Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29th, 2005. The events that followed would leave the whole nation in shock until this day. One of the major topics of discussion after this disaster was whether or not the government's slow reaction time had anything to do with the fact that New Orleans is sixty-seven percent African American. As helicopters circled a wasteland that was once a major tourist attraction, the racism of the Deep South, thought to be extinct, proved it was only dormant. The same racism against African Americans that could be seen on Bourbon Street in the months prior to the hurricane reared its ugly head once more in Gretna, LA and was pointed out on live television by rapper Kanye West.
In February of 2005, Georgian Southern University student Levon Jones died of suffocation after being detained on the ground by three white bouncers at a Bourbon Street bar. Black leaders have blamed Jones' death on the widespread racist policies in the French Quarter." Their claims are based on a survey sponsored by the city of New Orleans in which it was revealed that fifteen of twenty-nine Bourbon Street bars "discriminated against Blacks by charging phony cover charges, gouging on drink prices and enforcing unequal dress codes." Almost five months after Jones's death, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held a march to
protest the racist policies of business owners in the French Quarter. This proves that racism against African Americans did exist in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina.
After Hurricane Katrina was done wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast, victims of the hurricane from New Orleans sought food and shelter in the neighboring to...
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...cuation Route." Nicholas Riccardi. September 18th, 2005 pg. 25
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3. Chicago Tribune. "Racism charge in slow flow of relief supplies." September 6th, 2005 pg. 9
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Royer, Jordan. “Hurricane Sandy and the importance of being FEMA”, Crosscut.com, Crosscut.com, Web. 1 Nov 2012, 3 May 2014.
- in June of 1961, the NAACP chapter of Monroe, North Carolina decided to picket the town’s swimming pool that was forbidden to Negroes although they formed one quarter of the population
African Americans who came to America to live the golden dream have been plagued with racism, discrimination and segregation throughout a long and complicated history of events that took place in the United States dating back to slavery to the civil rights movements. Today, African American history is celebrated annually in the United States during the month of February which is designated Black History Month. This paper will look back into history beginning in the late 1800’s through modern day America and describe specific events where African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America.
They were willing to break unjust laws to achieve a just law. In John Lewis’ March book One, we see examples of Lewis’s days when he, himself, took part in sit-ins at dinners to be served meals. At the counters of diners, they were rejected by waitress to be served meals. In the book, we witness the brutality and beatings young protesters at counters received as well as in the movie “The Butler”. Both scenes show the consequences protesters faced once in white people’s territory. The goal of the sit-ins was to fight for equality in dining areas and restaurants. With all the violence faced during sit-ins in both book one and two, the protesters continuous pressure to integrate diners and restaurants proved to be effective because a bill was later signed to desegregate diners because of race. In today’s generation, a sit-in would not be effective because this generation’s youth does not have the will and mentality to withstand abuse from whites without fighting back. Violence answers to violence as we have seen recent violence demonstrated by young black protesters in other
In inspiration of Rosa Park’s actions, many college students took a part of sit-ins for civil rights. “When students refused to leave,” they were denied service and “the police arrested and jailed them,” just like Rosa Parks. They needed to do more, so in 1960, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Community (SNCC) formed. The SNCC would travel to bus stations to peacefully assemble in hopes to desegregate buses. Law enforcement treated them with brutality and denied them their “basic constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly.” In 1963, King organized peaceful marches in Birmingham, but just like all other African American movements, whites responded with violence. The violence of the marches was so brutal, that it finally encouraged, “President John F. Kennedy to propose important civil rights legislation.” In order to push forward a civil rights legislation, “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom… in August 1963…” This eventually lead to a new civil rights
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most interesting and deadly hurricane to ever hit the United States. This hurricane devastated New Orleans and all of its inhabitants. This hurricane was especially devastating as New Orleans is 13 feet(3.9624 metres) below sea level. The government wasn’t prepared for the damage of New Orleans, and neither were the Levees. The Levee crash was one of the major causes of the flooding in New Orleans. The deaths and damages cost billions. After this storm many people didn’t want to move back to their home, New
According to Hurricane Katrina At Issue Disasters, economic damages from Hurricane Katrina have been estimated at more than $200 billion… More than a million people were displaced by the storm… An estimated 120,000 homes were abandoned and will probably be destroyed in Louisiana alone (At * Issue). For this perspective, “Hurricane Katrina change the Gulf Coast landscape and face of its culture when it hit in 2005” (Rushton). A disaster like Katrina is something the victims are always going to remember, for the ones the lost everything including their love ones. Katrina became a nightmare for all the people that were surround in the contaminated waters in the city of New Orleans. People were waiting to be rescue for days,
The population of New Orleans was steadily decreasing, between the years of 2000 and 2005, 30,000 (6%) of the population left New Orleans in search for better lives (4). The declining population shows us that before Hurricane Katrina residence were already considering leaving the city, some push factors leading them away from the city include poverty and unemployment (5). Accord to the U.S 2005 Census Bureau around 23% of the residence lived in poverty, this can be a result of the nearly 12% unemployment rate (5). With an unemployment rate double the national standard and nearly one forth the population living in poverty, the city of New Orleans had many push factors against it resolution in a decline population prier to Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the storm nearly 400,000 residents were displaced from their homes too near by safe areas or other states. The population reming in the city as decreased to a few thousand (6). A month after the disaster when the levee breaches were repaired and the flood water was pumped out of the city, residence were allowed to return to what was left of their homes. The first reliable estimate of the New Orleans population after Hurricane Katrina was an ‘American Community survey’. The survey projected that by the start of 2006 around one third or 158,000 of the population returned. By the middle of f2006 the city
One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was written, African Americans were still fighting for equal rights in every day life. The first real success of this movement did not come until the Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 which was followed by many boycotts and protests. The largest of these protests, the March on Washington, was held on August 28, 1963 “for jobs and freedom” (March on Washington 11). An incredible amount of preparation went into the event to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people attending from around the nation and to deal with any potential incidents.
Shah, Anup (2005, November 13). Hurricane Katrina. Global Issues. Retrieved from mhtml:file://F:Hurricane Katrina—Global Issues. mht
Racism isn’t a subject that appears in every day conversations. Although most people try to ignore its existence, it’s quite obvious that it marked the lives of a lot of people and it has now become an essential part of our history. As a student who has lived in the valley all her life, I’ve been taught about the hardships African Americans had to endure while obtaining their freedom, becoming eligible to vote, being segregated, but never did I stop to think that the people who shared my culture and walked the streets of the Valley and San Antonio were going through a similar experience. Throughout the years it has become apparent that African Americans weren’t the only people who had been mistreated.
The main reason why the Greensboro sit-in was born was because of segregation. Segregation is the action of separating someone apart from a group of people based on their racial group. Segregation was supported more with police and the legal systems (Stonaker and Arica). African Americans suffered greatly from segregation because they were black. For Example, they were not allowed to vote. Some of the ways to prevent them from voting are; poll taxes, fees for the voting booth that was way too expensive for blacks to pay. Another obstacle that African Americans had to suffer was literacy tests. In order to vote, they would have to take very hard literacy tests. People did not think that blacks were smart enough to be able to pick the country’s leader. So in return, they had to take test to see if they were smart enough. Because blacks did not get a very good education like whites d...
When Afro-American’s came to America in hopes of having a better and easier way of life, and after they arrived it was a totally opposite of what they expected. The following are a couple events that took place in different locations for the fight for freedom and right. The first is Bloody Sunday; which took place in Selma, Alabama. This particular event was the march of black activists from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Thomas-Samuel (1996) stated that “In 1965, Alabama state troopers and local deputies stopped and clubbed black activists as they marched peacefully….” (para. 1). These people just wanted to make a point by marching from one city to another and they got beating just for it. Next is the fight for...
At the time, Selma was populated by 15,100 Negroes and 14,400 whites, a probable place to start such a cause. The protests began when Martin Luther King Jr., and a couple of other people, registered in a white hotel. James Baldwin was there. However, when more blacks tried to register, they were arrested by the county sheriff. This resulted in marches and protests. One of the first riots involved around 400 demonstrators who were dispersed by state troopers. During the protest, one man, Jim Lee Jackson, was shot and killed, presumably by a state trooper. (“Central Point” 23).
In addressing the Los Angeles riot, Dr. West, wrote, “The riot of April 1992 was, neither a race riot, nor a class rebellion, rather, this monumental upheaval was a multiracial, trans-class, and largely male display of justified social rage.” These events were unfortunate, and attempts were made by ‘the powers that be’ to blame them on “the black underclass, the action of criminal hoodlums, or the political revolt of the oppressed urban masses miss the mark.” Instead, Dr. West attributed the cause to: economic decline, cultural decay, and political lethargy in American life. He stated, “Race was the visible catalyst, not the underlying cause.”