Mayor C. Ray Nagin records

Collection

Identifier: CA-AA-Nagin

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Mayor C. Ray Nagin records contain two series: Office of Administration and the Office of Communications. These records include subject files, staff records, planning materials, correspondence, and other records produced by these offices under Mayor Nagin and CAO Brenda Hatfield.

The Office of Administration records include physical materials that can be requested and viewed in the City Archives & Special Collections reading room. The Office of Communications transferred born digital records to the archive, and they can be viewed digitally - online - by clicking the link on each item. Further description about each series is avaiable on their respective pages.

Dates

Creation: 2002-2010

Creator

Office of the Mayor (Organization)
Nagin, Ray, 1956- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Available to registered researchers by appointment. Digital records cannot be accessed at this time.

Requesting Materials

Materials Request Guidelines

Conditions Governing Use

Reproduction or use of materials is prohibited without the permission of the City Archives & Special Collections. Please review the Archives' Permission to Publish note.

Biographical / Historical

C. Ray Nagin (Clarence Ray Nagin, Jr.) served as Mayor of New Orleans for two terms, 2002-2010.

Nagin was born in New Orleans on June 11, 1956. In 1978, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Tuskegee University, and after graduation, worked for General Motors in Detroit (1978-1981) and for Associates Corporation in Dallas (1981-1985). In 1985, Nagin returned to New Orleans as controller for Cox New Orleans, the city's cable television franchise, and, in 1989, became vice-president and general manager of Cox Louisiana. In 1994, he received his MBA from Tulane University. While at Cox, Nagin was active in civic issues, serving on the boards of a number of local community non-profits. He was also one of a team of investors who brought the New Orleans Brass minor league hockey franchise to the city.

In his first run for political office, Nagin entered the 2001 race for mayor on a platform focusing on combatting crime and political corruption and on promoting economic development. He led the field of candidates in the first primary and defeated Richard Pennington, Chief of the New Orleans Police Department, in the run-off election. He was elected for a second term in 2006.

Despite efforts early in his first term to fulfill his campaign promises to root out corruption and resurrect New Orleans' image as a business-friendly city, Mayor Nagin's term in office is dominated by the effects of Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the federal levee system and the city's efforts to rebuild following the disaster.

Mayor Nagin left office in May 2010, having reached the two-term limit designated by law. In 2014, Nagin was convicted on twenty of twenty-one charges of wire fraud, bribery, and money laundering related to bribes from city contractors before and after Hurricane Katrina and was sentenced to ten years in federal prison. In 2020, Nagin was released early due to the Covid-19 pandemic.