[StBernard] June 3rd as the Turning Point for New Orleans' Displaced Poor

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Thu Jun 1 19:58:02 EDT 2006


NEW ORLEANS, LA, Guest Column by Lance Hill, 6/1/06 -- This Saturday, June
3rd, will mark an historic turning point for New Orleans' displaced African
American community. In the nine months since the impoverished black
community was forced out of their homes by flood waters, there has not been
a single disruptive civil disobedience protest organized and led by the
victims of the policies designed to prevent their return. On June 3rd a
coalition of public housing residents plan to defy the law and take back
their homes at select housing development sites, most of which have been
shackled and left to deteriorate by the local Housing Authority.

The absence of disruptive protest in the past, of course, is in large part
is a consequence of the continued displacement of the black community
hundreds of miles from home. But in the past few months, thousands of poor
blacks have returned to the New Orleans area, despite the shortage of
housing, by doubling up with relatives in the city or neighboring
communities or squatting in abandoned housing. Now with the school term
ending in Texas, we can expect a huge wave of migration back to the city
throughout the summer.

The elite group that engineered the plan to prevent the poor from returning
will now make rest of the community pay the price for not preparing for the
return of the poor. Until now, all the policies and actions intended to
discourage poor blacks from returning have been implemented with out fear of
social disruption or civil disturbances; there was no price to pay for moral
indifference to the suffering of others. Those days are gone. We can only
expect the frequency and intensity of protest to increase in the coming
months, around not only the issues of and public and affordable housing, but
also around employment and education.

In 1963 the civic, business, and political leadership of Birmingham, Alabama
plunged the city into months of chaotic and disruptive protest by remaining
intransigent to the just demands of the civil rights protestors who sought
to desegregate the city. Today New Orleans faces a similar choice of paths
and the response to the first rumblings of protest will determine the fate
of the city for years to come.

Contact information: Lance Hill, Ph.D., Executive Director, Southern
Institute for Education and Research, Tulane University, Mail Room Box 1692,
31 McAlister Drive, New Orleans, LA 70118, (504) 865-6100 fax (504)862-8026
lhill at tulane.edu www.SouthernInstitute.info

--------------------------------------
Tenants vow to retake housing complex
Frustrated residents want to come home

Thursday, June 01, 2006, By Gwen Filosa, Times-Picayune Staff writer

Public housing residents, frustrated after nine months of waiting for any
definitive plan to rebuild the complexes, said Wednesday they will take over
at least one of the hurricane-shattered developments this weekend.

Housing and Urban Development officials appeared Wednesday at City Hall, but
no one had any certain answers to a host of questions from City Council
members and public housing tenants . . .

Full article . . .
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