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New Orleans Black Community Leaders Charge Racism

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 7 September 2005
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Discriminations-Minorit. Catastrophes USA

Press conference: Tuesday, September 6, 2005 4:00 p.m.
CST outside the Reliance Center at Kirby and McNee

New Orleans Black Community Leaders Charge Racism in
Government Neglect of Hurricane Survivors

Press conference to announce plan to save lives and
demand role in rebuilding effort

HOUSTON - A national alliance of black community
leaders will announce the formation of a New Orleans
People’s Committee to demand a decision-making role in
the short-term care of hurricane survivors and long-
term rebuilding of New Orleans.

Community Labor United (CLU), a New Orleans coalition
of labor and community activists, has put out a call to
activists and organizations across the country to work
on a ’people’s campaign’ of community development.
Organizing efforts will take place across hundreds of
temporary shelters.

The population of New Orleans is 67 percent black and
over 30 percent of the population lives below the
poverty line, reflecting the current demographic of
hurricane survivors displaced all over the South.

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
the White House, and Governor Blanco attempt to regain
the public’s trust by evading the question of who’s to
blame, a short and long-term plan for New Orleans
hurricane survivors has remained in a political vault
of silence.

’This is plain, ugly, real racism,’ states Curtis
Muhammad, CLU Organizing Director. ’While some
politicians and organizations might skirt around the
issue of race, we in New Orleans are not afraid to call
it what it is. The moral values of our government is
to ‘shoot to kill’ hungry, thirsty black hurricane
survivors for trying to live through the aftermath.
This is not just immoral­ this has turned a natural
disaster into a man-made disaster, fueled by racism.’

Leaders of CLU, in alliance with nearly twenty other
local organizations and several national organizations
will discuss their plan at a press conference on
Tuesday, September 6, 2005, at 4:00 p.m. CST outside
the Reliance Center at Kirby and McNee. The coalition
will announce:

* The formation of the New Orleans People’s Committee
composed of hurricane survivors from each of the
shelters, which will:

1. Demand to oversee FEMA, the Red Cross, and other
organizations collecting resources on behalf of the
black community of New Orleans

2. Demand decision-making power in the long-term
redevelopment of New Orleans

* Issue a national call for volunteers to assist with
housing, healthcare, education, and legal matters for
the duration of the displacement

Tax-exempt donations for the People’s Committee and the
national coalition can be made out to: Young People’s
Project, 440 N. Mills St., Suite 200, Jackson, MS 39202
or visit www.qecr.org.

Community Labor United is a coalition of progressive
organizations in New Orleans formed in 1998. Their
mission is to build organizational unity and support
efforts that address poverty, racism, and education.
CLU organized in the areas hardest hit by the
hurricane.

Curtis Muhammad is a veteran Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizer and co-founder
of CLU.

For more information, please contact:

Curtis Muhammad, Community Labor United (CLU)
muhammadcurtis@bellsouth.net

Becky Belcore, Quality Education as a Civil Right
(QECR)
bbelcore@hotmail.com

Becky Belcore, Volunteer Organizer Louisiana Research
Institute for Community Empowerment (LaRICE)
bbelcore@hotmail.com

Forum posts

  • Hopefully this organization will take a lesson from the 9/11 families and demand a thorough investigation to expose what really "went wrong".