Lolis Elie, Lawyer Who Helped Desegregate New Orleans, Dies at 87

Lolis Edward Elie, an undaunted civil rights pioneer whose advocacy as a lawyer, protest organizer and negotiator helped propel the racial desegregation of New Orleans, died on Tuesday at his home in the city’s Treme neighborhood. He was 87.

The cause was apparently complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his son, Lolis Eric Elie, a journalist, food historian and filmmaker.

A childhood victim of discrimination growing up in segregated Louisiana, Mr. Elie (pronounced E-lie) vowed that he would never return to the South after experiencing, at 17, relative racial anonymity in New York City, having gone north for a brief stint as a merchant seaman.

But after he was drafted into the Army in 1951, a fellow soldier encouraged him to pursue a legal career once he was discharged. He did, returning home to continue his schooling.

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