Day 11: New Orleans, LA

Our first of three days in New Orleans, we started by visiting the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. The Amistad research collection houses one of the most extensive archival holdings in the nation on ethnic minorities, with a particular emphasis on African-American history. Students spent the morning working on their research projects.



After lunch, we met Times-Picayune reporter Gwen Filosa for a tour of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina in late August of 2005 and to talk about contemporary issues of race and poverty in New Orleans. It seems that little change has taken place since last year. The Lower Ninth Ward still seems eerily desolate, although a few (a very few) modular homes now dot the area. Official street signs and stop signs have been erected, and the roads are much improved over the pothole ridden ones of a year ago. Construction crews speed by the area and signs everywhere offer numbers for contractors and, especially, demolition workers. Otherwise, little has changed. Weeds have overtaken the many remaining concrete stoops and foundations where homes once were, giving the area the feel of a country field as opposed to an urban neighborhood. The picture above shows Robert Green's memorial to his wife and granddaughter, both of whom died during the storm. His FEMA trailor sits behind the memorial.