(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Remembering Dorothy Mae Taylor, who pushed to desegregate krewes [1] ['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News'] Date: 2024-02-06 A 1994 political poster for Dorothy Mae Taylor. Credit: Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection Dorothy Mae Taylor achieved many firsts but is remembered for her impact on Mardi Gras. She was the first Black woman elected to the Louisiana State Legislature in 1971; the first woman to receive the Legislator of the Year award in 1972; the first Black woman to head a state department in 1984; one of the first two women and the first Black woman to serve on the New Orleans City Council in 1986. Her most famous achievement, however, was disrupting the segregated Mardi Gras culture. In 1991, Taylor introduced a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion and gender in Carnival krewes. She said krewes using city services to hold their parades should have membership policies that didn’t discriminate. Subsequent public hearings revealed that popular krewes were not only keeping Black people from joining but also women, gay people, Jewish people and Italians. “What’s before us today is discrimination,” Taylor said during a 1992 hearing recorded by NPR. “My questions are based on discrimination.” She did not mince words. For example, she asked one unidentified man who had been a krewe member for 40 years if he had recommended any Black, Jewish or Italian members during that time. The man said he did not know if any were Italian. Taylor: “What about Blacks?” Unidentified man: “No, ma’am.” “The debate [about the ordinance] grew extremely heated,” according to an article by Matt Haines on Very Local, “and Taylor was called a racist and berated on posters and shirts as ‘The Grinch who Stole Mardi Gras.’” Because her original ordinance was revised to remove a jail component, Taylor ultimately did not vote for her own legislation. Still, her courageousness caused Carnival to move toward inclusion. Three all-white-male krewes, Momus, Comus and Proteus, stopped parading to avoid integration. Proteus started rolling again after adopting new rules in 2005. Taylor died in 2000. Related Stories Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/02/06/remembering-dorothy-mae-taylor-mardi-gras-desegregation/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/