Orleans renamed its convention center, which spans over 10 blocks, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in 1992 for the late mayor. The convention center has been a major economic engine for the city's large tourist industry and, in 2005, became a highly publicized national symbol when it served as a makeshift evacuation center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 1997, the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center posthumously honored Morial with the dedication of the Ernest N. Morial Asthma, Allergy and Respiratory Disease Center. The facility is Louisiana's first comprehensive center for the education, prevention, treatment and research of asthma and other respiratory diseases. "Dutch" suffered and eventually died from complications associated with asthma. Morial was the 23rd general president of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans. In 1993, Morial was named one of the first thirteen inductees into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, the first African American so honored. A public school in New Orleans East was named after him: Ernest N. Morial Elementary. See also List of African-American jurists References Sources Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820–1980. Greenwood Press, 1981. DuBos, Clancy. "As an opponent, he had no equal." Gambit Weekly, January 1, 1991. Hirsch, Arnold and Joseph Logsdon. Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. LSU Press, 1992. Hirsch, Arnold. "Harold and Dutch Revisited: A Comparative Look at the First Black Mayors of Chicago and New Orleans." in African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City. Edited by David Colburn and Jeffrey Adler. University of Illinois Press, 2001. Johnson, Allen Jr. "The Morial Years: Highs and Lows." New Orleans Tribune, May 1986. Whelan, Robert K., Alma Young, and Mickey Lauria. Urban Regimes and Racial Politics: New Orleans during the Barthelemy Years. UNO, 1991. External links Speech by Ernest Morial at the annual region 7 Newsmakers conference of the National Association of Black Journalists on KUT's "In Black America" radio series, August 1, 1989 at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting 1929 births 1989 deaths African-American mayors in Louisiana African-American state legislators in Louisiana Activists for African-American civil rights Louisiana Creole people Mayors of New Orleans Democratic Party members of the Louisiana House of Representatives Xavier University of Louisiana alumni Louisiana State University alumni Louisiana state court judges Alpha Phi Alpha presidents Deaths from asthma 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American judges Presidents of the United States