Sidney Barthelemy - The Election

The Election

Sidney Barthelemy first set his sights on becoming mayor of New Orleans in 1982 after being reelected into the city council. Barthelemy, the complete opposite from his fiery predecessor with a "will of iron", had a much more laid back style. Morial, not allowed to run for a third term as mayor, supported Barthelemy's opponent William Jefferson. The race between these two contestants was very interesting racially because both candidates, for the first time in history, were African American. Many African Americans felt as though Barthelemy was turning his back on them and focusing more on white collar businesses. This contributed to the dramatic shift in support from black to white. Barthelemy received 58% of the total votes, yet won receiving the minority of the black vote (43%) and a huge majority of the white vote (86%). For this reason, race plays a very interesting role in Barthelemy's reelection in 1990. In this election, Barthelemy received 86% of the black vote and only 23% of the white vote, showing a large contrast to the first election. These results demonstrate the complexity of race in politics around 1986.