Originally published 11.21.08
Written By Jesse Muhammad
After facing some hectic spurts of traffic and horrible construction on the I-10 freeway, my entourage finally arrived here in New Orleans Thursday night! I then check into my hotel, took a quick break and headed over to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to attend the International Town Hall Meeting with Final Call Assistant Editor Ashahed Muhammad.
The town hall meeting featured Black luminaries such as lead conference organizer Dr. Ron Daniels, former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Dr. Iva Carruthers, Dr. Ron Walters and many more. The discussion was mostly centered around how the Black community should respond in regards to certain issues under the soon to be Obama Administration such as reparations, unemployment, education, etc.
But overall the audience were engaged. In the audience listening closely was Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Chicago, who caught a lot of heat during the Obama run.
At the end of the event, two students representing Xavier and Dillard respectively, were given the opportunity to pose questions.
Mitchell Williams, a 19 year-old International Relations major at Xavier said to me, “I pose the question about the state of Africa and it’s resources because I am from West Africa and I wanted to know how they think Obama will handle our native land.”
The state of HBCUs was on the mind of Dillard Sociology major Anastacia Scott who said to me “HBCUs are a major concern to me because I think they are very valuable. It was a productive town hall meeting. I think tonight’s town hall meeting set the tone for what we will expect the rest of the conference.”
More to come from New Orleans.