Marc Haydel Morial (; born January 3, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician working the president of the National Urban League. Morial served as the 59th mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002, president of the United States Conference of Mayors in 2001, and as a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1992 to 1994.
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Early life and education
Morial was born to Ernest Nathan Morial, a politician, and Sybil Haydel Morial, an elementary school teacher. He is the second of five children. He was raised in Pontchartrain Park, New Orleans
Morial graduated from Jesuit High School as a member of the National Honor Society. One of only 14 Black students of 1,000 at Jesuit High School, he founded the Student Association for Black Achievement and organized the school's first Black History Month celebration.
Morial was included in Who's Who Among American High School Students, Who's Who in America, and Outstanding Young Men of America in high school.
In 1980, Morial earned a bachelor's degree in economics and African American studies from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Morial earned a Juris Doctor degree in 1983 from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. At Georgetown, he was elected first-year delegate to the Student Bar Association and served as a member and head of fundraising for the National Black Law Students Association.
Career
After working during his third year in law school for Congressman Mickey Leland, he returned to New Orleans to join the firm Barham and Churchill. In 1985, Morial established a private law practice in New Orleans.
After a narrow defeat by William Jefferson in 1990, Morial was elected to the Louisiana State Senate in 1991. He served until being elected mayor of New Orleans.
State senator
As a Louisiana state senator (1992–1994), Morial was chairman of the Educational Institution Subcommittee and member of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus.
Mayor of New Orleans
Marc Morial was elected mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1994, defeating Donald Mintz with 54% of the vote. He was the youngest mayor of New Orleans in 50 years and at the time was one of the youngest mayors of any major American city. He campaigned with the promise to "clean out City Hall with a shovel not a broom". Morial won re-election to a second term in 1998, receiving almost 80% of the votes.
During his time as mayor, the rate of violent crime in New Orleans fell by 50%." From 2001 to 2002, Morial was president of the United States Conference of Mayors. He served as chief spokesperson for America’s Cities (2001–2002). In addition to his time as president, he also served as the organization’s chairman for the Committee on Arts, chairman for the Federal Budget Task Force, chairman for the Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness, and vice president, among other positions.
National Urban League
In 2003, Morial was selected to head the National Urban League. In 2004, Morial added a new metric, the Equality Index, to the League's annual State of Black America.
Presidential commissions
Morial served as chair of the Census Advisory Committee (2010), and as a member of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability (2012–2015). He was also appointed to the [[ by President Bill Clinton (1998–2000).
Publications
Morial has written two non-fiction books, published speeches, weekly newspaper columns and a weekly newsletter, “ReMarcs” for the National Urban League.
"A National Action Plan for America’s Cities", The Urban Lawyer: The National Quarterly on State and Local Government Law, Volume 34, Number 3, Summer 2002.
Decisions of Courage, a book of bpeeches by Mayor Marc H. Morial from his first term as Mayor of New Orleans. 1998
"To Be Equal", a weekly newspaper column. 2003–present
The Gumbo Coalition, 2020