Friend,
We are in the middle of a public health pandemic, one which continues to highlight how Black and Brown communities remain vulnerable to natural disasters in this country at alarmingly higher rates than those of our white neighbours. Just as the COVID-19 mortality rates remain twice as high for Black people as for white people[1], August 29th marks fifteen years since Hurricane Katrina: a natural disaster which ravaged the Black communities in New Orleans.
As part of the continuum of Black struggle for justice in this country, Hurricane Katrina was the first major event of the 21st century that laid bare our struggle, which began 401 years ago when the first enslaved Africans were brought to our country.
To achieve justice for Black America we MUST:
Defund police, invest in community programs of social uplift
Invest in education, health, housing, and Black businesses
Divest from fossil fuels and invest in a just transition for climate solutions. Otherwise we will only see more disasters such as Katrina in the gulf coast, throughout our country, and around the world.
Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast on August 28th, 2005,then the levees broke and New Orleans flooded on the morning of August 29th. 50 years to the date that Katrina hit land, on August 28th, 1955, Emmett Till was murdered in Missisippi, and it was the image of his murder published in Jet Magazine that helped galvanze the Civil Rights Movement.
Also on August 28th, but in 1963, a quarter million people joined the March on Washington, and Dr. King gave his “I have a dream” speech.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast 15 years ago, Black people and poor people were left to die in the richest country in the world. Each year on the anniversary we commemorate our loved ones we lost, celebrate our resiliency, and demand justice and a just future.
SIGN NOW: Sign on to our demands for the Struggle for Black justice.
In the 15 years since Katrina, the recovery for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has been uneven. Black communities have been even further left behind. This has been made clear in the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Black communities in Louisiana and New Orleans right now.
While New Orleans continues to recover and heal, Black Americans still remain vulnerable to future storms both literal and figurative, in a nation which violates and attacks our access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Join us to build a better Black America.
For Future Generations,,
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.
President & Founder
Hip Hop Caucus
[1] https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race
Hip Hop Caucus
1638 R Street, NW #120, Washington, DC 20009
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