NEW ORLEANS — In the special report WGNO Forward: Race in Our City, WGNO’s Tamica Lee and LBJ explore race and racism in our city, asking the experts where we are, how we got here, and what we can realistically do to make it better.
In Part 1 of episode 108, LBJ interviews Judy Reese Morse, President and CEO of the Urban League of Louisiana, about the “achievement gap” among students of different races in New Orleans. The Urban League released a report in 2017 that showed a disparity in educational outcomes between Black and white students. They revisited this topic in 2020 and found the disparity still exists.
“The goal of this report is to focus people in on one simple premise, which is that every single child deserves a high-quality education,” says Morse.
In Part 2, Tamica Lee speaks with New Orleans City Councilman Jason Williams about ways the city is reassessing policies to reduce systemic racism.
“We are a city that is 300 years old, which is pretty young when you look at other cities in the world. So, it is about time that we start reassessing what has worked in the first 300 and what we want the next 300 to look like,” says Williams.
In Part 3, LBJ talks to artist and writer Kalamu ya Salaam about his influences, about how art can foster understanding, and about the part he played in the civil rights movement.
And, in Part 4, Tamica Lee hears from Tamme Mackie, the communications manager for the Southern Region Minority Supplier Development Council, about how partnerships with corporations can help small businesses.
You can watch this full episode and all espisodes of WGNO Forward: Race in Our City on WGNO.com.