Katrina Survivors Set Course for People’s Assembly in New Orleans

“I’m not surprised at the congressman's reaction. When it comes Black folks and racism in this country, people are every hesitant to call it what it is,” said the 22-year-old community organizer. “They don’t want to say what happened in New Orleans was racism. And it was indeed the murder of thousands of people from a particular community and people with a specific racial and ethnic identify.”

If Middletown and others in a coalition of New Orleans grassroots organizations have their way, the heat may just be starting.

Their aim is not to cause controversy but to have those most impacted by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans have a say, a hand in, and some of the dollars used to rebuild the city. The coalition, the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, is hosting a weekend of events designed to put the people who have been in the eye of storm in the center of activity. It includes a Dec. 8 youth speak out at Jackson State University and Dec. 9 Survivor’s Assembly in Jackson, Miss. The weekend culminates with a rally on Dec. 10, which is also Human Rights Day.

“The main thing to remember is that this weekend was organized around the principles that people themselves must deliberate and speak for themselves,” said Malcolm Suber, a longtime community activist and one of the planners of the People’s Assembly. He expects survivors to come from at least 15 states, though major concentrations of survivors are in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Lake Charles in Louisiana, Jackson, Miss., Houston, Atlanta and Birmingham. He expects about 150 delegates and several thousand people for the rally.

The assembly’s purpose is to have survivors say what they want done and how reconstruction should move forward. Everything from jobs and housing to education, environmental hazards and legal battles will be on the agenda Dec. 9.

A major issue for assembly organizers is the right to return. The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund asserts that since residents were displaced by a natural disaster and forced to evacuate the city, they have a right to space they occupied – whether renters, homeowners, or homeless.

“If we were on a park bench, we have a right to that bench,” said Ishmael Muhammad, a lawyer with the Grassroots Legal Network, who lost property in the flooding after the levee broke and drowned the predominantly Black Ninth Ward.

Assembly organizers are mobilizing people and providing transportation for delegates to the assembly and has some 45 groups working together. The coalition has actively supported survivors. It has raised a little money, started organizing campaigns and fought some legal battles over housing in New Orleans.

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