Evoking King, Nagin calls N.O. 'chocolate' city

Speech addresses fear of losing black culture

Tuesday, January 17, 2006
By John Pope
Staff writer

Speaking to a fraction of the crowd typically drawn to a holiday parade honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Monday predicted that displaced African-American residents will return to the rebuilt city and it "will be chocolate at the end of the day."

"This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be," Nagin said. "You can't have it no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Nagin's remarks were tucked into a wide-ranging speech, delivered on the steps of the federal courthouse, in which the mayor related a dream conversation he had with the slain civil rights leader.

In addition to discussing New Orleans' reconstruction, unity and numerous issues in the black community, in his speech Nagin attributed the recent hurricanes striking the United States to a God who is "mad at America" for waging a war in Iraq based on false pretenses. Nagin said God also is upset at the black community for not taking better care of its people.

His comments, especially those meant to address the concerns of some black residents that white New Orleanians don't want them back, touched off a firestorm of reaction.

Late in the day, Nagin's spokeswoman Tami Frazier said the mayor's comments were not meant to be divisive.

"The mayor's comments were in reference to the fact that . . . there has been talk that the diversity of New Orleans is not what it was," she said. "New Orleans has been a predominantly African-American city for quite some time now. His comments were not meant to exclude anyone. He was just saying that as we rebuild the new New Orleans, we will still retain our diverse culture and everything that has made New Orleans what it is, together, both black and white."

Flavorful speech

Speaking in rolling cadences like a preacher addressing his congregation, Nagin called on the small, interracial crowd to rebuild a majority-black city. The group of about 60 people was preparing to march down to the South Claiborne Avenue statue of King.

"We ask black people. . . . It's time for us to come together," said the mayor, who is black.

"It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," he said. "And I don't care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day."

Nagin also said that last year's devastating hurricanes were signs of God's wrath.

"Surely God is mad at America," he said.

The remarks, which prompted a storm of angry callers when Garland Robinette played them repeatedly on his talk show on WWL-AM, also drew fire from some black leaders.

"Everybody's jaws are dropping right now," said City Councilman Oliver Thomas, who is black. "Even if you believe some of that crazy stuff, that is not the type of image we need to present to the nation."

Thomas, who has been friendly to the Nagin administration but is now viewed as a potential mayoral contender, said the mayor was indulging in "equal-opportunity slamming."

Instead of the city being chocolate, Thomas said, "we ought to be Neapolitan, fudge ripple, all the flavors together. Who really cares what the racial makeup of the city is as long as it works for everybody?"

Political analyst Silas Lee said the anger Nagin's speech provoked probably was intensified by the environment in which he delivered it: a city where nerves are raw and whatever sense of security people had was blown away in Katrina's gale.

"That makes it much more fragile and might make people more sensitive, more emotional," Lee said. "Therefore, every word any elected official may say can be misinterpreted very easily. In his speech, it sounded like he was venting a lot of feelings and pent-up frustration. However, how it came out and how it was interpreted is very subjective. Once you say things, you can't retract them."

Calls for love, not violence

Unlike Martin Luther King Day parades in previous years, when families lined the route, there were few spectators Monday as marchers proceeded through a neighborhood where many buildings are still dark and empty.

Before Hurricane Katrina pounded New Orleans on Aug. 29, scattering three-fourths of its residents to every corner of the United States, the city's population was about 68 percent black.

King, a powerful preacher whose work as a civil rights leader won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, was assassinated in 1968.

Although King made a point of reaching out to white and black people, Nagin insisted Monday that if King were alive, he would urge African-Americans to stop worrying about other races and tend to their own community.

In his speech, the mayor lashed out at a shooting on Sunday afternoon that wounded three people during a second-

line parade that had been designed to show unity and support for rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged city.

"Knuckleheads" were responsible for the gunfire that wounded a 34-year-old man, an 18-year-old woman and an 20-year-old man, he said. "When we come together for a second-line, we're not going to tolerate any violence. Martin Luther King would've wanted it that way . . ."

Nagin went on to decry the violent crime that plagued many of the city's African-

American neighborhoods before the storm.

"It's time for all of us good folk to stand up and say, 'We're tired of the violence. We're tired of black folks killing each other,' " Nagin said.

"What are we doing? Why is black-on-black crime such an issue?" he continued. "Why do our young men hate each other so much that they look their brother in the face and they will take a gun and kill him in cold blood?"

In response to such senseless horror, King would say, "We as a people need to fix ourselves first," said Nagin, striking a frequent theme of his speeches. "The lack of love is killing us."

Besides respecting one another, Nagin said his listeners need to pay attention to God, who, Nagin said, expressed his anger at America last year by sending hurricane after hurricane over the land.

"Surely he's not approving of us being in Iraq under false pretense," Nagin said. "But surely he's upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves, we're not taking care of our women, and we're not taking care of our children . . ."

. . . . . . .

John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3317.

Staff writers Martha Carr and Jenny Hurwitz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.