected him mayor of New Orleans in 1970.

A City Transformed

When Landrieu took office, only nineteen percent of city employees were Black — in a city that was nearly half Black. By the time he left in 1978, that number was forty-three percent. He desegregated city government, appointed African Americans to significant positions across the administration, and fundamentally changed who had power in New Orleans. He didn't do it with speeches. He did it with hiring decisions and budgets and the boring mechanical work of governance that actually changes lives.

His administration built the Moon Walk — the riverfront promenade named after him — promoted the construction of the Louisiana Superdome, and established the Historic District Landmarks Commission that still protects the city's architecture today. He served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. After leaving City Hall, President Jimmy Carter appointed him Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

The Family Business

Moon Landrieu had nine children, and two of them became political heavyweights. Mary Landrieu served as U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1997 to 2015. Mitch Landrieu served as mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018 — the father and son bookending a half-century of the city's political evolution. Moon lived long enough to see his children carry forward the work he started, dying on September 5, 2022, at ninety-two. He built the modern New Orleans that everyone else inherited.