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Excerpt from The Combination by Ashley Nelson In most housing projects and other neighborhoods around the city, churches or community centers supply poor or low-income families with food, clothing, and other resources they can't afford. In the Lafitte, we also have another source: Southern Scrap. You would never in a million years think that this place helps homeless people, but it does. See, Southern Scrap is a recycling company. They buy cans, copper, and other material you can find on the streets. Many homeless people as well as some residents of Lafitte look for cans, old parts, or anything else they can sell to Southern Scrap for some money to make it through the night. And the next day they're back at it again. It's sad to witness. People dig in dumpsters to get a few cans or scraps of metal, but like this homeless woman Teedy used to say, "Y'all don't understand, I gotta eat, too." But you know what? I do understand. These people depend on Southern Scrap to live and survive. Other people in my neighborhood understand as well because they leave cans and other things that they're eventually going to throw away on the ground so that can collectors can pick them up. Grandma Pearl was a very big help to a bunch of the can collectors. I remember many a night having to go drop cans on the side of the porch for a woman she knew. Every night she would stop by to get her cans, say thanks, and then keep moving. She used to tell us kids, "You can't make money in one spot, baby. You gotta keep pushing. You gotta keep moving." HANO (Housing Authority of New Orleans) started a policy, which stated that no trash can be left outside or you will be evicted. My grandmother and other residents of Lafitte stopped leaving cans outside. My grandmother wanted to help, but she didn't want to lose her house either. Some people still leave cans in their house and when they see their "regulars," they'll give them a bag they've saved.
I live in the biggest neighborhood in New Orleans, the Ninth Ward, which is way down from the city, like at the bottom. It used to be a cypress swamp until the early part of the 1900's when the railroad tracks started to cut through the area. In the 1920's, the Industrial Canal was built through the neighborhood and the lower part is now called the Lower Ninth, or the CTC, which can stand for Cross the Canal or Cut Throat City. Driving around, you can see a lot of development and businesses related to that Canal. In the 1940's, streets were created and public utilities expanded. The area was home to both white and black families. It was one part of the city where black people could buy houses. They felt safer from the world because most of the people were similar to them and living the same kind of lifestyle. For many years the Ninth Ward was a picture of stability, with strong black families in homes that many of them owned. In the 1950's, the Desire and Florida Public Housing Projects opened too, which provided low-income housing. People from all over the city started moving down to the Ninth Ward to live in the complexes. In the 1960's, New Orleans chose to begin public school desegregation in my part of the Ninth Ward at William Frantz Elementary. Many people have probably heard of the story of Ruby Bridges. She was the first black girl to attend that school. The white parents started taking their children out of school because they didn't want them around her. They said that if the black girl had to stay, then they wouldn't anymore. They spit on Ruby, threw stuff at her, and she had to go to school with bodyguards. After a while, some of the white parents started sending their children back to the school. But it didn't last long because they started moving away. When I went to Frantz Elementary I was in the second grade. Ruby Bridges came back to pay a visit to the school. We all thanked her and said, "2, 4, 6, 8. Who do we appreciate? Ruby! Ruby! We love you!" All of the children were saying that, but I don't think there were any white kids. Today, the Ninth Ward is predominantly black. Families grow and learn about each other. The men join the military or do carpentry work. They work offshore and some of them are foremen on the riverfront. The women may sit with the elderly, do house cleaning and work at hotels. A lot of children try to move away from the Ninth Ward if they can, so there are a lot of older people here. Women play a big part in the neighborhood. They communicate with each other by watching over everyone. They run barrooms that act as home bases, and go to church together, worshipping the same God. They organize Nights Out Against Crime, have participated in political organizations like the Black Panthers, and joined social clubs like the Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club. They take care of the community and each other while juggling their losses and responsibilities. These are some of their stories. |