Katrina Victims, Grassroots Coalitions Gather to Strategize, Demonstrate
Black America Web, News Report, Michael H. Cottman, Posted: Dec 09, 2005
A national grassroots coalition and survivors of Hurricane Katrina are sponsoring a State of Emergency Conference and demonstration this weekend to call attention to displaced black Americans and to demand immediate jobs, housing, clothing and food for families in turmoil.
Survivors of Hurricane Katrina and their supporters are gathering in Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans through Saturday for a general assembly conference and mass march.
The People's Hurricane Relief Fund and The Mississippi Distress Relief Coalition are organizing this weekend’s events, which are also being supported by the Center for Community Change, a Washington, D.C.-based agency that helps thousands of urban and rural communities nationwide organize for positive change.
"We're bringing together a group of people that America has historically rejected and who have never been engaged by this country,” Curtis Muhammad, an organizer with the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, told BlackAmericaWeb.com Wednesday.
“Our attempt is to harvest the voices of the evacuees for our agendas for moving forward to rebuild New Orleans,” Muhammad said.
In Jackson, more than 50 black organizations, including labor unions and civil rights groups are convening for the State of Emergency Conference to form a national action plan to “rescue” blacks who are dependent on the federal government to help them rebuild their lives. Organizers said the event will allow Katrina survivors to share and document their experiences.
In New Orleans on Saturday, Dec. 10, which is also International Human Rights Day, Katrina survivors and their supporters will march and demonstrate to support a list of demands that will be presented to local and federal officials.
The events this weekend come as several New Orleans residents offered emotional testimony during a Capitol Hill hearing this week about the role raciam played in the government’s initial failure to rescue survivors of Hurricane Katrina and deliver food, water, supplies and medicine.
Thousands of displaced black families are also facing a January 7 deadline to leave government-paid hotels. Federal officials are offering short-term housing plans and stipends to help families find permanent housing, but civil rights activists say the government has not allocated enough funding or resources to meet the tremendous needs of so many black Americans.
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, on Wednesday emphasized the need for local and minority-owned businesses to have a full and fair opportunity to participate in the Hurricane Katrina recovery and rebuilding efforts.
During the National Association of Minority Contractors business briefing titled Rebuilding the Gulf Region, Thompson expressed concern over the low number of small, disadvantaged and minority firms being awarded contracts to help rebuild the Gulf Coast region.
According to the latest figures, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded only 2.2 percent of contract dollars for Hurricane Katrina recovery to small and minority-owned businesses.
“We cannot rebuild the economy and infrastructure of the Gulf Coast, restore the life of its communities and bring back hope without a comprehensive plan and concrete action,” Thompson said.
“With $62 billion appropriated by Congress for hurricane relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts, the number of contracts that have been awarded by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers to minority businesses is shamefully low,” he said. “We must ensure that disadvantaged and minority-owned businesses, both large and small, have their names in the hat and have a realistic chance to compete for federal contracts.”
One of the top demands by the People's Hurricane Relief Fund is a complete investigation of government agencies and the role the agencies played in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Other listed objectives and demands include:
-- To build a Hurricane Katrina Survivors General Assembly which will speak for the Gulf Coast survivors and which will demand and exercise the people's right to self-determination in New Orleans andother affected areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
-- To demand the people's right to return to New Orleans and the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast with dignity and without poverty.
-- To demand reparations for the government’s criminal indifference, negligence and malicious actions towards the victims and survivors before, during and after Katrina.
-- To build a national united front in support and solidarity with the self-determination and reparation demands of Katrina survivors.
“We're dealing with a traumatized people who have lost faith,” Muhammad said. “The greatest hope for healing is to get them involved in the reconstruction process. It is this community that should have oversight and input for what happens to them and their homes."
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