On Monday, April 2nd we arrived at the St. Bernard Housing projects as the last two by fours and roofing panels of Resurrection City were being pushed into a dump truck.

The City of New Orleans, under the leadership of Mayor Ray Nagin and the authority of the Housing Authority of New Orleans, had dismantled Resurrection City.

Resurrection City, an encampment of small wooden huts perched against a chain link fence that surrounds St. Bernard, stood briefly as symbol of resistance and hope for the mainly Black and working class public housing residents who have been barred from returning to home since Katrina. The dismantling of ‘the city’ was one more step in the long battle between public housing residents and the city government -- a battle many of us have been watching closely.