Journal of Black Studies

This article examines the project “The Saddest Days: Katrina Experiences Through the Eyes of Children,” developed by the authors. The project uses the Gao School Museum (GSM) approach to develop instructional material that includes student experiences and voices. Specifically, the authors investigated how the “Saddest Days” Project, using the GSM methodology, develops Boŋ Feerey (a concept in the Songhay language that means “the process of opening one’s mind and accepting new ideas and approaches so as to integrate these new perspectives into one’s daily life”), which urges students and teachers to ponder how Katrina’s aftermath continues to affect African American youth. The disaster has affected not only African American youth from New Orleans but also those teachers and students located in the cities in which New Orleanians are hosted.

Hurricane Katrina has been interpreted as both a “metaphor” for the racial inequality that characterizes urban America and as a purely “natural” disaster that happened to strike a predominantly Black city. To resolve these conflicting interpretations, the author analyzes data on New Orleans residents who died during Katrina in an effort to provide an empirical look at the groups most directly affected by the hurricane. Contrary to prior reports in the popular press, the author finds that the impact of the storm was felt most acutely by the elderly population in New Orleans and by Blacks, who were much more likely to die than would be expected given their presence in the population. Data on the locations of recovered bodies also show that Katrina took its largest toll in New Orleans’s Black community. These findings confirm the impression that race was deeply implicated in the tragedy of Katrina.

It is perplexing why natural disasters, as important life-altering events, are seldom viewed as a catalyst for social change in the United States in general but particularly for African Americans. This article addresses a gap in literature by proposing natural disasters as a variable to help understand the African American experience. The authors argue that the first post-Civil War migration altered the life courses for many. Subsequent to the first migration wave (the Great Migration of 1916-1930), environmental factors altered many African American lives. Natural disasters such as The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, The 1948 Vanport Flood, and Hurricane Katrina illustrate the federal government’s indifference and neglect of responsibility, which played a role in decisions to migrate. These major natural environmental disasters, when situated in historical context as a part of the social, political, geographical, and economic landscape, are vital in the understanding of the African American experience.

In late August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the U.S. Gulf Coast region causing a subsequent cycle of evacuation, relocation, and rebuilding. The storm exposed in its wake vast racial and class differences in how the hurricane and its aftermath affected individual citizens. Using two public opinion polls conducted immediately after Katrina, the authors demonstrate that African Americans in this country were much more likely than Whites to experience feelings of anger and depression in response to the events surrounding the hurricane. They also show that these feelings of anger and depression held by African Americans are respectively explained by their perception of racial discrimination by the federal government and complacency on the part of President Bush in response to Katrina. These results provide additional support for the idea that African Americans have a racially group-centric view of society that powerfully shapes how they respond to political events.

This study compares differences in crisis preparation, information-seeking patterns, and media use on the basis of race in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Surveys are collected from 935 Katrina evacuees relocated in different areas of the United States. Results indicate differences in crisis preparation and information seeking on the basis of race. Results also demonstrate a continued need to create messages encouraging crisis preparation, especially among at-risk subpopulations.

This treatment is an examination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response, or lack thereof, to the citizens of New Orleans after the historic and catastrophic events in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Comparisons are drawn between it and the shameful failure of the Freedmen’s Bureau after the “Emancipation” of enslaved Africans in the place called America. Drawing from current media reports, historical texts, and the so-called slave narratives, this work seeks to point out Uncle Sam’s alarming legacy of treacherous, institutional nonchalance and disregard for the well-being of the African-descended American.