[News] New Orleans Black Community Leaders Charge Racism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

September 5, 2005, 3:30 p.m. CST



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 
redevelopment.  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

3.         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 at bellsouth.net



Becky Belcore

Quality Education as a Civil Right Campaign, LaRICE volunteer

bbelcore at hotmail.com



Displaced New Orleans Community Demands Action, Accountability and

Initiates A People’s Hurricane Fund

  Not until the fifth day of the federal government’s inept and inadequate 
emergency response to the New Orleans’ disaster did George Bush even 
acknowledge it was ‘unacceptable.’ ‘Unacceptable’ doesn’t begin to describe 
the depth of the neglect, racism and classism shown to the people of New 
Orleans. The government’s actions and inactions were criminal. New Orleans, 
a city whose population is almost 70% percent black, 40% illiterate, and 
many are poor, was left day after day to drown, to starve and to die of 
disease and thirst.



  The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night, scattering 
across this country to become homeless in countless other cities while 
federal relief funds are funneled into rebuilding casinos, hotels, chemical 
plants and the wealthy white districts of New Orleans like the French 
Quarter and the Garden District. We will not stand idly by while this 
disaster is used as an opportunity to replace our homes with newly built 
mansions and condos in a gentrified New Orleans.



  Community Labor United (CLU), a coalition of the progressive 
organizations throughout New Orleans, has brought community members 
together for eight years to discuss socio-economic issues.  We have been 
communicating with people from The Quality Education as a Civil Right 
Campaign, the Algebra Project, the Young People’s Project and the Louisiana 
Research Institute for Community Empowerment.  We are preparing a press 
release and framing document that will be out as a draft later today for 
comments.



  Here is what we are calling for:

·          We are calling for all New Orleanians remaining in the city to 
be evacuated immediately.

·          We are calling for information about where every evacuee was 
taken. We are calling for black and progressive leadership to come together 
to meet in Baton Rouge to initiate the formation of a Community Oversight 
Committee of evacuees from all the sites.  This committee will demand to 
oversee FEMA, the Red Cross and other organizations collecting resources on 
behalf of our people.

·          We are calling for volunteers to enter the shelters where our 
people are and to assist parents with housing, food, water, health care and 
access to aid.

·          We are calling for teachers and educators to carve out some time 
to come to evacuation sites and teach our children.

·          We are calling for city schools and universities near evacuation 
sites to open their doors for our children to go to school.

·          We are calling for health care workers and mental health workers 
to come to evacuation sites to volunteer.

·          We are calling for lawyers to investigate the wrongful death of 
those who died, to  protect the land of the displaced, to investigate 
whether the levies broke due to natural and other related matters.

·          We are calling for evacuees from our community to actively 
participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans.

·          We are calling for the addresses of all the relevant list serves 
and press contacts to send our information.



We are in the process of setting up a central command post in Jackson, MS, 
where we will have phone lines, fax, email and a web page to centralize 
information.  We will need volunteers to staff this office.



  We have set up a People’s Hurricane Fund that will be directed and 
administered by New Orleanian evacuees.  The Young People’s Project, a 
501(c)3 organization formed by graduates of the Algebra Project, has agreed 
to accept donations on behalf of this fund.  Donations can be mailed to:



                         The People’s Hurricane Fund c/o The Young People’s 
Project

                                   440 N. Mills St., Suite 200, Jackson, MS 
39202



  If you have comments of how to proceed or need more information, please 
email them to Curtis Muhammad 
(<http://by107fd.bay107.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=3A53DA97-D54F-47C2-B98C-78C945ABF2C9&start=0&len=12915&src=&type=x&to=muhammadcurtis@bellsouth.net&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=0AB5B50F-2F08-4704-A9A3-036ADB48973E&a=d5e576b2238f40b15ba12f0944c414b28c3d1f2b91c9a14b5cdeedfb849ccfdb>muhammadcurtis at bellsouth.net) 
and Becky Belcore 
(<http://by107fd.bay107.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=3A53DA97-D54F-47C2-B98C-78C945ABF2C9&start=0&len=12915&src=&type=x&to=bbelcore@hotmail.com&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=0AB5B50F-2F08-4704-A9A3-036ADB48973E&a=d5e576b2238f40b15ba12f0944c414b28c3d1f2b91c9a14b5cdeedfb849ccfdb>bbelcore at hotmail.com).



Thank you.





Becky Belcore
Volunteer Organizer
Louisiana Research Institute for Community Empowerment (LaRICE)
<mailto:bbelcore at hotmail.com>bbelcore at hotmail.com

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