Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond

287 Pages·2009·3.957 MB·English

by  D’Ann R. Penner, Keith C. Ferdinand (auth.)

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
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Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond, by D’Ann R.
Penner and Keith C. Ferdinand (2009)
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and Laurie Mercier (2009)
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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.