Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, March is Women's History Month, and I can't let this month pass without highlighting two barrier- breaking public servants. So many women have contributed greatly to Louisiana, but today, I want to take a few moments to celebrate two: Councilwoman Dorothy Mae Taylor and Congresswoman Lindy Claiborne Boggs. A New Orleans teacher and activist, Dorothy led a fight for equality within the segregated school systems while serving as a PTA president. Under her leadership, the city's Black and White schools finally achieved equal funding. While I didn't know it at the time, my educational experience as a boy growing up in New Orleans in the sixties and seventies would improve thanks to the work of Mrs. Taylor. During the civil rights movement, she successfully fought to desegregate New Orleans recreational facilities and register African-American voters. She was a woman of many firsts: the first woman of color to be elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives; the first African- American woman to hold the head of a State department; and the first Black woman and one of the first two women to serve on the New Orleans City Council, in 1986. Councilwoman Taylor worked issues like criminal justice reform before they were popular. After a century of segregation, she was the first councilmember to move on a proposal to ban discrimination in Mardi Gras krewe membership, a move that paved the way for their eventual desegregation.…”