As the Mayor and City Council of New Orleans work with the Street Renaming Commission to remove Confederate general street names, please sign this petition to CHANGE “GOVERNOR NICHOLLS STREET” TO “COSIMO MATASSA STREET,” and urge the Mayor, Council, and Commission to do so.  

Aside from being a Confederate general not from New Orleans, Governor Nicholls’ election was scandalous; he moved the state capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge; and in 1891 when 11 Sicilians were lynched at Parish Prison, the Italian consul asked Governor Nicholls to intervene and he declined.   Whereas from 1956 to 1965, Mr. Matassa, native New Orleanian and son of Sicilian immigrants, operated his legendary recording studio at 523 and 525 Governor Nicholls Street.  

Many of New Orleans greatest musicians credit him with being instrumental in creating the “New Orleans Sound,” also known as the “Cosimo Sound,” praise which made him uncomfortable due to his humility.  He is considered a major contributor to the birth of rock n roll.  

In his Governor Nicholls Street studios, Mr. Matassa engineered records by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Sam Cooke, Ike & Tina Turner, Aaron Neville, Ernie K-Doe, Bobby Charles, and many others.  Mr. Matassa was also very racially progressive and supportive during the grim days of Jim Crow segregation. 

Furthermore, Cosimo Matassa is a great name for a street.  It would make New Orleans the only city in the world where you could meet someone at the corner of Henriette Delille and Cosimo Matassa.