deLesseps Story Morrison
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (September 2014) |
deLesseps S. Morrison | |
---|---|
United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States | |
In office July 17, 1961[1] – July 1963 | |
President | John F. Kennedy |
Preceded by | John C. Dreier |
Succeeded by | Ellsworth Bunker |
54th Mayor of New Orleans | |
In office April 4, 1946 – July 17, 1961 | |
Preceded by | Robert Maestri |
Succeeded by | Victor H. Schiro |
Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from the Orleans Parish (Ward 12) | |
In office May 13, 1940[2] – May 13, 1946[3] | |
Preceded by | James A. Lindsay[4] |
Succeeded by | Joseph L. Piazza[3] |
Personal details | |
Born | deLesseps Story Morrison January 18, 1912 Ciudad Victoria, Mexico |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Corinne Waterman Morrison
(m. 1942; died 1959) |
Children | 3 (including Transportation Corps |
Battles/wars | World War II |
deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison Sr. (January 18, 1912 – May 22, 1964), was an American attorney and politician who was the 54th
The population of New Orleans peaked during Morrison's mayoralty, when the 1960 Census recorded 627,525 inhabitants, a 10 percent increase from 1950. Morrison ran three primary campaigns for the Louisiana Democratic gubernatorial nomination, but was unsuccessful. Louisiana's African Americans had been effectively disfranchised by the turn of the 20th century; their initial preference for the Republican "Party of Lincoln", coupled with white voters' overwhelming support in the South for the Democratic Party, meant that the Democratic primary was the only competitive election in the state.[citation needed]
Early life and education
Morrison was born to Jacob Haight Morrison, II (1875–1929), a
In 1932, Morrison graduated from
Law and political career
Morrison moved to New Orleans, where he became an attorney with the
Marriage and family
In 1942, Morrison married Corinne Waterman of New Orleans. They had three children together. Their oldest son, deLesseps Story Morrison Jr., known as "Toni", became a politician like his father and was a Louisiana state representative from 1974 to 1980.
Military service
After graduation from college he was commissioned in the Army Reserve as a
After the war, Morrison returned to New Orleans to practice law. Continuing with the
Election as mayor
Morrison was approached by a group of
Morrison as mayor
As mayor, Morrison put together a strong
Morrison marketed the city effectively, and was instrumental in creating the post-World War II image of New Orleans as a growing and progressive Sun Belt metropolis. His administration attracted significant private investment and welcomed the establishment of numerous oil industry and white-collar corporate offices in downtown New Orleans, as well as several sizable new industrial plants elsewhere. To emphasize his differences from his predecessor, whom he had characterized as dictatorial, Morrison worked to get a law passed to reduce the powers of the mayor. He created a new city planning commission and moved to make administration more efficient by firing many of Maestri's patronage appointments (though some were replaced with Morrison's own supporters). [citation needed]
Morrison downsized city operations by selling off most of the city's public markets. Most were torn down, which was regretted later as costing the city valuable community centers. He addressed a housing crisis by building veterans' housing operated by the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and engaged in more large-scale urban renewal than any other New Orleans mayor. Morrison's administration demolished low-income neighborhoods to build new or expand existing public housing projects, expropriated private property to construct the New Orleans Civic Center, the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, and several street-widening projects in the city's downtown. [citation needed]
One of his most popular acts was to create the
A proponent of increased
Despite running on a platform stressing the elimination of the Old Regular machine, after his election Morrison quickly built his own political organization, the Crescent City Democratic Association. The CCDA began finding its supporters jobs in City Hall and in municipal construction contracts. In October 1946, Morrison broke a garbage collectors' strike by organizing volunteer scab labor to take over the duties of the strikers. Morrison's organization's power quickly eclipsed that of the Old Regulars, and he secured easy re-elections in 1950, 1954, and 1958. [citation needed]
Morrison pushed for a new city charter in 1954, which replaced the at-large council commission system with a legislative city council combining five district-based and two at-large members. The system of municipal government established by the 1954 charter still operates in New Orleans. The charter limited the mayor to two consecutive four-year terms, but did not apply to Morrison, who was exempted by a grandfather clause.
Morrison, crime, and the NOPD
After assuming office in 1946, Morrison appointed Adair Watters superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) in an effort to eliminate corruption. But tensions developed when Watters moved to suppress gambling, prostitution, and other vice too zealously for Morrison's liking. Watters resigned in February 1949 because of Morrison's political interference with NOPD activities. Throughout most of the 1950s, scandals continued to be revealed concerning the involvement of the NOPD in graft and vice. [citation needed] In 1952, the Metropolitan Crime Commission of New Orleans was established as an independent monitor of the NOPD and the Morrison administration's approach to vice. State Police Colonel Francis Grevemberg, later a two-time gubernatorial candidate, led a series of high-profile raids on New Orleans gambling establishments that embarrassed Morrison and the NOPD for its inactivity. Eventually, retired FBI Agent Aaron M. Kohn was sent from Chicago to investigate NOPD involvement in vice. Kohn later recalled:
After about a year, I began to realize something about the system down here. In Chicago, people were generally on one side of the fence or the other—honest or crooked. But in Louisiana, there just isn't any fence."[15]
He soon complained that Morrison was obstructing his efforts. In 1955, Morrison forced the mayor to ask for Schuering's resignation. [citation needed]
Morrison and race
Early in his administration, Morrison supported the construction of a suburban-style black neighborhood named
In his 1959 gubernatorial runoff contest, Morrison proclaimed his support for segregation and noted that New Orleans was at that time the least racially mixed of the large southern cities. He boasted that he had been sued by the NAACP over his segregationist policies in the city.[16]
New Orleans gained national attention in the fall of 1960 during the
Gubernatorial election of 1956
The then-lieutenant governor, C.E. "Cap" Barham of Ruston, ran unsuccessfully with Morrison in a bid for a second term in the second-highest state office. The two proposed a "New look" for Louisiana politics. In his stump speeches, Morrison often reminded his listeners that all state programs came from taxes and not everything one might prefer could be adopted. Yet he usually mentioned projects important to local voters.[17]
Gubernatorial election of 1960
Other Morrison ticket candidates lost too, including George W. Shannon for
In an appearance in
Gubernatorial election of 1964
Declining political fortunes
By his final term as mayor, Morrison's luster had faded somewhat. Some of his ideas, such as the unsuccessful 1959 proposal for a
Seeking a political base from which to stage another run for governor, he approached the
Death
Four months after his final election defeat, Morrison and his son, Randy, died on May 22, 1964, in a plane crash in
The Morrison family
Morrison married Corinne Waterman on October 3, 1942. Mrs. Morrison (born August 17, 1921) died at the age of thirty-seven on February 26, 1959, just a few months before her husband launched his second gubernatorial bid. The Morrisons' seven-year-old son, John Randolph Waterman "Randy" Morrison (born September 24, 1956), died with his father in the 1964 plane crash. The Morrisons' daughter, Corinne Ann Morrison (born 1947), became an attorney and practiced in New Orleans. Their elder son,
After his wife's death, Morrison was frequently seen in the company of Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who expressed a special fondness for New Orleans, which she considered "the most European" of American cities. Jimmy Fitzmorris, later lieutenant governor of Louisiana, recalled that "The ladies loved him. Chep was sort of an outgoing personality, had a contagious smile, and was able to captivate a lot of people. Most people that met Chep couldn't help but like him."[22] Morrison later dismissed the notion that his interest in Gabor was serious though Jimmie Davis questioned the relationship in the 1959 gubernatorial race. In 1963, Gabor wed businessman Herbert Hutner while Morrison was making his third unsuccessful run for governor a year before his own death. Gabor, who married nine times, lived until 2016.[22]
In 1995, the senior deLesseps Morrison was inducted
See also
- Timeline of New Orleans, 1940s–1960s
Citations
Notes
- ^ REMARKS ON SWEARING IN DELESSEPS MORRISON AND ROBERT F. WOODWARD, 17 JULY 1961
- ^ Official journal of the proceedings of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1940)
- ^ a b Official journal of the proceedings of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1946-47)
- ^ Official journal of the proceedings of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1936)
- ISBN 158980497X, p. 119
- ^ "Le Grand Charles, Delasoups, and Uncle Earl: De Gaulle's Visit to New Orleans" by Philip C. Cook. Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association Vol. 49, No. 1 (Winter, 2008), pp. 5-20
- ISBN 0-8071-2914-3. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
- ^ a b Army R, D & A. V4 1962-1963
- ^ a b c Army reserve magazine. v.6/10
- OCLC 32551924.
- OCLC 32551924.
- ^ "Chep Morrison (1912-1964)". knowla.org. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
- ISBN 0-271-01876-3.
- ^ "Why the section between Calliope and First streets changed from Loyola Avenue to Simon Bolivar Avenue?" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, bestofneworleans.com, March 18, 2014; accessed September 17, 2014.
- ^ Life Magazine, September 8, 1967, p. 94.
- ^ Morrison political advertisement, Minden Herald, December 31, 1959, p. 4
- ^ "Morrison, Barham Visit Minden", Minden Press, December 1, 1955, p. 1
- ^ Louisiana Secretary of State, Election returns, December 5, 1959, and January 9, 1960.
- ^ Minden Press, November 16, 1959, p. 6
- ^ Reprint of Shreveport Times editorial of December 15, 1959, in Minden Herald, December 28, 1959
- ^ "Crash Kills deLesseps Morrison And 6 Others on Mexico Flight". New York Times. 24 May 1964. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- ^ a b Scott, Mike (December 19, 2016). "Remembering Zsa Zsa Gabor's love affair with New Orleans -- and Mayor Chep Morrison". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
- ^ Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame entry Archived July 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, cityofwinnfield.com; accessed September 16, 2014.
References
- Mark T. Carleton, Readings in Louisiana Politics (1975) includes a study of Morrison's three failed gubernatorial campaigns.
- "DeLesseps Story Morrison", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, publication of the Louisiana Historical Association (1988), p. 585
- Fairclough, Adam. Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972. University of Georgia Press, 1995.
- Gardner, James C. Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. II. Shreveport: Ritz Publications, 2006, pp. 43–44.
- Haas, Edward F. DeLesseps S. Morrison and the Image of Reform: New Orleans Politics, 1946–60. Louisiana State University Press, 1974.
External links
- Profile, nutrias.org; accessed September 18, 2014.