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Politics: Black Leaders Want Safeguards for Katrina Victims

Posted on: Monday, 19 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

NEW YORK, Sep. 16, 2005 (IPS/GIN) -- On the morning after President Bush promised to carry out "one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen," a coalition of African American leaders laid out their vision of what needs to be done to restore the physical and human damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) urged Bush and Congress to "set an inclusive and proactive agenda in addressing problems caused by Hurricane Katrina."

The group said relief efforts should also take into consideration the growing poverty crisis in the Gulf region and other parts of the United States.

"We want to make sure that going forward there are safeguards to assure that people displaced by Hurricane Katrina will be the first in line to get jobs rebuilding the affected areas," said NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon.

"In addition, we want President Bush to see that there are safeguards to assure equity in the distribution of rebuilding funds and that minority contractors have a fair chance to be awarded some of the work that will be necessary to rebuild New Orleans and other affected communities," He said.

The coalition, which met at Howard University, issued a "Call to Action" that outlines steps and recommendations to achieve eight "critical" goals -- an echo of the eight global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) discussed at a United Nations Summit of world leaders.

Rep. Melvin Watt, a North Carolina Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, "The CBC is absolutely committed to the principles addressed in this call to action and we will work across party lines" to have them carried out. The action steps and recommendations proposed by the coalition include:

--Ensure displaced families' immediate and long-term right to return to the Gulf Coast region, and provide economic incentives for displaced families to return to the region.

--Establish a $100 billion Family Reconstruction Fund providing services such as unemployment assistance, job training, school placement, finding separated children, as well as a Gulf Coast Region Reconstruction Fund for rebuilding homes, businesses and universities.

--Ensure that local residents have first choice at jobs and contracts in the rebuilding effort, by setting a 50 percent residency target for all contracts and a 40 percent minority vendor target for all reconstruction.

--Provide physical and mental health assistance, order the admittance of minority community-based counselors in facilities with evacuees nationwide, and guarantee health benefits to all affected citizens for a period no less than 24 months.

--Ensure displaced persons' ability to vote in state and local elections, and freeze all foreclosure proceedings against property in affected areas for a minimum of 12 months.

--Establish a diverse commission to monitor the equitable distribution of relief resources by FEMA and major relief agencies as well as the equitable reconstruction of the affected region.

--Develop a comprehensive strategy to address the poverty crisis in the United States.

"Poverty is one of the most important moral issues facing our country and our generation," said Allynn Lodge, co-executive director of Americans for Informed Democracy, at a recent gathering in New York on Hurricane Katrina and the MDGs.

"I think recent events show that no human being -- anywhere -- deserves to be without food, water, or dignity. We believe if Americans are informed of the issues, they'll understand how critical it is for the U.S. to lead the way in ending poverty."

The MDGs seek to achieve universal primary education and to halve AIDS and poverty by 2015. While their focus is mostly on developing countries, activists note that HIV/AIDS hits African American especially hard.

African Americans make up 12.3 percent of the U.S. population, but they account for 40 percent of the AIDS cases diagnosed since the epidemic began. And African American women have HIV/AIDS rates 19 times the rates for white women.

Meanwhile, NAACP volunteers and staff have been delivering relief supplies to displaced persons in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. The organization has set up a command center in Biloxi.

It is also working with several organizations, including the National Medical Association, the Black Psychiatrists Association, the American Psychiatrists Association and American Counseling Association, to help hurricane victims deal with the acute trauma and stress of being displaced and losing friends and loved ones.

In his speech from New Orleans Thursday night, Bush touched on some of the coalition's proposals, but did not address many others. He said, however, that he would be open to ideas on what to do and how best to do it.

But Ron Daniels, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told IPS, "President Bush's recognition that 'racial discrimination' played a role in the impoverished conditions that hampered so many black and poor people from evacuating prior to the onslaught of hurricane Katrina is too little too late.

"He should have publicly apologized for a lapse of leadership that caused grief, pain and death to so many people. The coalition of African American leaders is absolutely on target in demanding a 'right of return' for all residents and affirmative action programs and procedures to ensure that contracts, construction and the redevelopment of the area will be done in a fair and equitable manner," Daniels said. "The last thing we need is the gentrification and Disneyfication of New Orleans."

On Sept. 8, Bush issued a proclamation suspending the minimum wage requirements for relief workers engaged in Katrina recovery operations.

But according to a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), said Steven Aftergood in Secrecy News, published by the Federation of American Scientists, "In order to do so, he relied upon a statutory authority that has been dormant for 30 years and that appears to be legally inoperative."

Aftergood also noted that California Democrat Rep. George Miller and several dozen other members of Congress have introduced a bill to undo what the president has proposed. The measure would "reinstate the application of the wage requirements of the Davis- Bacon Act to Federal contracts in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina."

Source: Global Information Network

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