Victor H. Schiro

Victor Schiro
File:Schiro.jpg
55th Mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana
In office July 17, 1961 – May 2, 1970
Preceded by	DeLesseps Story Morrison, Sr.
Succeeded by	Moon Landrieu
Personal details
Born	May 6, 1904 Chicago, Illinois
Died	August 29, 1992
Spouse	Margaret-Mary Gibbes

Victor Hugo "Vic" Schiro (May 6, 1904 - August 29, 1992), was an Italian-American New Orleans, Louisiana, politician who served on the New Orleans City Council and as Mayor of New Orleans from 1961 - 1969.

Early life and political career

Victor Schiro was born in Chicago, the son of Italian immigrants Andrew Edward and Mary (Pizzati) Schiro. After moving to New Orleans with his parents as a child, Schiro spent his young adulthood in Honduras and California, where he worked as a movie extra, and co-managed an Nevada gold mine before returning to New Orleans. He worked briefly as an assistant cameraman for Frank Capra. Returning to New Orleans in 1928, Schiro became a radio announcer. In 1932, Mayor Schiro married Mary Margaret Gibbes, better known as Bunny Schiro.

Schiro founded his own insurance company and became an active civic leader in the 1940s; he was president of the Young Men’s Business Club. In 1950, he was elected commissioner of public buildings and parks. Under the new mayor-council charter of 1954, Schiro was elected councilman-at-large. When DeLesseps Story Morrison, Sr., resigned his position as Mayor in 1961 to become U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, the City Council elected Councilman Schiro, then Councilman-At-Large, as interim mayor. Despite the friction between Schiro and the popular outgoing mayor, he was subsequently elected to two full terms in 1962 and 1965. Schiro inherited Morrison’s Crescent City Democratic Association, formed as a rival to the Regular Democratic Organization, but the political machine was deeply divided by the 1962 election, and it declined thereafter.

Schiro as mayor

Schiro has acquired a reputation for calm, quiet leadership during the turbulent 1960s. However, like his predecessor deLesseps Morrison, Schiro was an avowed segregationist and he defeated racial moderate Adrian Duplantier in the mayoral election of 1962 by stressing his segregationist credentials and tying his opponents to civil rights causes. While personally opposed to integration, Schiro was a pragmatist and saw integration as an unfortunate necessity. Business leaders prompted Schiro to deal with integration more effectively than Morrison had in order to preserve the city’s reputation and business climate. The opening of integrated schools in 1961 was peaceful, in contrast to the chaos of the year before. By using the New Orleans Police Department and U.S. Marshals to prevent disturbances by white segregationists, Schiro managed to avoid a repeat of the notorious New Orleans school integration crisis of 1960. Schiro later dragged his feet on issues such as the appointment of a biracial committee and the hiring of black city workers. He closed public swimming pools rather than desegregate them and had Rev. A L. Davis arrested when the civil rights leader tried to meet with Schiro in the mayor's office.

Schiro had a simple governing philosophy, stating that “if it’s good for New Orleans, I’m for it.” He built a new police and courts complex at Tulane and Broad and a new regional library, and initiated a code of ethics for city employees. Devoting much attention to urban planning, Schiro set up a regional planning commission to handle federal programs, and got New Orleans included in Lyndon Johnson’s Model Cities Program. His widening of the downtown Poydras Street corridor allowed for substantial development in the area in the following decade.

Schiro was mayor during Hurricane Betsy, which flooded the Lower Ninth Ward and much of eastern New Orleans in 1965. He was known for his famous statement to the media at the time: "Don't believe any false rumors, unless you hear them from me." He convinced President Johnson to visit the city on the day after the hurricane; Johnson and Schiro visited the Lower Ninth Ward and an emergency shelter. Schiro later travelled to Washington, D.C. to lend his support to getting Congressional legislation passed that would give storm victims a $5,000 loan forgiveness package. The hurricane hit in the middle of Schiro's 1965 re-election campaign; though the Times Picayune and others accused Schiro of attempting to politicize the disaster, Schiro won re-election against his opponent Jimmy Fitzmorris.

Mayor Schiro considered the arrival of the New Orleans Saints professional football team and the beginning of plans to build the Louisiana Superdome to be two of the foremost achievements of his administration. In 1969, the Dome Stadium Commission met in the City Council Chambers in City Hall.

After City Hall

After his two terms as mayor, Schiro returned to selling insurance at his Victor Schiro Insurance Company. After a failed election campaign for the position of state insurance commissioner, he continued selling insurance until a stroke in 1988. Schiro died on August 29, 1992.

Trivia

In 1966, Walt Disney, shortly before his own death, had then New Orleans Mayor Schiro made "honorary mayor" of New Orleans Square, a part of Disneyland, the theme park in California. Schiro, in turn, made Disney an honorary citizen of the real New Orleans.

Sources and external links

• Victor H. Schiro collection at Tulane University
• Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820-1980. Greenwood Press, 1981.
• Fairclough, Adam. Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972. University of Georgia, 1995.
• Haas, Edward F. "Victor H. Schiro, Hurricane Betsy, and the 'Forgiveness Bill.'" Gulf Coast Historical Review, Fall 1990.
• Hirsch, Arnold and Joseph Logsdon. Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. LSU Press, 1992.
• Parker, Joseph B. The Morrison Era: Reform Politics in New Orleans. Pelican, 1974.
• Pope, John. "Former Mayor Victor H. Schiro is dead at 88." New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 30, 1992.