Activist, Zulu Poster King Rudolph Muse Dead At 53
Times Picayune 02-4-1996

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Chronicled Mardi Gras IndiansRudolph L. Muse, owner of rampARTstreet Graphics
Inc. and a longtime community leader in the Holy Cross neighborhood, died
Tuesday of lung cancer at his home. He was 53.

His company produces the annual Zulu Mardi Gras poster commemorating the Zulu
parade.

As president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and the Holy Cross
Community Development Corp., Mr. Muse was a leading opponent of plans by the
Army Corps of Engineers and the New Orleans Dock Board to widen the Industrial
Canal and replace the 1923 navigation lock they have long said is an obstacle
to increasing trade through the Port of New Orleans.

In a letter published in The Times-Picayune in November, he wrote that the
corps' latest proposal would "devastate the three fully developed communities
of Holy Cross, Bywater and the Lower 9th Ward" through "such costs to
residents as decreases in property values, traffic congestion, noise and
disruption of lifestyles," all "for the benefit of private industry."

He lived two blocks from the canal.

Mr. Muse was a lifelong resident of New Orleans. He grew up in Central City
and attended Booker T. Washington High School.

He was active in the civil rights movement and participated in sit-in
demonstrations at the segregated lunch counters of Canal Street stores. In
December 1960, he and several other members of the Congress of Racial Equality
were arrested for distributing leaflets urging black citizens to boycott two
such stores.

After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. While in
the Marines, he took advantage of an opportunity to study sociology and urban
studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He also was a member of the
U.S. track team at the Pan American Games. Sent to Vietnam, he was wounded and
received the Purple Heart.

Returning to New Orleans, he took various jobs, including as an aide for the
New Orleans Legal Assistance Corp.

In 1975, it was disclosed that while working for the legal aid program in
1968, he was paid by the FBI for a few months to gather information on black
militant groups. He said he agreed to work for the FBI only because it
harassed him and that he provided no significant information to the agency.

Meanwhile, Mr. Muse became involved in many community projects. He was a
graduate fellow of Loyola University's Institute of Politics, chairman of the
New Orleans Junior Chamber of Commerce's "Halfway House" Program and a board
member of the Central City Housing Development Corp. and the Central City
Economic Opportunity Corp.

He received the Jaycees' Special Presidential Award in 1971.

In 1989, he became the owner of rampARTstreet Graphics, an art publisher
specializing in "representational art images intended to both celebrate and
pay tribute to the spicy cultural heritage of our city" - especially its
African-American cultural traditions.

Since 1990, it has produced the official Mardi Gras poster of the Zulu Social
Aid and Pleasure Club; Mr. Muse paid the club royalties from the sales. More
recently, he created a limited-edition Mardi Gras Indian poster.

Survivors include his wife, Kathy Muse; a son, Daris Muse; a daughter, Kyla
Muse; and a grandchild.

There will be no funeral. A memorial gathering will be held Feb. 24, his
birthday, at a time and place to be announced.