Last Saturday in Lucedale, Mississippi, supporters and family of Billey Joe Johnson Jr. called for an end to the “Jim Crow ‘justice’” that left this young black man dead in the hands of the local police department.
By Matt Davis, crossposted from The Lens - The New Orleans City Council voted unanimously [yesterday] afternoon in support of an ordinance granting permission for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman to build a 1,438-bed jail.
Drive down this short stretch of St. Bernard Avenue, and you will see signs of a struggling neighborhood in despair. Bars, blighted homes, metal-grated storefronts, and the still-shuttered Circle Food Store tell the story of this strip. Here in New Orleans’ 7th ward, hope and sustenance have been drained by Katrina’s floodwaters, and by decades of racism’s insidious trend of sapping vital resources from a community.
Last Saturday in Lucedale, Mississippi, supporters and family of Billey Joe Johnson Jr. called for an end to the “Jim Crow ‘justice’” that left this young black man dead in the hands of the local police department.
By Matt Davis, crossposted from 
Drive down this short stretch of St. Bernard Avenue, and you will see signs of a struggling neighborhood in despair. Bars, blighted homes, metal-grated storefronts, and the still-shuttered Circle Food Store tell the story of this strip. Here in New Orleans’ 7th ward, hope and sustenance have been drained by Katrina’s floodwaters, and by decades of racism’s insidious trend of sapping vital resources from a community.
Crossposted from 
