Dream of a just city still not a reality, some say
17th January 2017 · 0 Comments
As the city, state and nation pause to reflect on the legacy of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., some in New Orleans say that the Dream expressed so eloquently by King at the Historic March on Washington is still not close to being a reality.
Just days before the annual national holiday, President Barack Obama announced the designation of several monuments that tell the triumphant and defiant history of the Civil Rights Movement.
“Today, I am designating new national monuments that preserve critical chapters of our country’s history, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement,” Obama said. “These monuments preserve the vibrant history of the Reconstruction Era and its role in redefining freedom. They tell the important stories of the citizens who helped launch the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham and the Freedom Riders whose bravery raised national awareness of segregation and violence. These stories are part of our shared history. From designating Stonewall National Monument, our country’s first national monument honoring the LGBT movement, to recognizing the movement for women’s equality through the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, I have sought to build a more inclusive National Park System and ensure that our national parks, monuments and public lands are fully reflective of our nation’s diverse history and culture.”
Local events marking the national King holiday include a wreath-laying ceremony at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at the intersection of Martin Luther King Blvd. and Claiborne Ave., the annual MLK Jr. parade in the Lower 9th Ward on Monday and the City’s MLK march and commemorative program at City Hall.
Last week, local leaders and residents talked about the need to continue the work of King and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and a renewed effort to address systemic racism and a host of other problems and challenges that continue to impede civil and human rights progress in New Orleans and beyond.
“Many of the things that Dr. King and others fought for in the 1950s and 1960s have still not taken root in New Orleans,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly Wednesday. “The local government continues to tax Black, Brown and poor people without any regard for their constitutional or human rights.
“Black, Brown and poor people in this majority-Black city are more likely to be racially profiled, targeted and assaulted by the police without cause, more likely to benefit less from city services than other groups, more likely to exploited economically, more likely to be undereducated and mis-educated by the local public school system and more likely to become victims of mass incarceration and prosecutorial misconduct by the criminal justice system.”
He added that the entire city and Greater New Orleans area need a “justice overhaul.”
One of the areas in the criminal justice system that has been targeted by harsh criticism recently is the city’s cash bail system. It is widely considered both evidence of economic injustice in New Orleans and one of the basic components of the mass incarceration that has given New Orleans a bad name and earned Louisiana the title of “prison capital od the world.”
Some of the other issues that underscore the need for major reforms and a major movement for justice, democracy and equity include chronic poverty, low wages, a lack of mental health care services, a lack of affordable housing, ongoing unconstitutional policing as the city’s police department continues to implement a federally mandated consent decree, a lack of opportunities for minority contractors seeking public contracts, environmental racism and an underfunded, overcrowded public school system that has been privatized but has still not been able to adequately raise students’ test scores.
Residents are also still embroiled in an ongoing struggle for relocate several racially offensive Confederate monuments and have accused Louisiana state troopers of racially profiling, targeting, harassing and abusing residents and visitors of color, dating back to a 2014 incident during which two Black teenage males were assaulted by state troopers as they waited in the French Quarter after a Carnival parade for one of the boys’ mother, an NOPD officer, to bring them a meal.
There have also been a growing number of complaints about the City of New Orleans taking the homes of elderly and low-income Blacks for minor code violations as a strategy for reducing Black homeownership and promoting gentrification.
Nola.com reported last week that U.S. Department of Justice has said that the bail system upon which the Orleans Parish Criminal Court and District Attorney’s Office so heavily rely for revenue, is unconstitutional and unfairly penalizes poor people.
Nola.com also reported that a 2015 federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the City of New Orleans showed that Orleans Parish Criminal Court judges collect more than $1 million in a year in bond fees, with those funds being used for court payrolls.
New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, told Nola.com that the bail system is “inherently flawed.” She added that the bail system does nothing to improve public safety and likened it to a debtors’ prison.
“One can pay, they don’t go to jail,” Guidry told Nola.com. “The other can’t pay, they go to jail. That’s all there is to it.
“And the people who can’t afford to pay bail are the people who are probably underemployed. Their job as a dishwasher in a restaurant isn’t going to be held for them. What if that’s a person taking care of an elderly parent or a child or their rent is due and they get evicted? It creates a cycle of more and more negative things happening in a person’s life.”
With a nod to the fact that so much of what needs to be overhauled in New Orleans is economically based, longtime activist Carl Galmon told WBOK radio Thursday that it’s time for Black New Orleanians to think outside of the box and establish trade ties with African nations like Ghana, Sierra Leone and South Africa. He said that the economic power that grows from trade with African nations could be used to finance the campaigns of principled Black leaders who are unafraid and unapologetic about representing the interests of Blacks in New Orleans.
“We need to invest in independent Black candidates, not those who are controlled by ‘political investors,’” Galmon said.
Galmon said that it’s time for Blacks in New Orleans to wake up and become actively involved in efforts to empower themselves.
“Since the death of Dr. King, Black people in New Orleans have been sleeping through a revolution,” he said. “We need to wake up.”
“New Orleans exemplifies the greatness and the disappointments of Dr. King’s legacy and that of the Civil Rights Movement,” civil rights attorney and Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley told The Louisiana Weekly last week. “We have many more great African-American elected officials and community and business leaders than before. Most of our public institutions are fully integrated. There are opportunities that would never have been possible before Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.
“On the other hand, the three giant evils Dr. King challenged — racism, materialism and militarism — remain strong,” Quigley continued. “Poverty, a legacy of historic and ongoing racism, continues to plague our community. Economic inequality in New Orleans is higher than any major city in the U,S. and the materialism of the top does not seem to be at all translating into economic justice for all. And the violence that destroys so many families would, I am sure, break Dr. King’s heart as much as it does the sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers of our city.”
Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, said Thursday that people of color and the poor need to take a stand against the systemic racism and widespread discrimination that happens every day in the Crescent City.
“We need justice and we need it now — not tomorrow, not next month or next year,” Aha said. “It is up to us to identify and elect politicians to City Hall, the State Legislature and Capitol Hill that will fully represent our interests 24/7/ We can’t afford to make excuses for elected officials of color who, for whatever reason, fail to get the job done.”
Aha added that even as we hold Black elected officials accountable for the decisions they make that impact our lives daily, that does not excuse us from taking on the system that continues to destabilize and exploit communities of color and exploit, oppress, exclude, criminalize and exterminate people of color.
“The City of New Orleans has a long, sordid history of ignoring and refusing to honor the U.S. Constitution, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act and the landmark Brown v. The Board of Education Supreme Court decision,” Aha told The Louisiana Weekly. “Much of the progress made during the Historic Civil Rights Movement has been eroded and undermined by efforts to ‘turn back the clock’ by Right-leaning Justices on the Supreme Court, a movement to end federal involvement in state and local civil rights matters and a renewed effort on the part of those who fled from America’s major cities after segregation was outlawed tp regain control of land, decision-making power and resources in cities like New Orleans, Chicago and Los Angeles.”
With the rise of President-elect Donald Trump and his nomination of a number of people with questionable records on civil rights to fill his Cabinet, Aha said that he sees some serious challenges for people of color on the horizon.
“There is no ‘quit’ in us but there is definitely some challenges that lie ahead,” he said. “We need to recommit ourselves to the principles and goals espoused by Dr. King and others and accept the fact that we are in for a very bumpy ride.”
Aha did offer a sliver of hope in his analysis of the state of Black New Orleans and Black America: “None of the challenges we will face over the next four years and beyond are insurmountable.”
“We have to celebrate Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement,” Quigley told The Louisiana Weekly. “They were courageous and dedicated. But we have to continue to fight for the justice that is still absolutely missing in our community.”
This article originally published in the January 16, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
