Katrina Aftermath Raises Questions of Race

Sept. 2, 2005 -- -- The rap star Master P joined other New Orleans musicians today in setting plans for a fundraising concert for hurricane relief. Master P, whose given name is Percy Miller, comes from one of the now-devastated New Orleans neighborhoods where people had already been left behind long before Hurricane Katrina hit.

"Many of them were people without automobiles," explained Mark Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and now the president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. They were "people who couldn't afford a hotel room, who may have had no choice but to remain. And that means that the people who remain in New Orleans are disproportionately poor people, disproportionately African-American."

Damon Hewitt, a civil rights lawyer who works with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, agreed: "What was allowed to happen was that folks who we knew were not able to evacuate, who we knew were not evacuating, were not provided for. Folks were able to sit for three days without food, without water."

To Hewitt, this means the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has turned into a racial story. "It's very difficult to imagine this happening to folks who are not poor, to folks who are not African-American," he continued. "We knew this was going to happen. Yet, it was allowed to occur."

Today, some civil rights leaders joined in questioning whether race played a part in the emphasis being placed on targeting those who have been labeled as looters.

"I think for the most part people have just been trying to stay alive," said Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. "They've been waiting for rescuers. They've been on top of buildings, all the rest of it. They have not been there trying to figure out what to steal. They've been trying to stay alive."

In an exclusive interview with President Bush on Thursday, ABC News' Diane Sawyer also addressed the issue of the looters. "Many of them going in have said, 'We're only going in because we're desperate. We need shoes to walk around in because our feet are being cut. We need for our children.'"