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African American News
"Unheard Voices Of Black Women Survivors Focus Of Gulf South Listening Tour"
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Nationally-syndicated radio personality, Ms. Dupree, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation CEO, Melanie L. Campbell, and Black women of Gulf South to participate in New Orleans press conference launching 7-city bus tour.
Washington, DC - The rising voiceless desperation of the Black women survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita over the past year prompted the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) through its Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR) to launch a seven-city Gulf South Listening Sessions Bus Tour scheduled to begin on August 23 in New Orleans and conclude in Jackson, MS on August 29. Details of the “Hear Me Now! Reflections One Year After Katrina-Rita,” tour will be released during the Kick Off press conference scheduled for Wednesday, August 23, 2006, 10:00 a.m. at the Loews Hotel, 300 Poydras Street, New Orleans.
“Official hurricane recovery and rebuilding efforts continue to bypass thousands of Black women and their families. Repeated requests for help appear to fall on deaf ears. We intend not only to give voice to Black women, but also gather their experiences and present them to policymakers at all levels of government. The shame and blame is equally shouldered by officials empowered to uplift and assist this constituency,” said Melanie L. Campbell, head of the 80-organization member NCBCP.
Joining Campbell for the Listening Tour Launch will be Ms. Dupree heard daily on the nationally syndicated “Tom Joyner Morning Show,” hailing from New Orleans and who survived the Hurricane Katrina, along with women representing Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
Other confirmed participants for the press conference include: Honorable Sheryl Gray, LA State Legislator; Honorable Cynthia-Willard Lewis, New Orleans City Council, District E (Lower 9th Ward & New Orleans East); Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, Professor, National Labor College at George Meany Campus; Jessica Norwood, Alabama Gulf Coast Coordinator, Saving Our Selves Coalition; Dr. Brenda Mitchell, President, United Teachers of New Orleans; Louella Givens, Board Member, Board of Elementary & Secondary Education; Cynthia Wiggins, President, Pubic Housing Residential Management Council; Rev. Connie Thomas, Director of Volunteer Ministry, United Methodist Church Disaster Ministries; Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director, Deep South Center for Environment Justice; Dwanne Biagas, Board Member, Coalition of Minority Contractors of LA; Edith Jones, President & CEO, Urban League of Greater New Orleans; Shanrika Wilson, LA State Coordinator, NCBCP’s Black Youth Vote! (BYV!)/Dillard University student; Leslie Watson-Malachi, Chair, Black Women’s Roundtable, NCBCP; Bishop Dianna Williams, General Secretary, African American Catholic Congregation, and Mary Spinx-Thigpen, President, Forrest Heights Homeowners and Tenants Organization, Gulfport, MS.
Prior to the press event, women leaders in civil rights, government, social service organizations, black clergy, healthcare providers, labor, business and others will gather for an 8:00 a.m. Black Women Leaders Prayer Breakfast scheduled for the Loews Hotel, designed to set the tone for the seven-day tour. Following the press conference, women leaders will board a bus to tour New Orleans’ devastated neighborhoods, the first of the planned whistle stops scheduled throughout the seven-day Listening Sessions Bus Tour.
Two to three-hour Listening Sessions and whistle stop tours of rural and urban areas affected by Katrina-Rita have been arranged for Mobile, AL (August 24); Gulfport, Moss Point, Pass Christian, Bay Saint Louis, MS (August 25); New Orleans, LA (August 26); Lafayette, LA (August 27), Baton Rouge, LA (August 28), and Jackson, MS (August 29).
At each Listening Session, 20-30 Katrina survivors will be present. NCBCP will have on hand local service providers, health and wellness professionals, financial advisers, emergency preparedness experts, along with representatives from the National Coalition’s state and local affiliates to serve as resources. The NCBCP will also assist the women to become civically engaged in the communities where they have been displaced or help them to reconnect to their home communities through voter registration information and how to protect their right to vote in the 2006 mid-term election cycle.
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