Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six contains extensive information about the post-Katrina social movements that blossomed in the cracks, some indigenous and some that descended upon crisis-striken city as an opportunity to spread their ideology. Below is data from Jordan Flaherty’s accounting.
APPENDIX I
Organizations in the Struggle for Post-Katrina Justice
Below are some of the initiatives that inspired this book. More in- formation about most of these groups and their work is available elsewhere in these pages. This list is limited to organizations currently in existence at the time of publication, and is not meant to be definitive. Websites or addresses are listed when applicable.
NEW ORLEANS AND LOUISIANA SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS
Advocates for Environmental Human Rights
Works for the cause of environmental justice as a human right. www.ehumanrights.org
A Fighting Chance/NOLA Investigates
Investigations for the defense in capital cases. www.nolainvestigates.com
African American Leadership Project
Agenda building, policy analysis, strategic dialogue, and consensus building. www.aalp.org
Agenda for Children
Policy work for children’s rights. www.agendaforchildren.org
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana
Legal struggles for civil rights. www.laaclu.org
American Friends Service Committee of New Orleans
Organizing against the cradle-to-prison pipeline and other campaigns. www.afsc.org/office/new-orleans-la
Black Men United for Change, Justice and Equality
Grassroots organizing among Black men from New Orleans.
Children’s Defense Fund of Louisiana
National child advocacy organization—in New Orleans, conducts Freedom Schools, among other projects. www.childrensdefense.org
Common Ground Relief Collective
Short-term relief and long-term rebuilding support. www.commongroundrelief.org
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268 FLOODLINES
Common Ground Health Clinic
Dedicated to providing free, quality health care for New Orleans. www.commongroundclinic.org
Critical Resistance New Orleans
Prison abolition organization. www.criticalresistance.org
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
Environmental justice organization based at Dillard University. www.dscej.org.
European Dissent
White antiracist group in New Orleans, affiliated with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB).
Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC)
Organizes among family members of incarcerated youth. www.fflic.org
Finding our Folk
Raising the voices of displaced New Orleanians. www.findingourfolk.org
Fyre Youth Squad
Young people organizing for better schools. www.myspace.com/1fyreyouth
Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
Legal struggles against housing injustice. www.gnofairhousing.org
Innocence Project New Orleans
Represents innocent prisoners serving life sentences in Louisiana and Mississippi. www.ip-no.org
Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies
Sexual and reproductive health justice among youth, women, and people of color. www.iwesnola.org
International Coalition to Free the Angola 3
A collective working to free Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, the two members of the Angola Three who remain in prison. www.angola3.org
Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana
Legal and organizing work to reform juvenile justice. www.jjpl.org
Louisiana Justice Institute
Legal advocacy for civil rights and facilitation of a wide range of social justice campaigns in New Orleans and across the state. www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org
Loyola Law Clinic
Legal clinic representing indigent clients. www.law.loyno.edu/clinic
Make It Right
Founded by Brad Pitt to rebuild housing in the Lower Ninth Ward. www.makeitrightnola.org
APPENDIX I: SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS 269
Mayday New Orleans
Organizing for public housing justice. www.maydaynolahousing.org
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA)
New Orleans chapter of national alliance working for reparations. www.ncobra.org
Nation of Islam—New Orleans
Rebuilding and antiviolence work in the city. www.noineworleans.org
Neighborhoods Partnership Network (NPN)
Network of neighborhood organizations in New Orleans. www.npnnola.com
New Orleans Food & Farm Network
Food access organization. www.noffn.org
New Orleans, Louisiana Palestine Solidarity (NOLAPS)
Organizing and activism for awareness of Palestine, linking struggles in New Orleans with the Middle East. http://nolaps.blogspot.com
New Orleans Tenants Rights Union
Organizing tenants to create concrete improvements in their situation as renters. http://nolatru.org
New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice
Building worker power, advancing racial justice, and organizing to build a social movement in post-Katrina New Orleans. www.nowcrj.org
NO/AIDS Task Force
Services and advocacy for HIV-infected individuals. www.noaidstaskforce.org
Parents Organizing Network
Supports parents in taking a powerful role in the creation of excellent public schools. www.nolaparentsguide.org
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB)
Antiracist community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation. www.pisab.org
Resurrection After Exoneration
Works to reconnect exonerees to their communities and provide access to those opportunities of which they were robbed. www.r-a-e.org
ReThink: Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools
Students reforming the school system post-Katrina. www.therethinkers.com
Safe Streets/Strong Communities
Campaigns for a new criminal justice system in New Orleans. www.safestreetsnola.org
School at Blair Grocery
Dedicated to the growth and development of young minds in the Lower Ninth Ward of New
270 FLOODLINES
Orleans. http://schoolatblairgrocery.blogspot.com
Stay Local! New Orleans
Supports local businesses. www.staylocal.org
Students at the Center
A writing and digital-media program for students in New Orleans public, non-charter high schools. www.sacnola.com
Survivors Village
Former public housing residents in New Orleans struggling for housing justice. www.communitiesrising.wordpress.com
Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice
Education for social justice consciousness. www.loyno.edu/twomey
UNITY of Greater New Orleans
A collaborative of sixty agencies working with homeless people in New Orleans. www.unitygno.org
Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans
( VAY L A )
Empowering Vietnamese American youth through services, cultural enrichment, and social change. www.vayla-no.org
VOTE: Voices of Formerly Incarcerated Persons
Building the political power of people most impacted by the criminal justice system. www.vote-nola.org
Women’s Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI)
A radical feminist of color, anti-violence, justice-based organization. The New Orleans affiliate of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. www.whji.org
Women With A Vision
Health care justice for women from at-risk and socially vulnerable communities. www.wwav-no.org
ARTS, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND SPACES
2-Cent Entertainment
Grassroots youth filmmaking collective. www.2-cent.com
Artspot Productions
Theatre and arts organization. www.artspotproductions.org
Ashé Cultural Center
Black-owned cultural and community space. www.ashecac.org
APPENDIX I: SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS 271
Backstreet Cultural Museum
Cultural center preserving the history and culture of Black Mardi Gras. www.backstreetmuseum.org
Community Book Center
African and African American-centered bookstore and community space. www.communitybookcenter.com
Craige Cultural Center
Community space and cultural center in the Algiers neighborhood. 1800 Newton Street, New Orleans, LA 70114
Guardians of the Flame Cultural Arts Collective
Preserving New Orleans’s Black Mardi Gras cultural traditions.
House of Dance and Feathers
Lower Ninth Ward space dedicated to preserving New Orleans culture. www.houseofdanceandfeathers.com
Iron Rail Bookstore and Infoshop
Anarchist infoshop and lending library. www.ironrail.org
Islamic Shura Council of Greater New Orleans
Organization of New Orleans’s Muslim community.
Junebug Productions
African American Arts company, preserving the civil rights traditions of the Free Southern Theatre. http://junebugproductions.blogspot.com
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Community Center of New Orleans
Builds, strengthens, and unifies the Greater New Orleans area LGBTQ community. www.lgccno.net
McKenna Museum of African American Art
Dedicated to New Orleans African American art. www.themckennamuseum.com
Mondo Bizarro
Creates original, multidisciplinary art and fosters partnerships in local, national, and interna- tional communities. www.mondobizarro.org
Neighborhood Gallery
Exposure and support for artists. www.theneighborhoodgallery.com
Neighborhood Story Project
Works with writers in neighborhoods around New Orleans to write and publish books about their communities. www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org
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New Orleans Kid Camera Project
Uses photography training and support to help young people express themselves. www.kidcameraproject.org
PATOIS: The New Orleans Human Rights Film and Arts Festival
Organizes events, amplifies local voices, and builds community at the intersection of arts and social justice. www.patoisfilmfest.org
Porch Cultural Organization and Center
Community-based organization using the arts to effect social change. www.theporch-7.com
Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force
An alliance of the city’s social aid and pleasure clubs.
Tambourine and Fan
Works with young people in the Treme community to pass on New Orleans art and culture. Treme Community Center, 1600 St. Philip Street, New Orleans, LA, 70116
Tekrema Center for Art and Culture
African American community space in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward. www.thetekremacenter.com
Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center
Film and arts space in Central City New Orleans. www.zeitgeistinc.net
OTHER SOUTHERN AND GULF COAST SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS
Friends of Justice
Supports struggles against injustice in criminal cases across Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. www.friendsofjustice.wordpress.com
Institute for Southern Studies
Nonprofit research center working to bring lasting social and economic change. www.southernstudies.org
Miami Workers Center
Building working-class community power in Miami. www.theworkerscenter.org
Mississippi Immigrants’ Rights Alliance (MIRA)
Advocacy organizing and education for immigrants’ rights. www.yourmira.org
Mississippi Workers Center
Grassroots worker advocacy. 213 Main Street, Greenville, MS, 38701
Organizing in the Trenches
Founded by Caseptla Bailey and Catrina Wallace, family members of one of the Jena Six, to continue struggles for social justice. PO Box 831, Jena, LA, 71342
APPENDIX I: SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS 273
Project South
Atlanta-based movement building organization. www.projectsouth.org
Southerners On New Ground (SONG)
Envisioning a world where the third-shift factory worker and the drag queen at the bar down the block see their lives as connected and are working together for liberation. www.southernersonnewground.org
Take Back the Land
Miami-based collective empowering the Black community to determine how to use land for the benefit of the community. www.takebacktheland.org
NATIONAL ALLIES
The Advancement Project
A civil rights law, policy, and communication “action tank.” www.advancementproject.org
Catalyst Project
White antiracist collective based in California. www.collectiveliberation.org
Center for Constitutional Rights
Uses law for social justice struggles. www.ccrjustice.org
ColorofChange
Online resource for racial justice organizing. www.ColorofChange.org
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence
A national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities. www.incite-national.org
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Defending human rights and promoting self-determination. www.mxgm.org
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI)
Advocacy for a human rights vision in the United States. www.nesri.org
Rainbow Push Coalition
Religious and social development organization led by Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. www.rainbowpush.org
Right to the City Alliance
Movement-building alliance of community-based organizations. www.righttothecity.org
US Human Rights Network
Building links between organizations to promote U.S. accountability to universal human rights standards. www.ushrnetwork.org
V-Day
Founded by Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler to stop violence against women and girls. www.vday.org
LETTER FROM THE PEOPLE OF NEW ORLEANS TO OUR FRIENDS AND ALLIES
December 15, 2006
Cherice Harrison-Nelson, director and curator, Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame; Royce Os- born, writer/producer; Greta Gladney, fourth- generation Lower Ninth Ward resident; Corlita Mahr, media justice advocate; Judy Watts, Pres- ident/CEO, Agenda for Children; Robert “Kool Black” Horton, Critical Resistance; Jen- nifer Turner, Community Book Center; Mayaba
Liebenthal, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Critical Resistance; Norris Hender- son, co-director, Safe Streets/Strong Communi- ties; Ursula Price, outreach and investigation coordinator, Safe Streets/Strong Communities; Evelyn Lynn, managing director, Safe Streets/Strong Communities; Shana griffin, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence;
Min. J. Kojo Livingston, founder, Liberation Zone/Destiny One Ministries; Shana Sassoon, New Orleans Network Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans; Althea Francois, Safe Streets/Strong Communities; Malcolm Suber, People’s Hurricane Relief Fund; Saket Soni, New Orleans Workers’ Justice Project; Nick Slie, I-10, Witness Project, co-artistic director, Mondo Bizarro; Catherine Jones, organizer and co-founder, Latino Health Outreach Project; Jennifer Whitney, coordinator, Latino Health Outreach Project; S. Mandisa Moore, INCITE! Women of Color New Orleans ; Aesha Rasheed, project manager, New Orleans Net- work; Dix deLaneuville, educator; Rebecca Snedeker, filmmaker; Catherine A. Galpin, RN, FACES, and Children’s Hospital; Grace Bauer, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children; Xochitl Bervera, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children; Bess Car- rick, producer/director; John Clark, professor of philosophy, Loyola University; Diana Dunn, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, European Dissent; Courtney Egan, artist; Lou Furman, Turning Point Partners; Ariana Hall, Director, CubaNOLA Collective; Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, historian, writer, and lecturer, New Orleans and Mississippi Pine Belt; Susan Hamovitch, filmmaker/teacher, NYC/New Orleans; Russell Henderson, lecturer, Dillard University and organizer, Rebuilding Louisana Coalition; Ms. Deon Haywood, events coordi- nator, Women With A Vision Inc.; Rachel Herzing, Critical Resistance, Oakland; Rev. Doug Highfield, Universal Life Church, Cherokee, AL; Joyce Marie Jackson, PhD., Cultural Researcher, LSU Dept. of Geography & Anthropology, and co-founder of Cultural
Crossroads, Inc., Baton Rouge Elizabeth K. Jeffers, teacher; Dana Kaplan, Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana; Vi Landry, freelance jour- nalist, New Orleans/New York; Bridget Lehane, European Dissent and People’s Insti- tute for Survival and Beyond; Karen-kaia Liv- ers, Alliance for Community Theaters, Inc.; Rachel E. Luft, assistant professor of sociology, Department of Sociology, University of New Orleans; Damekia Morgan, Families and Friends of Louisiana ‘s Incarcerated Children; Ukali Mwendo, hazardous materials specialist, NOFD, president, Provisional Government— Republic of New Afrika/New Orleans, LA, former resident of the Lafitte Housing Devel- opment; Thea Patterson, Women’s Health & Justice Initiative; J. Nash Porter, documentary photographer and co-founder of Cultural Crossroads, Inc., Baton Rouge; Gloria Powers, arts project manager; Bill Quigley, Loyola Pro- fessor of Law; Linda Santi, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans; Tony Sfer- lazza, director, Plenty International NOLA; Heidi Lee Sinclair, MD, MPH, Baton Rouge Children’s Health Project; Justin Stein, neigh- borhood relations coordinator and community mediator, Common Ground Health Clinic; Audrey Stewart, Loyola Law Clinic; Tracie L. Washington, Esq., co-director, Louisiana Justice Institute; Scott Weinstein, former co-director of the Common Ground Health Clinic; Melissa Wells, New Orleans resident; Jerald L. White, Bottletree Productions; Morgan Williams, Student Hurricane Network, co-founder; Gina Womack, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children
Pledge in Support of a Just Rebuilding of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, and the U.S. Gulf Coast
Organizations Endorsing:
Action Coalition for Racial, Social, and Environmental Justice—University of New Orleans; Advancement Project; Advocates for Environmental Human Rights; C3/Hands Off Iberville; Caffin Avenue Church of God; Coastal Women for Change; Common Ground Health Clinic; Community Church Unitarian Universalist—New Orleans; Emerging ChangeMakers Network; Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children; Homeless Action Team of Tulane University (HATT); Jesuit Social Research Institute, Loyola University; Junebug Produc- tions; Katrina Rita Diaspora Solidarity; Loyola
University Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild; Louisiana Justice Institute; Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engage- ment and Development; Lower 9th Ward Homeowners’ Association; Mayday New Orleans; Mennonite Central Committee— New Orleans; Mississippi Center for Justice; Mondo Bizarro; Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Inc.; National Economic and Social Rights Initia- tive (NESRI); New Orleans Palestine Solidar- ity; New Americans Social Club (New Orleans Holocaust Survivors Organization); PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival; People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond; Poverty & Race Research Action Council; Pyramid Community Parent Resource Center; Southern Institute for Education and Research; Survivors Village; US Human Rights Network; Zion Travelers Cooperative Center