'Fire on the Bayou': African American leaders converge on New Orleans

The gathering will be the first of its kind and magnitude held in post-Katrina New Orleans, and many are expecting to exit with a redevelopment plan for New Orleans based on evacuees' input, something that is missing in current deliberations by Mayor C. Ray Nagin's Bring Back New Orleans Commission.

In short, the conclave will fire off the biggest salvo to date of the response of evacuees and supporters, who adamantly oppose the plans of the Urban Land Institute, Mayor Nagin and developers and bankers on the mayor's Bring Back New Orleans Commission to "shrink the footprint" of New Orleans.

A total of 29 organizations will come together in the African "village" tradition to discuss, analyze and plan the city's future through the eyes of evacuees. To that end, there will be plenty of fiery words for the powers that be in the city that care forgot.

The conference's primary sponsor is the Institute of the Black World 21st Century. Local co-sponsors include the African American Leadership Project, the Millions More Movement Local Organizing Committee, the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. The national co-sponsors are the Progressive National Baptist Convention, National Black Environmental Justice Network, Hip Hop Caucus, Black Voices for Peace and the Black Family Summit of the Millions More Movement.

Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, Progressive National Baptist Convention President Rev. Dr. Major Jemison, Ron Daniels of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and other luminaries are expected to attend.

Perhaps the greatest catalyst for the Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend Initiative are news reports confirming that the Urban Land Institute suggested that certain neighborhoods, primarily African American communities, should not be rebuilt, especially if homeowners take too long to return to and fix up their homes.

More inflammatory, especially to African American evacuees, was the BBNO Commission's recent decision to give residents one year to return, and, if certain neighborhoods are not fully populated in that time, those who did return may be asked to leave and the communities left to be developed at the discretion of the mayor's BBNO Commission.

Aside from the commission being comprised primarily of white businessmen, more troubling is the fact that decisions are being made without the fair representation of members from communities at the heart of the "footprint" debate.

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