Two Decades Deep in Disaster: How the Civilizers’ Charter School “Remedy” Failed New Orleans (2005-2025)—Repairing Racial Harms

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Two decades ago, in August 2005, Black communities in New Orleans were abandoned by local, state, and federal authorities as Hurricane Katrina approached the city. No attempt was made to evacuate poor and working-class families. After the storm, Black citizens were left to die in floodwaters. Despite the loss of life and destruction caused by Katrina, the worst was yet to come. In the wake of tragedy, policymakers, free market philanthropists, and allied white reformers advanced what they asserted was a “remedy” for the alleged failure of New Orleans public schools: mass charter school expansion accompanied by closure of historic schools and reconstitution of the city’s core of Black veteran teachers. In this way, Black communities would be saved from themselves by those who presumed to know better.

Sub Unit

• Division F - History and Historiography

Cosponsors

• Division B - Curriculum Studies

• Division G - Social Context of Education

Chairs

• Kristen L. Buras, Urban South Grassroots Research Collective

• Raynard Sanders, New Orleans Imperative

Participants

• Keith E. Benson, Camden City School District

• Eve L. Ewing, University of Chicago

• Camika Royal, Morgan State University

• David O. Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Terrenda Corisa White, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Joyce E. King, Georgia State University