Racism in New Orleans, Louisiana has historically been reflected in settlement patterns throughout the city, dating back to its founding in the early 1700’s. The first settlers favored well-drained uplands and shunned the swamps and marshes as dangerous, instead relegating African American slaves and native Creole people to these areas. Post-civil war, these settlement patterns were only exaggerated as the racial geography of the city shifted toward what is now considered a “classic southern” development pattern. Whites selected areas for people of color to occupy: typically low-value, flood prone swamplands at the edge of the city (Campanella, 2006). This was the case in neighborhoods such as Tremé, often referred to as the oldest African American neighborhood in America,
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, as polluting industry took hold in the region and transportation infrastructure expanded, such locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) were sited in close proximity to these same predominately black neighborhoods. Environmental justice activists in New Orleans, and across the country, have argued that these communities have long acted as “canaries in the mine,” facing the front lines of the environmental and health risks associated with LULUs (Sze, 2006).
Though these historical settlement patterns were cause for concern in isolation, in 2005, disaster struck. When Hurricane Katrina, considered one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, made landfall on August 29, 2005, the already marginalized black communities in New Orleans were disproportionately devastated. The Gulf Coast region was thrust into
Perhaps unsurprisingly, as polluting industry took hold in the region and transportation infrastructure expanded, such locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) were sited in close proximity to these same predominately black neighborhoods. Environmental justice activists in New Orleans, and across the country, have argued that these communities have long acted as “canaries in the mine,” facing the front lines of the environmental and health risks associated with LULUs (Sze, 2006).
Though these historical settlement patterns were cause for concern in isolation, in 2005, disaster struck. When Hurricane Katrina, considered one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, made landfall on August 29, 2005, the already marginalized black communities in New Orleans were disproportionately devastated. The Gulf Coast region was thrust into