Praise for Overcoming Katrina A goldmine of real stories of Katrina survivors, this is the book everyone has been wait- ing for since Katrina. In their own words, New Orleans people tell how they survived Katrina, what they lost, and how they are enduring now. Stories of courage, racism, hope, abandonment, neighborhood, and struggle are all in this breathtaking book. —Bill Quigley, Human Rights Lawyer, New Orleans, Louisiana There is nothing more compelling than a collection of stories, straight from the hearts of people of all walks of life, to capture the essence and impact of a cataclysmic event like Hurricane Katrina and the immersion of New Orleans. This book is much like a portable museum installation, curated to illustrate the antecedents and the aftermath of a disaster and its impact on the souls of black folk and their community. We will be forever enriched by this splendid compilation with its rich variations on the themes of creativity and connectedness in response to adversity and exclusion, and in the wake of trauma and loss, hope and healing. —Annelle Primm, Director of Minority and National Affairs for the American Psychiatric Association These compelling personal narratives convey the rich African American family, com- munity, and institutional life that have created the historic foundation of New Orleans. They are stories of hard work, dignity, survival, courage, and of heroic acts by ordinary people. And they are stories of an incompetent federal government, an indifferent pres- ident, and of citizens treated like an enemy in their own country. Read this book. —Nan Woodruff, author of American Congo (Harvard, 2003) Overcoming Katrina reminds us of a sad chapter in American history, but it also reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit. The authors are to be commended for bringing back the voices that are too easily forgotten about as we rush to deal with other crises. I have also seen both the pathos and the compassion they write about and offer testimony to the importance of their work. —Ambassador James Joseph, Chairman, Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation When one looks at the broad landscape of American history, it is often said that African Americans were conscripted to be keepers of the Dream, their task to remind a nation of its founding principle: all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. Overcoming Katrina bears witness to the epic struggles that Black Americans have waged. The backdrop is a natural disaster; the real story is about a community determined to force a nation to keep its promises. —Gary Puckrein, President of the National Minority Quality Forum Palgrave Studies in Oral History Series Editors: Linda Shopes and Bruce M. Stave The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome, by Alessandro Portelli (2003) Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila, by Sandy Polishuk (2003) To Wear the Dust of War: From Bialystok to Shanghai to the Promised Land, an Oral History, by Samuel Iwry, edited by L. J. H. Kelley (2004) Education as My Agenda: Gertrude Williams, Race, and the Baltimore Public Schools, by Jo Ann Robinson (2005) Remembering: Oral History Performance, edited by Della Pollock (2005) Postmemories of Terror: A New Generation Copes with the Legacy of the “Dirty War,” by Susana Kaiser (2005) Growing Up in The People’s Republic: Conversations between Two Daughters of China’s Revolution, by Ye Weili and Ma Xiaodong (2005) Life and Death in the Delta: African American Narratives of Violence, Resilience, and Social Change, by Kim Lacy Rogers (2006) Creating Choice: A Community Responds to the Need for Abortion and Birth Control, 1961–1973, by David P. Cline (2006) Voices from This Long Brown Land: Oral Recollections of Owens Valley Lives and Manzanar Pasts, by Jane Wehrey (2006) Radicals, Rhetoric, and the War: The University of Nevada in the Wake of Kent State, by Brad E. Lucas (2006) The Unquiet Nisei: An Oral History of the Life of Sue Kunitomi Embrey, by Diana Meyers Bahr (2007) Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City, by Jane LaTour (2008) Iraq’s Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon, edited by Tamar Morad, Dennis Shasha, and Robert Shasha (2008) Soldiers and Citizens: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the Pentagon, by Carl Mirra (2008) Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond, by D’Ann R. Penner and Keith C. Ferdinand (2009) Speaking History: The American Past through Oral Histories, 1865–Present, by Susan Armitage and Laurie Mercier (2009) Bringing Desegregation Home, by Kate Willink (2009) Worker Narratives of Plant Closings and Job Loss, by Tracy K’Meyer and Joy Hart (2009) Women Survivors of the Bhopal Disaster, by Suroopa Mukherjee (2010) Stories from the Gulag, by Jehanne Gheith and Katherine Jolluck (2010) Overcoming Katrina African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond D’Ann R. Penner and Keith C. Ferdinand Foreword by Jimmy Carter palgrave macmillan OVERCOMING KATRINA Copyright © D’Ann R. Penner and Keith C. Ferdinand, 2009. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-60870-2 All rights reserved. Photo section credits: Page 1: Family photos courtesy Aline St. Julien, Narvalee Copelin, and Leatrice Joy Reeds Roberts. Page 2: Family photos courtesy Leatrice Joy Reeds Roberts and Irvin Porter. Page 3: Top right photo by Lloyd Dennis Photography; family photos courtesy Leonard Smith, Parnell Herbert, and Cynthia Banks. Page 4: Family photos courtesy Cynthia Banks, Denise Roubion-Johnson, and Keith C. Ferdinand. Page 5: Family photos courtesy Keith C. Ferdinand, Charles Duplessis, and Willie Pitford. Page 6: Family photos courtesy Willie Pitford, Mack Slan, and Rochelle Smith. Page 7: Top right photo by Riza Falk; bottom right photo by Gayle Dolliole; family photos courtesy Eleanor Thornton and Kevin Owens. Page 8: Top right photo by Nesossi Studios, Sugarland, Texas; bottom right photo by Vincent M. Bursey, photographer, Atlanta, Georgia; family photos courtesy Senta Eastern. Page 9: Top right photo ©2007 Jackson Hill, Southern Lights Photography, Inc.; family photos courtesy Yolanda Seals and Leslie Lawrence. Page 10: Bottom left photo by Valerie J. Love; family photos courtesy Velbert Stampley, Robert Willis Sr., and Toussaint Webster. Cover Image: Aldon Cotton, pastor of Jerusalem Baptist Church, holding a folder with sketches for the new Jerusalem Baptist Church to be rebuilt across the street from the flood-destroyed, historic Jerusalem Baptist Church in Central City, New Orleans. Photo by Jackson Hill. First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-60871-9 ISBN 978-0-230-61961-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230619616 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Overcoming Katrina: African American voices from the Crescent City and beyond / edited by D’Ann R. Penner and Keith C. Ferdinand. p. cm.—(Palgrave studies in oral history) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. African Americans—Louisiana—New Orleans—Interviews. 2. Hurricane Katrina, 2005—Social aspects—Louisiana—New Orleans—Anecdotes. 3. African Americans— Louisiana—New Orleans—Social conditions—21st century—Anecdotes. 4. Disaster victims—Louisiana—New Orleans—Interviews. 5. New Orleans (La.)—Biography— Anecdotes. 6. New Orleans (La.)—Social conditions—21st century—Anecdotes. 7. Oral history—Louisiana—New Orleans. 8. Interviews—Louisiana—New Orleans. I. Penner, D’Ann R. II. Ferdinand, Keith C. F379.N59N4 2009 976.3(cid:2)35064092396073—dc22 2008035089 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: March 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 At my father’s funeral . . . I recalled a family trip out to California to see my Uncle Pat. . . . This was in the 50s, still very much a time of hard-line racial segregation. A White man was hitch hiking. . . . We stopped . . . and gave the man a ride to the next town. After the man got out, I asked my father why he had given the man a ride. He gave me a simple explanation, the simplicity of which still reverberates inside of me: “It was too late at night for anybody to be out there alone.” —Kalamu ya Salaam, What Is Life? Reclaiming the Black Blues Self Before this, everybody flocked to New Orleans from all over the world for all the games, Jazz Fest, and Mardi Gras. Millions of people. We embrace everybody with nothing but love. If we’re selling food, but you don’t have no money, we’re still going to feed you, because that’s who we are. But when we were in trouble, it was like we was the worst people in the world. They turned their backs in our time of need, even in that convention center where we done served thousands and thousands. I can’t get the just of that. —Eleanor Thornton, Waitress from Algiers When all of this stuff happened, I was sitting in front of the television at the hotel in Greenville, Mississippi, and they’re talking about we won’t be able to get back in New Orleans for three years. . . . I was going back to New Orleans if I was the only preacher back. I’ll pastor anything up in there. It was settled with me before I left. —Aldon Cotton, Senior Pastor of Jerusalem Baptist Church in Central City Contents Foreword By former U.S. president Jimmy Carter ix Series Editors’ Foreword By Linda Shopes and Bruce M. Stave xi Preface xiii Introduction xvii Map I.1 New Orleans, Louisiana xxvi Map I.2 New Orleans Wards 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 xxvii List of Abbreviations xxix Plate sections are placed between the chapters 15 and 16 SECTION ONE RETIREES ONE Aline St. Julien 1 TWO Narvalee Audrey Copelin 10 THREE Leatrice Joy Reed Roberts 16 FOUR Irvin Porter 23 FIVE Leonard Smith 29 SIX Pete Stevenson 35 SEVEN Parnell Herbert 40 SECTION TWO AT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR CAREERS EIGHT Harold Toussaint 49 NINE Cynthia Delores Banks 60 TEN Denise Roubion-Johnson 70 viii / Contents ELEVEN Kalamu ya Salaam 80 TWELVE Keith C. Ferdinand 89 THIRTEEN Charles W. Duplessis 101 FOURTEEN Willie Pitford 108 FIFTEEN Mack Slan Jr. 115 SECTION THREE THIRTY SOMETHING SIXTEEN Rochelle Smith 121 SEVENTEEN Eleanor Thornton 130 EIGHTEEN Kevin Owens 142 NINETEEN Jermol Stinson 152 TWENTY Demetrius White 159 TWENTY-ONE Senta Eastern 168 TWENTY-TWO Yolanda Seals 175 TWENTY-THREE Aldon E. Cotton 181 SECTION FOUR COMING OF AGE TWENTY-FOUR Leslie Lawrence 191 TWENTY-FIVE Le Ella Lee 200 TWENTY-SIX Robert Willis Jr. 204 TWENTY-SEVEN Toussaint Webster 211 Conclusion 220 Epilogue: The Future of New Orleans 228 Notes 231 Index 241 Foreword At the time of this writing, the 2007 Christmas season, there are at least twelve thousand homeless people in New Orleans. A recent study conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health concludes that the traumatic aftermath of Katrina continues to plague even the youngest generation of Mississippians and Louisianans. By reaching back into pre-Katrina memories, the narrators of Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond allow us to understand the richness of pre-Katrina community life and the nonmaterial sources of trauma. Stories of survivors of Hurricane Katrina go beyond the mere retelling of the horrors of their tragedy and its impact on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. They specifically speak to the concerns, dreams, hopes, and unfulfilled promises experienced by the African American community. Three things moved me about the displaced Black New Orleanians whose stories comprise this book: their work ethic, faith, and patriotism. Having grown up in Plains, Georgia during the Depression era, I know how hard my black neighbors worked and struggled to make ends meet on a decidedly uneven playing field. These stories repre- sent generations of African Americans, many of whom were born on or near planta- tions throughout Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana before a family member escaped to New Orleans in search of employment. As I have witnessed firsthand, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath demolished the fruits of the labors of so many first- generation homeowners. In the wake of intense tribulations unleashed by Katrina, spiritual faith may be the greatest unifying factor shared by these diverse voices. Several credit God with giving them the strength to endure inhumane circumstances and losses reminiscent of Job’s trials. Faith generated the kind of love that reached out a compassionate hand, not only to other people of color but across the color line as well. Moreover, testimonies abound of a faith that renews the strength and clarifies the vision of the storytellers, thereby enabling them to rebuild their scattered communities after the storm. Finally, I was struck by the intensity of pre-Katrina patriotism even in narratives equally suffused with an awareness of race-based discrimination. A striking number of these storytellers and their relatives risked death while serving our country. Even the younger generations showed pride in American displays of military prowess, were impressed by the speed and precision of American humanitarian aid after the 2004 tsunami, and wept with the survivors of 9/11. As a reader, you may be startled by the venom behind the assertions of betrayal as American citizens in the aftermath of Katrina. I interpret it as inversely proportional to the strength of their loyalty to the United States and identification as American citizens before the storm.