In post-Katrina New Orleans, Black men lift each other up

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On a Tuesday morning inside a dank, carpeted room at the New Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, Patrick Carter is waiting patiently. At a quarter past 10 a.m., a handful of men and women trickle in, sliding back plastic chairs and taking seats at oblong tables that wouldn’t look out of place in a school cafeteria. These aren’t traditional students but, then again, this isn’t a traditional class. Carter, 35, is the group facilitator for NOLA Dads, a program offered by the Family Services of Greater New Orleans to reduce recidivism for ex-offenders on probation and parole. This is one of seven to eight classes Carter teaches weekly, each focused on topics like anger management, parenting, and education. For the lifelong New Orleanian, today’s topic hits especially close to home: finding a job.

For city leaders and community activists desperate to improve the livelihoods of African American households, men like Carter are in high demand. “I feel you. I’ve been there.” It’s a sentiment Carter will repeat, in some form, at least half a dozen more times throughout the class as group members swap stories about their struggles to find jobs. When it comes to encouraging black men in New Orleans who feel they have been unfairly treated by the system, the ability to empathize makes a big difference.

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Alridge started volunteering at YEP, but with three young children to care for at home, he couldn’t afford to be out of work for long. In the end, his mentors at YEP offered him an opportunity to join their staff full-time as a tutor and mentor. It was a role he was well suited for. “I fit in because some of these guys who feel the K-12 system failed them, I feel where they’re coming from,” Alridge says. “I’ve been through all that, but I overcame those obstacles.”

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Across the city, there’s a new push to make sure voices like Alridge's and Carter’s are heard, which has led to a string of new initiatives aimed at promoting the image of black men as fathers and household contributors. Carter leads those efforts at NOLA Dads. In 2013, Frederick “Hollywood” Delahoussaye, a local artist, created the Baby Daddy Collective, a weekly dinner group where black fathers and their children gather to talk and participate in group activities. The New Orleans Fatherhood Consortium, an offshoot of Loyola University’s literacy center, held its sixth annual “Favorite Fathers Celebration” in June. More than 40 black fathers, ranging in age from 19 to 87, were nominated by friends and family for the honor. “We have to show that, absolutely, black men can be very powerful contributors not only to their families and their households. but in [the overall economy],” McConduit-Diggs says.

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