Bay Area Katrina 2nd Anniversary Event

2nd Anniversary, which will take place on Wednesday, August 29, at noon in
San Jose. I haven’t heard of another commemoration in the Bay Area.
Let’s see if we can’t make this event huge!

More about the commemoration:
On August 29th at noon, our community will remember the over 1,800
who died in Hurricane Katrina; highlight the struggles of Katrina
survivors in our own communities and the nation; highlight the lack of
rebuilding that has taken place over the past 2 years; and to promote
federal action to create a Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, which is
the national effort to create a modern-day Works Progress
Administration (WPA).

The plan for August 29, the day Katrina hit New Orleans, is as
follows: we will gather at 11:45 pm at Municipal Stadium (a Works
Progress Administration building). At noon, we will begin our 1/2
mile walk to San Jose State, and the Tommie Smith and John Carlos
statues, which is the site where the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project
was created by SJSU students and faculty.

At the statues, we will hear from Katrina survivors, students, and
public dignitaries between 12:30 pm-1:30 pm. We will also be
connected via speaker phone to residents from New Orleans who will be
commemorating the 2nd Anniversary in front of the Lafitte Housing
Project, which was built by the WPA. At the end of the speeches, we
will march over to the Civic Auditorium, another building built by the
WPA. The event will end at 2 pm.

Our goal is to send a powerful message to the nation that there is a
solution to the social suffering in the Gulf Coast, and it is to
rebuild the public infrastructure through a civic works program, with
the jobs going to Gulf Coast residents.

We invite you and your organization to join us at 11:45 am at
Municipal Stadium, which is at 588 E Alma Avenue (cross street is
Senter Road) or at 12:30 pm at the Tommie Smith and John Carlos
Statues on the SJSU campus in front of the Clark Hall.

If you have any questions, please call me at (510)508-5382.

—————————————————-
Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Sociology Department
Community Change Concentration
San JosÃ© State University