Number of interviews: 7
Time period covered: 1950-present
Dates of interviews: 2003
Principal interviewers: Nilima Mwendo
Finding Aids: Inventory log; transcripts
Description: Nilima Mwendo conducted these interviews in 2003 with residents of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward who survived Hurricane Betsy when it made landfall in Louisiana on September 9th 1965.
Interviews focus on the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood from the 1930s and 40s, when the area was only partially developed and rural, to the early 2000s. Interviewees discuss their experiences during the hurricane, the evacuation of the neighborhood, disaster relief from the state and federal government and Red Cross, and the hardships they and other residents encountered in the months and years they spent rebuilding their homes and lives after they returned to the neighborhood. Interviewees describe the neighborhood before Betsy and discuss changes in the community after the storm. Several interviewees also discuss social activism and advocacy for the neighborhood in the 1960s and 70s.