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In Her Own Words: Sybil Haydel Morial

Attorney Ernest Morial, right, speaks on the telephone as his wife, Sybil, looks on after he apparently won an outright victory in his race for a House seat in the Louisiana Legislature, in New Orleans, Nov. 5, 1967.
Jack Thornell
/
AP
Attorney Ernest Morial, right, speaks on the telephone as his wife, Sybil, looks on after he apparently won an outright victory in his race for a House seat in the Louisiana Legislature, in New Orleans, Nov. 5, 1967.

Sybil Haydel Morial, educator, activist, and wife of Dutch Morial, New Orleans' first Black mayor, died in September at the age of 91. The 7th Ward native was attending college when the Supreme Court handed down its 1954 decision desegregating public schools. The landmark ruling motivated Morial to move back home and join the fight for civil rights.

Speaking with the Historic New Orleans Collection in 2017, Morial recounted her experiences accompanying Dutch through his trailblazing career. She’s the subject of this edition of NOLA Life Stories.

Joe Shriner is an independent radio producer and audio engineer in New Orleans.
Mark Cave is an oral historian and senior curator at the Historic New Orleans Collection.