Lolis Edward Elie

Jack and JustinCreators & Guests

• Jack Davis - Host
• Justin Nystrom - Producer

interviewed noted civil rights attorney and political observer Lolis Edward Elie at his home on Henriette DeLille Street on November 16, 2012. Born in the neighborhood known today as the "Black Pearl" in 1930, Lolis Elie grew up doing all manner of odd jobs, from waiting tables and caddying at the nearby Audubon Park Golf Course to shining shoes at the corner of St. Charles and Broadway. By his own admission, he didn't set out to "become some Civil Rights attorney," that he "didn't want to spend the rest of my life shining shoes." In 1959, he became one of the earlier African American graduates of Loyola University New Orleans's Law School and went out immediately to set up a practice with Loyola classmate Nils Douglas and Robert Collins on what is today Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. He played a pivotal role in the jurisprudence of desegregation and was a tireless civic advocate of equity for the people of New Orleans. Elie passed away in April 4, 2017. 

In this episode, Elie discusses his involvement with the desegregation of Canal Street, the perspectives of Civil Rights activists on the pivotal mayoral election of 1969-70, the disruption to Black New Orleans communities brought by Interstate 10 and Armstrong Park, the rediscovery of music and especially food culture in the 1970s, and his work with Rudy Lombard on the classic volume Creole Feast.