Sidney Barthelemy

Sidney John Barthelemy (born March 17, 1942) is a former American political figure.

Barthelemy was born on March 17, 1942, in New Orleans, LA and was the third of six children in a Creole family.

He grew up in the Seventh Ward, and attended Corpus Christi Elementary School and St. Augustine High School (New Orleans), run by the Josephites.

He then sought to enter the priesthood with the Josephites, studying at Epiphany Apostolic Junior College in Newburgh, New York, and then St. Joseph Seminary in Washington, D.C., where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and pursued graduate study in Theology.

While in seminary, he worked summers as a laborer in a stevedoring company.

In 1967, having made the decision not to enter the priesthood, Barthelemy returned to New Orleans and became an administrative assistant in the office of Total Community Action.

In 1968, Barthelemy married Michaele Thibideau.

From 1969 to 1972 he was director of the Parent Child Center of Family Health, Inc. During these years he also completed a Master of Social Work degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, worked part-time for the Urban League of Greater New Orleans and assisted with various political campaigns, joining COUP, a political organization based in the 7th Ward of New Orleans.

From 1972 to 1974 Barthelemy was Director of the Department of Welfare under Mayor Moon Landrieu.

The second African American to hold the New Orleans mayoral chair, he was a member of the Louisiana State Senate from 1974 to 1978 and a member at-large of the New Orleans City Council from 1978 to 1986.

Backed by COUP, Barthelemy was elected in 1974 to one term in the Louisiana State Senate from District 4; he was the first African-American to serve in that body since Reconstruction.

While he served in the Legislature, he also joined Xavier University as assistant director of the Urbinvolve Program and as an instructor in the Department of Sociology and became an adjunct faculty member in the Applied Health Sciences Department, Maternal and Child Health Section, of Tulane University.

In 1978 Barthelemy was elected to an at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council, a position he held for two terms.

While in the council, Barthelemy become known for his longstanding rivalry with Mayor Ernest "Dutch" Morial.

In 1979, Barthelemy was elected to the state Senate, defeating a white incumbent who had held the seat for sixteen years.

Louisiana's energy-dependent economy, already slowing as the price of oil declined from its 1980 high point, was pummeled in early 1986 by a sudden collapse in price per barrel from over $27 to less than $10.

With the state's economy in crisis, the unemployment rate in the city climbed to over ten percent and the city government's budget deficit reached $30 million.

To solve this, Barthelemy worked with the city council and developed a plan to dig the city out of the deficit.

This plan involved cutting costs, raising fees, and privatizing operations, in the course of which over 1,000 city workers lost their jobs.

Taking a less hands-on approach to economic development than his predecessor, Barthelemy preferred to let the private sector be the primary engine of growth.

Federal government revenue sharing to municipalities had been progressively reduced from 1981 onwards, and had ended by the time Barthelemy took office in 1986.

Sidney Barthelemy first set his sights on becoming mayor of New Orleans in 1982, when he was reelected to the city council.

Barthelemy seemed the complete opposite of his fiery predecessor Ernest Morial, who had something of a "will of iron".

Barthelemy was more relaxed in demeanor.

Not allowed to run for a third term as mayor, Morial supported Barthelemy's runoff opponent in Jefferson.

Eliminated in the primary was former state Representative Sam A. LeBlanc, III, who finished with a strong 25 percent of the vote.

The runoff between Barthelemy and Jefferson was the first in which both contenders were African Americans.

Many African Americans felt as though Barthelemy was concentrating his focus on white-collar businesses.

Barthelemy received 58 percent of the total votes cast but only 43 percent of the black vote.

He won 86 percent of the vote cast by the dwindling number of white voters in the city.

Annual funding grants from federal and state sources to New Orleans city government decreased from around $40 million a year to less than $6 million a year between 1984 and 1989.

A regional economic slump, the so-called Oil Bust added to these budget woes.

He served as mayor of New Orleans from 1986 to 1994.

He is a member of the

Democratic Party.

He defeated Bill Jefferson in the 1986 mayoral election to succeed Morial.

On May 5, 1986, Barthelemy began his first term as mayor of New Orleans.

Oddly, in contrast to 1986, Barthelemy won reelection in 1990 with 86 percent of the black vote but only 23 percent of the white vote.

First elected in 1986, Barthelemy became the second African American mayor of New Orleans with 58% of the vote.

Barthelemy's mayoralty began under difficult circumstances.