Chocolate City Speech - Context

Context

See also Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans

At the end of August, 2005, New Orleans had been hit by Hurricane Katrina, and catastrophic failures of the city's Federal levees flooded the majority of the city. Only a small portion of the city's evacuated population had returned by January. Some commentators were suggesting that the city's demographics would change from majority African American to majority Caucasian.

This speech put the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery process of New Orleans in the context of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Nagin's speech reflected on the problems of violence and crime in pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans. He also referred to the humanitarian plight of the largely African-American hurricane victims in the Louisiana Superdome and Morial Convention Center.

Read more about this topic:  Chocolate City Speech

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