Ruination and Recovery: Keeping the Longshoremen’s History in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Abstract

In 2005, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) ‘black’ union hall in New Orleans was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.¹ Elderly longshoremen wept as they dismantled the ruins of the build ing. Why was this demolished building so important to them? The black local union hall was built in 1959 during segregation (Figure 7.1). His torically, longshoremen in New Orleans were divided into two unions, one black and one white, from the late nineteenth century until 1980, when there was a court-ordered merger between the two formerly seg regated longshoremen’s locals. The merged union became ILA Local 3000² and remained in the 1959 hall, in practice carrying on the his tory and the core membership of the black union. According to the ILA 3000 longshoremen, who I interviewed in April and December 2013, the union hall was very significant within the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the hall shortly after its opening in 1959. The hall also hosted Reverend Joseph Lowery and other leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Associ ation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As one of the largest halls in the city, the ILA union hall was one of the only places for the black community and other marginalized social groups to gather, a place for gay balls, Mardi Gras Indian events, funerals, second lines (brass band parades), and jazz and blues concerts. The destruction of the former hall in 2005 severed long-standing links between the docks and the community.