This is the second story in our series chronicling the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. On the first night of Essence Fest, Paper Machine, an artist space in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, came alive with creativity and community. Inside a sunlit room, Lauryn Hinton gathered neighbors around long tables scattered with scissors, glossy magazines, […]
New Orleans
Posted inEducation, History
The Forgotten Girls Who Desegregated New Orleans Before Ruby Bridges
This is the first story in our series chronicling the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In November 1960, three 6-year-old Black girls climbed 18 steps into history, forever changing the face of American education and democracy. While Ruby Bridges became a household name for integrating William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Gail Etienne, Leona […]
Posted inHistory
Stolen Black Remains Return Home After 150 Years in European Vault
Underneath oak trees and Spanish moss from Texas to the Carolina coasts, the remains of Black Americans lay in unmarked graves across roadside cemeteries and backyards. While some graves now remain hidden beneath highways and shopping malls, others have been stripped of their dignity in an even more insidious way. Nowhere is this more painfully […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Politics & Policy, Wealth Gap
Severe Weather Is Increasing the Cost of Living for Black Americans
As Los Angeles battled its largest wildfires in history, parts of the southern U.S. faced a very different kind of disaster — record-breaking snowstorms not seen in over 125 years. In LA, the Benn family didn’t lose their home to the flames, but they did lose access to their livelihood. Their screen-printing business, which they’ve […]
Posted inPublic Safety
‘Our City Is Always Hurting’: Black New Orleans Residents Grapple With Inequity
NEW ORLEANS – Mark Whitaker sells chicken and hot links in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter every New Year’s Eve as fireworks paint the sky along the Mississippi River. He pulls his cooler and barbecue pit through the crowded streets to maximize his profits as the city attracts up to 150,000 tourists on New Year’s […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Health
Climate Change Is Deepening HIV Inequities for Black Americans
As Hurricane Ida’s fierce winds ripped panels off of rooftops across New Orleans in September 2021, health workers and HIV activists braced for the aftermath. With power cut and roads blocked by debris, prescription refills and patients would be lost and forgotten in the storm’s chaotic wake across the South. And with record-breaking hurricanes like […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Housing
Flooded, Foreclosed, and Forgotten: The Unkept Promises to Hurricane Katrina’s Victims
NEW ORLEANS – Robert Green guesses it was about 5 a.m. when the water first broke through. By 5:10, he, his mother, brother, cousin, and three grandchildren, ages 4, 3, and 2, were on the roof. Within five minutes, their house was floating down the street. By 5:20, the home, pinned against an oak tree, […]
Posted inEducation, K-12, Partner Content
All-Charter No More: New Orleans Opens Its First Traditional School in Nearly Two Decades
This story about New Orleans schools was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. In August, more than 300 students started the school year in the first traditional school run directly by the New Orleans school district since 2019. […]
Posted inExtreme Weather, Housing
Hurricane Francine Leaves 400,000 Louisianans Without Power
Hurricane Francine zig-zagged through southern Louisiana on Sept. 11, leaving widespread power outages and flooding behind. Some parts of the state experienced winds of 100 mph and 10 inches of rain. As thousands of Gulf Coast residents were under mandatory evacuation orders, those remaining, particularly in the state’s largest city, New Orleans, were left riding […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Extreme Weather
‘We Can’t Wait’: How Black Neighborhoods Are Preparing for the Summer Heat
After closing out May with four days of triple-digit temperatures and New Orleans’ first heat advisory of the season, the group of mainly Black elders welcomed the “dip” in temperature on June 1. Still, it swelled to 96 degrees that morning as roughly 35 people huddled in a community center in the city’s Upper Ninth […]
