Thomas L. J. D'Alesandro III

Thomas Ludwig John D'Alesandro III (July 24, 1929 – October 20, 2019) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the president of the Baltimore City Council from 1962 to 1967. During his tenure as mayor, the Baltimore riot of 1968 occurred.

Early life D'Alesandro was born in Baltimore, to Annunciata and Thomas J. D'Alesandro Jr. He was the oldest of six children, of whom his youngest sister Nancy Pelosi would later become prominent in her own right.

In 1952, he married Margaret "Margie" Piracci at the Baltimore Basilica; more than 5,000 people attended the wedding. He served in the United States Army from 1952 to 1955.

Mayor of Baltimore D'Alesandro ran for mayor in 1967 as a Democrat and easily defeated Republican challenger Arthur W. Sherwood, winning all 555 of the city's precincts.

As Baltimore's 44th mayor, he opened new schools, built a new police headquarters and pushed for open housing. He later implemented a HUD program to finance 475 of the vacant homes abandoned after they were previously condemned to create "homes for the poor".

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Federal agencies proposed multi-lane expressways severely that would impact the Federal Hill neighborhood, and drastically impacted Baltimore's character. As Federal Hill had been newly elevated to the National Register of Historic Places, a Section 106 Review was invoked requiring the federal agency (i.e., the Department of Transportation) to assess the effect of its actions on historic resources: "a compromise was suggested by the mayor [D'Alesandro]; the Federal Hill community was to be actively involved in developing a highway plan that would reflect its concern for the preservation of the historic area. Community meetings were organized to help people to understand the many problems that had resulted from years of mistrust and indecision. A survey of the area was then conducted. This survey proved useful in clarifying the goals of historic preservation so that plans could be developed for an alignment that would meet those goals." Ultimately, the activism resulted in considerable downsizing of the Key Highway at Federal Hill from 14 lanes to Four, averting tunnels under Federal Hill Park.

D'Alesandro, who took office vowing to "root out every cause or vestige of discrimination", remained proud throughout his life of his progressive record on civil rights. As mayor, he appointed multiple African-Americans to his administration, some of them, such as George Russell Jr., the city solicitor and member of the Board of Estimates, the first African Americans to hold those positions.

Death D'Alesandro died after complications from a stroke at his home in North Baltimore on October 20, 2019, at the age of 90. At a CNN Town Hall in December 2019, Pelosi also noted that "his vision was to say that I want to rid our society of every vestige of discrimination and that was his call to action."