New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina

August 23-August 31st 2005 Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands of New Orleans residents. Prior to the hurricane, New Orleans was almost 70% black, with approximately 30% of its residents living in poverty. About 112,000 of New Orleans 500,000 residents did not have access to a car during Hurricane Katrina. Without access to a vehicle residents had to either wait out the storm in their homes or go to the Superdome for shelter (19).

But What Happened to New Orleans’ Schools?

Over 100 of New Orleans 126 schools suffered damaged due to the hurricane (20). The majority of school employees were replaced and approximately 80% of New Orleans public schools were mandated to be made into charter schools (21). The purpose of this website is to investigate how residents of New Orleans empowered themselves and advocated for educational programs that the new schools were not providing.