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The Myth That Charter Schools Have Saved New Orleans
In Spike Lee’s latest documentary, If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise, Katharine Montana explains why she chose to live in Humble, Texas, after levee floods destroyed her New Orleans home. “I was forced to make a financial decision for one simple reason,” she tells us. “There is no education system for my…
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Talking 'Bout a Master Plan and More With NOLA's Chief of Staff
Judy Reese Morse is chief of staff to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, working under a new deputy-mayor-based governing structure never used before in this city. In her leadership role, Morse is the highest-ranked African American, and woman, in the city. The Root spoke with her about the challenges her administration has faced in continuing…
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The Changing Face of Political Power in New Orleans
The era of black power in New Orleans begins with the rising of a Moon and ends with the setting of a son. Maurice “Moon” Landrieu, who is white, is widely credited as the elected official responsible for not only helping usher in desegregation in Louisiana but also finally opening New Orleans’ city hall to…
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Stories of Survival in the Post-Katrina Gulf
As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, it is only appropriate that we take a full account of what happened from the broadest possible array of perspectives. It is universally known at this point that the government response was an epic failure, and many lives were lost as a result. From those ashes, though,…
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Bake Sales for Biloxi
In Moss Point, Miss., about 30 miles east of Biloxi, the Prairie family needs materials to finish repairing their home destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Unlike New Orleans, where 80 percent of the housing stock was flooded because of faulty levees, areas in coastal Mississippi took a direct hit from Katrina. In their case, 175-mph winds…
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Has Obama Kept His Promise to New Orleans?
President Barack Obama made a campaign promise that he would not leave New Orleans and the Gulf Coast hanging in their post-Katrina recovery. As the fifth anniversary of that tragic storm approaches, it’s time to take inventory of how much Obama has lived up to that promise. Since Hurricane Katrina and the levee-breaching floods that…
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The Root Interview: Malik Rahim
Meet Malik Rahim: 62-year-old activist; member of the original Black Panther Party; founder of Common Ground Relief, one of the largest post-Katrina volunteer organizations in New Orleans; former Green Party candidate for U.S. Congress; and now a cyclist. Rahim is riding his bike from Louisiana to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness around the destruction of…
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Minorities See Little Green in BP Oil Spill Jobs
Ever since the BP oil spill disaster began, a glut of contracts and jobs has surfaced. But who is benefiting? If you got an oil spill contract from the federal government, more than likely you are white. If you’re not white, and you’re fortunate enough to be working in the oil cleanup, then you’re likely…
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Handcuffing 6-Year-Olds in New Orleans? Seriously?
Six-year-old Ja’Briel Weston was shackled by his ankle to a chair for disobeying his first-grade teacher. Two days later, he was apprehended by an armed security guard, dragged down a hallway and handcuffed to a chair for getting into a shoving match with another student. This didn’t happen at some medieval-age boarding school. It happened…
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The Essence Music Festival vs. New Orleans
The Essence Music Festival’s Marketplace and Art Expo this past weekend resembled a Monopoly board. Spaces around the perimeter of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s conference halls were bought, or rather leased. Instead of houses and hotels marking properties, there were stages and DJ booths popping all over. The area held by carmaker Lincoln…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
