Journalist, political strategist Bill Rouselle dies at 77

Bill Rouselle, a pioneering television journalist who later became a successful campaign manager for some of New Orleans’s best-known politicians over the last 40 years, has died.

According to Geriese Smith Hawkins, the vice president of Bright Moments, the public relations firm Rouselle founded, Roussel died early Sunday morning. He was 77-years-old.

A lifelong New Orleans resident, William Rouselle, Jr., was born on August 3, 1946, and grew up in Uptown. Rouselle graduated with honors from Xavier University of New Orleans in 1967. One year later, he became the first Black on-air reporter at WDSU-TV, starting that job on the same day of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1969, Rouselle left WDSU amid disagreements he had with the station’s coverage of race issues, including what he described as the “censorship” of local news by police who asked his news director not to report on riots in other cities following King’s death. He then accepted a position as the deputy director of the city’s human relations committee. In that role, Rouselle he helped create the city’s first law banning segregation in public accommodations, which took effect on January 1, 1970.

Rouselle later became a sought-after political consultant in the city. As a strategist, he managed successful political campaigns for former state legislator Dorothy Mae Taylor, Senator Mary Landrieu, and New Orleans mayors Ray Nagin, Mitch Landrieu, and LaToya Cantrell. In addition, Rouselle helped run successful campaigns in which voters approved millages for both City Hall and the Orleans Parish School System.

While still running the day-to-day operations of his marketing firm and running political campaigns, Rouselle still found time to take part in broadcasting and print communications. He hosted television and radio programs and published the Black Collegian Magazine . Rouselle also served on a number of boards, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation Board, on which he served a term as president.

Rouselle is survived by his wife, six children, and seven grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.