Statement From the Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club on Mother's Day Secondline Shooting

Reprinted from the Original Big 7 facebook page:

The Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club community is deeply saddened by the foolish violence that took place during our annual Mother’s Day’s Parade today. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of the victims of this tragedy and their families. We are with you in your struggle for health, wellness, and justice. 

Crime and violence in New Orleans is a systemic problem and we strongly believe that safeguarding our cultural heritage helps to address the roots of violence. We are a cross-generational organization, ages 5 - 70. Our young people grow up in this culture, are fed by it, and feel loved, supported and connected in ways that build real security. That’s crime prevention. 

Today’s violence is an outrage to what the Original Big 7 and all of New Orleans secondlining culture represents. Secondlining is about community and celebration, not trauma and violence. Today’s shooting was in no way a product of secondline culture or somehow set in motion by the parade or its route, as some critics may suggest. Our parade brings together different folks from across the city—black, white, latino, the young and the old, and lots of families--to celebrate the best of New Orleans. We feel embarrassed that the world is now viewing our city and our community through a lens of violence. We support a thorough investigation of the shooting and pray the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

In the seventeen years that the Big 7 has been organizing parades and since the first Original Big 7 Mother’s Day Parade in 2001, this is the first act of shooting violence that has occurred, and we pray that it is the last. 

Please check our facebook pages for updates and information about upcoming benefits and events: facebook.com/original.bigseven or facebook.com/pages/Original-Big-7-Social-Aid-and-Pleasure-Club-Inc/17851893971. 

We host our parade on Mother’s Day to give something back to the women of the world. We are a family, a secondlining family, and we will not let this foolish act disrupt the positive work we are doing in our community. 

Date: May 12, 2013
Media Contact: 504-616-1888

New Orleans Activists Plan Secondline to Commemorate 40th Anniversary of Brutal "War on Drugs”

From our friends at Women With A Vision and Drug Policy Alliance:
A Secondline parade this Friday in New Orleans will epitomize the funeral for Nixon’s War on Drugs and provide a launching point for future community action and dialogue concerning this issue.

June 17 will mark forty years since President Nixon, citing drug abuse as “public enemy No. 1,” officially declared a "war on drugs." A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, the war on drugs has inflicted brutal harm in communities across the US.

Drug policy reform advocates all across the country will mark this auspicious date with a day of action to raise awareness about the failure of drug prohibition and call for an exit strategy to the failed war on drugs.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary, drug policy reform organizations will hold a national day of action. Events will be held in 15 states, and in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans. The day of action will be highlighted with a large-scale event with elected officials in Washington, DC.

“The past 40 years of the war on drugs have had a profound effect on families in African American communities nationwide, significantly affecting Louisiana as we have the highest incarceration rate in the country. Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging than the drug itself. We need policies that move away from the current criminal justice system by attending to drug overdose and addiction, through harm reduction and health promotion," said Women With A Vision director Deon Haywood.

The New Orleans secondline, with the theme “No More War on Drugs," will begin this Friday, June 17, at 3pm at the Three-Star Barber Shop at the intersection of Felicity and Clara. The parade will end at Harmony Oaks Community Center where a “War on Drugs” forum will take place.

“Some anniversaries provide an occasion for celebration, others a time for reflection, still others a time for action, said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Forty years after President Nixon declared his war on drugs, we're seizing upon this anniversary to prompt both reflection and action. And we're asking everyone who harbors reservations about the war on drugs to join us in this enterprise."

Other Day of Action events around the US include:

• Chicago – Hundreds of Chicagoans will gather at the State of Illinois James R Thompson Center to rally against drug policies that have led to injustices such as extreme racial disparity in Illinois’s prisons and jails

• Los Angeles – Grass root organizations and students, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Pico Youth and Family Center, Mother United to End the War on Drugs, All of Us or None, Homies Unidos and other criminal justice organizations, will stage a Day of Action to call for Community Solutions to end the 40 year war on drugs and mass incarceration. Also, the William C. Velasquez Institute will host a forum in Los Angeles with top Latino leaders to discuss the impact of the drug war on Latino communities.

• New York - Advocates, community leaders and elected officials will attend a forum and silent vigil at the Harlem State Office Building to highlight the impacts of the drug war on NY communities. The event will be organized by Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH)

• Washington, DC- Law enforcement officials, leaders from the African American Community and religious leaders will hold a forum at the National Press Club to denounce current drug war policies. Leaders will call for a new direction and open conversation on the issue of drug prohibition.

Thursday Secondline to Save Charity Hospital

From our friends at SaveCharityHospital.com:

On Thursday, September 2, 2010, join SaveCharityHospital.com, the Treme Brass Band, The Hot 8 Brass Band, Free Agents Brass Band, Original Brass Band and Pinstripe Brass Band, on a secondline/march from Charity Hospital to City Hall to deliver thousands of your petitions to Mayor Landrieu.

The march begins at 4:45PM, at 1532 Tulane Ave.

Help us keep our word and make Mitch Landrieu keep his. We told him we would get 10 000 people to sign the petition cards to Reopen Charity Hospital as a hospital. He said he would listen and has an open mind.

We are more than halfway there! Help us reach our goal.

Reopening Charity Hospital is the fastest, most sensible and sustainable way to restore healthcare, jobs, a state-of-the-art teaching hospital, and economic development to New Orleans. We can build it without further borrowing – with money already in hand. Current plans lack funding and will cause unknown delays.

Reopening Charity Hospital also saves an historic neighborhood by providing an alternate, less destructive, opportunity for the VA Medical Center to build next to Claiborne Avenue – closer to the heart of the medical district.

Reopening Charity Hospital is the faster, less expensive, less destructive, and sustainable solution!

Tell Your Friends!

Photo above of 2009 Secondline to Save Charity by Abdul Aziz.

Hundreds Gather at Secondline to Protest Cuts to Education and Health Care

More than 300 New Orleanians took to the streets yesterday in a spirited secondline and protest against the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, as well as call for funding and political support for education and health care.

A large contingent of students from UNO came to support the demonstration, as well as activists from the campaign to save Charity Hospital. With a variety of homemade signs and banners with messages like "We Dat Fighting Cutbacks" and "Save UNO, Save SUNO, Save Delgado," many of the protesters brought a message that linked the various struggles to save New Orleans' public sector against the broader Republican agenda of profiteering and privatization.

The demonstration began at 6:00pm at Lafayette Square, with a secondline, led by the Stooges Brass Band, to the Hilton Riverside Hotel (main site of the Republican gathering). With chants of "The say cut backs, we say fight back," the group of several hundred protesters stayed outside the Hilton for about a half hour, then marched to the nearby Brennan's Restaurant, where Governor Jindall was reportedly hosting a $10,000/plate fundraiser. From Brennan's, a smaller group marched back to the Hilton then disbanded soon after.

Protests Planned to Greet Massive Gathering of Republicans

Several thousand Republicans; including Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Pence, Rick Santorum, and Michael Steele; are planning to descend on New Orleans this coming weekend for the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, billed as the largest GOP gathering until the next RNC convention.

This Friday, April 9, several brass bands, including the Stooges Brass Band, will be leading a secondline from Lafayette Square to the Riverside Hilton Hotel, site of the RNC convention. The secondline begins at 6:30PM sharp.

The protest is organized by a coalition of activists who list the following points of unity:

- The SRLC is not welcome in NOLA without a fuss.
- Healthcare is a basic human right.
- Oppose police oppression, the prison-industrial complex, and the dominant culture of militarism.
- Recognize the need for active resistance to confront all forms of oppression, respecting a diversity of tactics.
- A commitment to mutual-aid and voluntary association as organizing principles.
- Recognize the need to settle organizational differences internally.

We hope the people of New Orleans will show this hate-filled gathering that they are not welcome here.

More than a thousand people take to the streets to support Charity Hospital

The battle over the future of Charity Hospital has just taken an exciting new turn. On Monday, August 31, more than a thousand people marched through the streets of New Orleans, in one of the largest demonstrations the city has seen has seen in recent years. The massive crowd represented every neighborhood of the city, rich and poor, Black and white, small toddlers joining with elderly retirees. While coming from many different backgrounds and political perspectives, and wearing everything from shorts and t-shirts to brightly-colored suits and costumes, everyone spoke with one voice on this issue – Charity should be rebuilt within its former building.

Dancing through the streets with The Hot 8 and Rebirth Brass Bands, people from across the city held mass-printed signs saying Save Charity Hospital, as well as individually-written messages, like “I’m a Charity Hospital Baby” and “Save Lower Midcity.”

The giant secondline, which stretched several blocks, brought out many people who have never been to a protest, as well as membership from the more than 77 organizations that have endorsed the central demands of this movement: First, that an independent analysis of the two competing hospital plans be ordered by the governor. Second, that the City Planning Commission and City Council hold the legally required public hearings on the decision to cede Lower Mid-City for expropriation. Finally, the coalition wants the costs and benefits of each competing hospital proposal to be evaluated within the confines of the Goody Clancy Master Plan process.

This mass of people added to the evidence that public opinion is completely against LSU’s plan to relocate Charity Hospital to a new location, tearing down a large swath on Midcity in the process. A new opinion poll verifies what the demonstration implied. The survey, by pollster Ed Renwick, shows that, by a solid two-to-one ratio, New Orleans residents support rebuilding within the historic edifice. Like the march, the poll results crossed lines of race, gender, age and education.

Local politicians should take special note of the poll: more than 80% of respondents thought that public hearings held by city council would be a good idea, and - by a four-to-one margin - people said they would support Mayoral and City Council candidates who support rebuilding Charity in its original structure.

At the end of the march, people cheered as speakers promised further action. Among the many public figures present was Reverend Avery Alexander’s granddaughter and a doctor who’s father built the sculpture over Charity’s door. However, state and local politicians stayed away, further demonstrating official short-sightedness.

Musician Glen David Andrews, who spoke and performed at the end of the march, summed up many people’s thoughts when he said, “They want us to say goodbye to Charity Hospital. We ought to be saying goodbye to Bobby Jindal. We ought to be saying goodbye to Ray Nagin and the whole City Council.”