Councilwoman Cynthia Willard Lewis and Dr. Julianne Malveaux were panelists at the SOBWC National/InternationalTown Hall Meeting held Nov. 20 at the Ernest Morial Convention Center. Afterwards, both took a few minutes to speak with The Black House News’ (BHN) Adeeba Folami.

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For the past eight years, Lewis has served as councilwoman for New Orleans’ District E which includes the Lower 9^th Ward. She is a member of the NAACP, SCLC, Amnesty International, National Black Caucus of Legislators and the National Organization of Women in Government. Additionally, in another arena, she was at one time crowned Miss Black New Orleans; Miss Black Louisiana, and was a runner up in the Miss Black America Pageant.

At the town hall meeting, she delivered impassioned remarks about the District she serves, with special emphasis on those whose neighborhoods and lives had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The city, she said, had been a socioeconomic disaster even before the storm and government response to the tragedy was slow. “Our recovery is far from complete,” she said, adding that the rebuilding effort should ensure that the many neighborhoods be treated equally and that those who made the city great not be driven out. Her conversation with BHN follows:

(BHN) – Do you feel the country has forgotten about Katrina and the 9^th ward and what are some little known things still going on that a lot of people may not be aware of?

(CWL) - I do not feel the country has forgotten New Orleans or is experiencing what people want to call Katrina fatigue. I feel that the American public, outstanding citizens, were outraged and are outraged by lack of response, the lack of rescue and now the slow pace of recovery and they demonstrated in their generosity, their kindness, their physical and tangible offer of aid, also of coming and helping us rebuild.

We have had millions of man hours of volunteers from throughout America, from retired citizens to young people on spring break; giving up their weekends to be with us, and their summers, in some instances.  So the people of this great nation have responded with such encouragement and generosity that it is overwhelming and it motivates you to continue to push forward.

What has failed has been the systematic response to a natural disaster on such a scale. FEMA had been folded into Homeland Security and so it had taken a minor position when it is the only engine that addresses a municipality or an area’s ability to rise up from natural disasters, be it hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, fires that are raging in the Los Angeles area today, or even the recent Hurricanes Gustav and Ike which hit 34 parishes – Gustav in Louisiana, and Ike which hit 10 more, but also slammed and totally destroyed Galveston as well as parts of Houston. There will always be another natural disaster but the bureaucracy and administrative system was so log jammed and layered that no one was able to respond with capacity and a sense of urgency and that is what has caused such tremendous delays. The tremendous scale of devastation had never been witnessed or experienced before and the layers of administration from the Stafford Act laws which say you have to build exactly the way it was, which is archaic and not necessarily responding to contemporary needs in a post-Katrina world. There are many, many roadblocks but we are pushing through because we are held up by the prayers and support of all the nation and the world that continues to respond to this catastrophic loss of life, more than 1600 killed, as well as of property and again, it goes on for hundreds of miles affecting New Orleans to Slidell to Pascagoola to other parts in Mississippi.

Nothing like this had ever occurred before and we should use Katrina as a model for disaster response and recovery and we have worked hard to set up best practices and protocols so that the losses of Katrina, particularly on the response side, will never occur again.

(BHN) – Thank you.

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Dr. Julianne Malveaux (JM) is president of Bennett College, a women’s institution in North Carolina. She spoke with BHN about SOBWC and whether Barack Obama has any incentive to respond to a Black agenda now, since he had overwhelming Black support anyway.

(BHN) – Why did you feel it important to be at this conference?

(JM) - It was the first major gathering of African American people after the election and an opportunity for African American people to talk agenda. We have a great moment of celebration but we cannot allow celebration to suspend critical thinking and I think that what you have here are people whose imaginations have been tickled and who are about to put some things out; suggestions to our incoming president about what must be done with the African American community.

He has agendas from everyone else; we know what other people want. We know that the immigration conversation is taking place, for example. We know that people are talking about other things, we must talk about racial economic justice, the social economic gaps; we’ve seen all these numbers come out. What has been absent from the public dialogue is the way the African American community has been shredded by this recession.

(BHN) – The opinion of many during the campaign was ‘We can’t bring up Black issues; you know Obama can’t address them.’ Does he have any incentive to respond now since Blacks overwhelmingly voted for him anyway?

(JM) - He has an obligation to respond in that he represents the entire United States. He could not ignore any constituency and African American people should not put themselves into a position of 2^nd class citizenship. For us not to bring an agenda would be to ignore our rights and our responsibilities.

(BHN) – Any final comments?

(JM) - I have tremendous respect for the way Ron Daniels has continued to push the issue of the [SOBWC] and that the community in New Orleans, despite the fact they are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, have been open to hosting this conference here. As the councilwoman said, New Orleans is not just about New Orleans, it’s a proxy for what happens in cities all over America but some of what you see here is that phenomenal resilience that you see among African American people. In other words, that people are still, in the middle of a recession, willing to come together, engage in principled dialogue and willing to move forward. That speaks to who we are.

(BHN) – Thank you.

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