ABC News: Katrina Aftermath Raises Questions of Race: "By BRIAN ROSS | Sept. 2, 2005
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"Many of them were people without automobiles," explained Mark Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and now the president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. They were "people who couldn't afford a hotel room, who may have had no choice but to remain. And that means that the people who remain in New Orleans are disproportionately poor people, disproportionately African-American."
Damon Hewitt, a civil rights lawyer who works with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, agreed: "What was allowed to happen was that folks who we knew were not able to evacuate, who we knew were not evacuating, were not provided for. Folks were able to sit for three days without food, without water."
To Hewitt, this means the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has turned into a racial story. "It's very difficult to imagine this happening to folks who are not poor, to folks who are not African-American," he continued. "We knew this was going to happen. Yet, it was allowed to occur."
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In an exclusive interview with President Bush on Thursday, ABC News' Diane Sawyer also addressed the issue of the looters. "Many of them going in have said, 'We're only going in because we're desperate. We need shoes to walk around in because our feet are being cut. We need for our children.'"
"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this," answered the president.
Two photographs, which were distributed this week, also added to the tension surrounding the looters. One, which was distributed by The Associated Press, showed a black man in chest high water and included the phrase, "after looting a grocery store," in its caption.
A second photograph, which was distributed by another agency, showed a white man and woman. Its caption included the words, "after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store." That description has since been changed.
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