New Orleans: A tale of two races

For years the lower 9th ward of New Orleans has been labeled a place of violence, danger, poverty, and struggle. Crime is no stranger to this area. The rates of violent crimes surpass those of any other part of Orleans parish. Residents of the 9th ward are marginalized daily as they are looked at as the forgotten people of New Orleans. In an analysis of the 9th ward, we are exposed to an array of discrepancies between the treatment of African Americans and the white population. A deeper look into the experiences of the white and black population during and post-Hurricane Katrina.

Lower 9th Ward Post-Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is seen as the turning point in the 9th ward as things went from bad to worse in a matter of days when the storm broke down the levees surrounding their area and destroyed everything in sight. As the city began to flood, New Orleans had an evacuation plan which allocated plenty of resources and shelter availability for those of wealthy areas like the Garden District. Members of the Garden District were evacuated via helicopter to an open, fully stocked shelter- the Houston Astrodome, which comfortably held all 60,000 evacuees .hose of the 9th ward was not as lucky. They were sent to the overcrowded, understaffed, and essentially resourceless Superdome. With about 16,000 and under 100 “staff” members at the Superdome, residents from inner-city New Orleans areas like the 9th ward, the conditions of the Superdomewere deemed a “hell hole”.

New Orleans Superdome during Hurricane Katrina

Evacuees in the Superdome slept in puddles of urine and dirty clothes. Mothers with young babies were given one diaper and told to re-use it once it became dirty. The air-conditioning unit broke within a day, leaving those residing in the Superdome to be stuck inside a swampy, overcrowded building. 

In the years following Katrina, white residents began to slowly return to New Orleans. Organizations like the Volunteers of America came into New Orleans to offer relief in rebuilding homes in areas like Uptown, the Garden District, and the Central Business District. Additionally, millions of dollars in federal aid were given to the city of New Orleans, allocating them more medical supplies as well as the ability to build a new hospital in the CBD, able to take on more patients. The white-owned businesses that populated Freret and Magazine St. we’re able to make an eventual return, rebuilding their businesses from the ground up with of course- help from Post-Katrina economic recovery opportunities. 

Over in working-class African-American areas like the 7th and 9th wards, a “bounce back” is still, 16 years later, yet to come. More than a decade and a half after Katrina, the 7th ward is still only 60% rebuilt. Additionally, members of this community are still living in pre-Katrina houses that they put back together themselves, and that possess the bare minimum of housing structure requirements. Similar to the 7th ward, New Orlean’s lower 9th ward is still struggling to rebuild post-Katrina. There are blocks in the 9th ward that to this day still have no re-built houses. Even more concerning is the fact that more than half of the people who lived in the 9th ward before Katrina permanently left their homes, unable to afford a rebuild. The African American population accounted for 73% of those who lost their homes and were displaced by Katrina, and more than 60% of that population are still struggling to recover today. 

The African American and White populations of New Orleans are more segregated than ever in this post-levee-breaking, Katrina world. White families, businesses, and institutions have been able to completely bounce back from Katrina, some even saying that they are even better than before Katrina. Some state that Katrina marks a turning point that allowed for the city and its population to be revamped for the better. The African-American communities remain destroyed, with no sign of hope that they will ever come back.

This piece was edited by Chandler Welch as part of Professor Kelley Crawford’s Digital Civic Engagement Course at Tulane University.