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Dignity in schools: an unexcused absence
September 21, 2009
New Orleans – “A school should not feel like a prison. A school should feel positive, safe and welcoming. A school should feel like a second home. As I walk through the doors of my school, I want to be treated with dignity.” These are the words of Vernard Carter, a rising 10th grade Rethinker at a well-attended press conference held July 23, 2009.
Fight heats up over discriminatory housing laws in New Orleans area
September 15, 2009
Rebuilding efforts in St. Bernard Parish, a small community just outside New Orleans, have recently gotten a major boost. One nonprofit focused on rebuilding in the area has received the endorsement of CNN, Alice Walker the touring production of the play “The Color Purple” and even President Obama. But an alliance of Gulf Coast and national organizations are now raising questions about the cause these high profile names are supporting.
Soul Food Co-op: an interview wit’ co-owner Yasser
September 13, 2009
Right after the chattel slavery era, the great Marcus Mosiah Garvey taught our people all over the world the importance of providing for ourselves as well as the importance of being able to employ our own community. Today Garvey would be proud of ATL transplants Yasser and Vahid, two young adults who brought the Soul Food Co-op (grocery store) to West Oakland’s Village Bottoms Cultural District. We finally have a place, in the hood, where you could send your children to the store to get real fresh fruits and vegetables, without them having to see cigarette and alcohol ads.
The power of vigilance
September 11, 2009
On Thursday, Sept. 3, at their weekly town hall meeting, the leaders of SLAM (Stop Lennar Action Movement) reminded the audience of the kind of power they have in the battle to save Bayview Hunters Point. Minister Christopher Muhammad, Archbishop Franzo King and Francisco Da Costa shared the latest news of SLAM’s progress and urged the audience to understand that by staying focused and vigilant and not letting anything turn them around, they will win the war.
Let’s get New Orleanians back home
September 3, 2009
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., wrapped up two days of hearings by the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity, which she chairs, by focusing on the status and availability of affordable, quality public housing due to the near total demolition of the “Big Four” public housing developments in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. After the hearing, Congresswoman Waters, panelists and other guests participated in a bus tour of the Big Four sites – B.W. Cooper, C.J. Peete, Lafitte and St. Bernard – and visited the future site of a new public housing development in Iberville, which may be the next development to be demolished and redeveloped.
On the eve of our eviction:
September 3, 2009
ask the question, “Did we cause the hurricane?” There is no one that can answer, yet there are those that state to me and my family – all Katrina survivors – “It has been four years. Everyone should have put that behind them and moved on.”
Katrina Pain Index 2009
August 17, 2009
This month marks four years since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The world saw who was left behind when Katrina hit. The same people have been left behind in the “rebuilding.” In the rebuilding, those with money have done OK. Those without have not. It is the American way. Here is a statistical snapshot illustrating some of the legacy of Katrina and the U.S. response.
‘Mission accomplished’ in Gaza
August 8, 2009
On July 29 the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn hosted a standing-room-only report-back meeting led by several participants in the historic Viva Palestina U.S. convoy who returned July 17 and 18 from Gaza City in Palestine. The audience was majority Black.
U.N. advisors host town hall on forced evictions in New Orleans
July 30, 2009
A group of advisors who will report to the director of the U.N. Habitat agency held a town hall meeting in New Orleans on Sunday, July 26, to hear from resident experts and other community members about housing rights violations along the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina.
NAACP urges Congress to pass post-Katrina employment, rebuild and development legislation as people affected by Katrina and Rita continue to suffer
July 5, 2009
Four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast region, there are still numerous unmet needs and challenges facing the residents of that area every day. Especially hard hit by the hurricanes were low-income and racial and ethnic minority Americans, and they continue to suffer disproportionately.
WBOK purchased by Danny Bakewell, champion of Black economic self-determination
June 4, 2009
WBOK has come back strong from the severe damage inflicted on its studio, offices, transmitter site and broadcast tower by the flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now broadcasting over a powerful signal, the station adopted a Black talk format – “Real Talk for Real Times” – on Nov. 1, 2007, after it was purchased and upgraded by Danny Bakewell Sr. on behalf of the Bakewell family.
Media as a weapon: New Orleans’ 2-Cent
June 4, 2009
“Malcolm X would love to make mixtapes, have those out on the streets. The same reasons they boycotted and had protests in that era are our reasons too. We’re coming from that same mindset, but we’re using new tools, trying to get our inheritance.”
Government goes on trial for Katrina flooding
May 19, 2009
Survivors of Hurricane Katrina are finally getting their day in court. In a trial lasting most of a month that went to the judge Thursday, May 14, in New Orleans, a group of residents is holding the Army Corps of Engineers responsible for the flooding that occurred in the wake of Katrina.
Chokwe Lumumba and Clarence Thomas: Facets of Struggle
May 12, 2009
Hear Chokwe Lumumba, revolutionary attorney for Tupac Shakur and former vice president of the Republic of New Afrika, discuss his city council campaign in Jackson, Mississippi, and Clarence Thomas, revolutionary leader of Longshore Union Local 10, discuss his recent trip to Cuba and the Workers Economic Recovery Campaign in this interview, which is sure to become a classic.
Should Oakland and other U.S. cities replace police with armed mercenaries?
May 11, 2009
The United States is in the midst of the most radical privatization agenda in its history. We see this in schools, health care, prisons and certainly with the U.S. military/ national security/ intelligence apparatus.
Damaged roots in the fight for public housing?
May 11, 2009
The fight for housing affordable to low-income families in the United States is a vortex – even unlike the work I did representing immigrants in the post-9/11 world. In my experience, fighting for public housing is more unpopular than fighting for non-citizens’ rights.
Stop the evictions! Stop the demolition of public housing!
March 4, 2009
Rally and march Saturday, March 7, 1 p.m., Orleans and Claiborne Avenues in New Orleans to stop the demolition of Lafitte and the Mid-City area where the replacement for Charity Hospital is planned.
New Orleans mobilizes against police murder of Adolph Grimes
January 8, 2009
About two dozen citizens gathered outside of the 2nd District police headquarters at 7:30 this morning to condemn the slaying of Adolph Grimes III by a gang of New Orleans police officers.
New Orleanians gear up for long overdue rebuilding
January 7, 2009
Neighborhood planning and oversight on needed infrastructure and services will keep the focus on regional needs and local job creation and work related income for workers, with job-oriented training and backup services like child care and transitional housing.
Condemn the New Orleans police murder of Adolph Grimes III
January 7, 2009
The New Orleans police have murdered another African American youth. Around 3 a.m. New Year’s Day, an elite squad of un-named plainclothes officers shot and killed 22-year-old Adolph Grimes III.