Sybil Morial, a New Orleans civil rights activist and wife of the city’s first Black mayor, died Tuesday. She was 91.
Morial died at University Medical Center in the city, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. Her cause of death was not announced.
“Like many women of the Civil Rights Era, she was the steel in the movement’s spine,” the Morial family told local NBC affiliate WDSU. “She confronted the hard realities of Jim Crow with unwavering courage and faith, which she instilled not only in her own children but in every life she touched.”
In addition to her work in the civil rights movement, Morial was a dean and administrator at Xavier University of Louisiana for 28 years. She also founded the Louisiana League of Good Government to help register Black people to vote, after being told Black people couldn’t join the League of Women Voters.
Morial was known to many New Orleans residents as the wife of Ernest “Dutch” Morial, the city’s first Black mayor. She backed his campaign, worked as a teacher and took care of their five children while he pursued political office. Dutch Morial took office in 1978 and remained mayor until 1986. He died in 1989.
Less than a decade later, the Morials’ son Marc also became mayor. He served in the position from 1994 to 2002, and he is now president of the National Urban League.
“Mrs. Morial’s legacy as the matriarch of the iconic Morial family and her own contributions to civil rights and the city of New Orleans will forever be remembered with reverence and gratitude,” said Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.), whose district includes parts of New Orleans.