First and foremost, we extend our condolences to the King family. Continuing in the spirit of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King, Jr., those who struggle for justice and human dignity in 2006, face a new challenge – laid bare not by a vicious storm, but by an indifferent federal government. Administration policy in the aftermath of Katrina has evinced a horrific callousness toward black suffering. While opening the floodgates of opportunity to out-of region profiteers, current policy shuts out the poor, primarily African-American, Katrina survivors from returning home and from participating in the future of their own communities.
Five months after Katrina struck, the people of the Gulf Coast who were left behind once, are still being left behind to drown in the circumstances of their involuntary displacement. The right to return is a hollow promise by officials as survivors are still being denied access to viable short and long-term housing, jobs with living wages, public schools, healthcare, and government contracts. Access is further denied to the displaced by virtue of their inability to participate in critical decision-making as to allocation of federal resources and plans for rebuilding the Gulf Coast. On February 13, 2006 and March 1, 2006, FEMA plans to evict tens of thousands of victims from hotels without any provision for alternative housing. As despair settles in, rates of suicide and death from “Katrina Stress” escalate among the victims.
Sadly, progressive members of Congress, while sympathetic, have been unable to move comprehensive legislative solutions to this crisis. Forming a Katrina Working Group, we have been meeting regularly with Congressional staffers and grassroots activists, to overcome this legislative stalemate and build a broad-based Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign to restore all survivors. It is clear that the trigger for change is a ministry of presence. We need unified advocacy, we need YOU! It is imperative that African-American leaders from around the country “show up” on Capitol Hill – to demand accountability and justice for Katrina survivors. Your presence will make visible the imperative that an effective and just response to their plight remains at the top of the Congressional agenda.
I implore you to come stand with us before Congress, before the American people – as a united front of black leadership. We will gather – not to march or to yell, but to devise strategy with progressive lawmakers. As a young voice of conscience, the leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, I am appealing to all African-American leaders – to my elders who inspired me, to my brothers and sisters whose energy feeds my resolve, to please join me on February 7, to have all our voices rise up on the Hill in a call for unified and unflagging advocacy for a comprehensive plan for Gulf Coast renewal.
We are calling for:
nA right of return, not a plan that gentrifies and white-washes
nA sane rebuild that invests in those displaced; not a boon for developers
nTemporary and long-term housing assistance
nProtection for voting rights for the displaced
nCommunity control over CDBG’s
nMortgage forgiveness
nFunding for quality public education
nVictim Restoration Fund
nEnvironmental Cleanup
nRebuilding of Medical Facilities
nSmall Businesses Assistance
nTax Credits and Bankruptcy Exemptions for Victims
These programs will enable victims to safely return to their cities, to hold jobs, to restore the local tax base and the local economy.
The magazine, Black Commentator, has laid down the gauntlet:
“Although there are literally thousands of large and small Katrina-related projects operating throughout the nation, many of the New Orleans organizers are handicapped by the fact of their own displacement. A great moral and political challenge presents itself to Black and progressive America: Will they rise to the occasion in the face of a real, imminent, well-defined crisis… February 7th will be a test of Black political resolve and cohesion.”
For future generations,
REV. LENNOX YEARWOOD, JR.
www.katrinamarch.org
