1/26/2008 Community Gumbo

Listen | Democracy Now

• “An Opportunity to Look at Ourselves and Reorder Our Priorities”–Legendary Activist Grace Lee Boggs on the Ailing Economy, the Legacy of Dr. King and the 2008 Race

A New Civil Rights Movement is Needed in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Listen | Lance Hill, Part 1
Listen | Lance Hill, Part 2

The not-for-profit Southern Institute at Tulane University is dedicated to promoting ethnic harmony through tolerance education. Since 1993, more than 3600 teachers in more than 800 schools across the Deep South have benefited from the program. They in turn touch the lives of more than a million students a year.

Lance Hill is the Director of The Southern Institute. As a labor organizer, Hill learned how to persuade poorly-educated blue-collar white workers to consider a more tolerant, inclusive perspective on the world. Later, while organizing to defeat neo-Nazi and former KKK Klansman David Duke’s bid for Louisiana governor, Hill learned the art of political public relations, employing the negative national attention on a potential Duke governorship to help turn the election.

These days, Hill inveighs against what he claims is a broad racist sentiment to keep poor black residents from returning to post-Katrina New Orleans, and he believes that a new civil rights movement is needed to address the rights of all citizens following crises. Hill believes it’s necessary to remove the veil of civility shrouding racism, and through teaching and example, to engage the hearts and minds of bystanders into caring and action.

One of the most insidious forces preventing people from returning to New Orleans, says Hill, is the lack of health care -- and Hill argues that the rest of the nation should pay more attention.

Music Played:

Eddie Bo, Havin' Fun in New Orleans

John Lee Hooker, Early One Morning

Tuba Fats, Mardi Gras in New Orleans