(Video – The 74 – An organization focused on education in America)

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Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. The visible damage to the city’s infrastructure and land foreshadowed the political, cultural, and educational upending that was to come.

Below the surface-level damage was a redistribution of political power from blacks to whites (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288). This shift from predominantly black representation to the rise of whites in power appeared in local governance. For example, in 2007, the majority of t

he elected City Council members were white. The City Council faced backlash given a series of political scandals that “resulted in replacement and mid-term elections that White politicians won” (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288). In addition, Mitch Landrieu, elected in 2010 to be the Mayor of New Orleans, was the firstwhite man to be voted into office in 30 years (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288). Ray Nagin, a black man, preceded Landrieu (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288).

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Hurricane Katrina sparked similar changes in New Orleans’s educational sphere. In fact, “in 2008, the Orleans Parish School Board became majorit

y white, a shift that had not occurred in over 20 years” (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288). The racial representation disparity in the academic realm was reinforced upon the arrival of Charter Management Organizations (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288).

The officials and organizations that have risen to power in the wake of Hurricane Katrina don’t represent the black-majority populous of New Orleans (Dixson et al., 2020, p. 288). There’s a discrepancy between those in power and those in the general population. Problems such as decision making without community consent and neglect toward historical significance within

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these New Orleans neighborhoods are products of this discrepancy.