Katrina's Legacy: White Racism and Black Reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast - Softcover

"Buy this book and study it well. Eric Mann was my first teacher in the black freedom movement; he taught me door-to-door canvassing and basic organizing. And then he introduced me to SNCC. Eric is still teaching and organizing a new generation, and setting the pace as we build up our strength for the ‘Battle of New Orleans.’" -- KOMOZI WOODARD, author of A Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka and Black Power Politics. "Eric Mann’s Katrina’s Legacy is excellent. Mann has a distinct talent for drawing political lessons from historical events. Every movement needs a map. Katrina’s Legacy takes us to the ravaged Gulf Coast and shows us how to find the road toward a Third Reconstruction. America needs this movement, and Eric helps us find our way." -- VIJAY PRASHAD, author of Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting : Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity . "Katrina's Legacy stands with 'Black Nations 9/11' as the clearest strategic statement within the movement, a must read for anyone working in solidarity with the reconstruction movement in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast." -- KALI AKUNO, People’s Hurricane Relief Fund Oversight Coalition . "Mann’s writing is a door. Our movement, and indeed, the very life of Black New Orleans, depends on our ability to fully comprehend and embrace the counter-hegemonic and long-term movement building demands that Mann describes." -- XOCHITL BERVERA, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children . "Eric Mann is one of the few people who can combine strategy, tactics, effective grassroots organizing, and compelling writing." -- PHIL HUTCHINGS, Former chair, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee . "Eric Mann places the Gulf catastrophe in the historical context of racist capitalist rule in the U.S. – a system that reproduces disaster as a matter of course. In the struggle to allow the New Orleans disaspora to Return, Rebuild and Remain in their city, African Americans have the opportunity to launch a Third Reconstruction, one that will address demands for land, reparations, and the right to self-determination. Mann’s book arrives at what he correctly describes as a "critical moment," when the "cracks in the ruling class levees" are visible for all to see. This moment cannot be allowed to pass. Eric Mann provides political generalship, and the outlines of a plan for action. He calls us all to our battle stations." --GLEN FORD, Executive Editor and Co-Publisher, BlackCommentator.com . "An inspiring call to action rooted in a powerful tradition of Black resistance in the South. It provides a comprehensive framework, a clear vision and strategy for this moment in history to build the movement among communities of color and low-wage workers." -- AI-JEN POO, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities

Eric Mann is the director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center