page_title: Malik Rahim
section_title: Green Party, Hurricane Katrina, and Common Ground (2002-Present )
hierarchical_section_title: Malik Rahim / Green Party, Hurricane Katrina, and Common Ground (2002-Present )
caption_attribution_description: English: A community mural project was commenced to honor Malik Rahim and the Hurricane Relief efforts. With Desert Storm Veteran Dennis Kyne on Algiers Point.
context_page_description: Malik Rahim is an American housing and prison activist based since the late 1990s in the New Orleans area of Louisiana, where he grew up. In 2005 Rahim gained national publicity as a community organizer in New Orleans in 2005 to combat the widespread destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; there he co-founded the Common Ground Collective.
  A veteran and former Black Panther in New Orleans, in 1970 Rahim moved out to California, working on issues of affordable housing in San Francisco. After returning to New Orleans, Rahim founded the Algiers Development Center and Invest Transitional Housing, which helped house more than 1,000 ex-offenders after prison. He also was a founding member of Pilgrimage for Life, advocating an end to the death penalty in the state.
  Rahim ran for New Orleans City Council in 2002, representing the Green Party, but was unsuccessful. In 2008, he was one of four candidates to run for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district seat of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was a Green Party candidate; Republican candidate Joseph Cao won the election.
context_section_description: In 2002, Rahim became involved in electoral politics for the first time, running for the New Orleans City Council on the Green Party of Louisiana ticket; he received 3,654 votes (2%). Rahim ran on a platform of a "living wage," improved conditions at public housing, and reform of youth programs and the juvenile justice system.
  Ignoring evacuation orders, Rahim remained in the city of New Orleans through Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In the chaotic days after the hurricane, he wrote an article about conditions in the city, entitled "This Is Criminal". He set up an ad hoc relief distribution center at his late mother's house in the aftermath.
  Later he co-founded the Common Ground Collective with two organizers from Austin, Texas, Brandon Darby and scott crow. They distributed aid locally and ran a community health clinic, with the help of volunteers from across the United States. In the next few months, Rahim traveled across the country to report on efforts in New Orleans and encourage volunteers to travel to the city to work with his group for the community.
  In 2006, Rahim announced plans to run for mayor of New Orleans, but did not complete the process to appear on the ballot. In July 2008, Rahim decided to run again for national office. He filed to run for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district seat of the U.S. House of Representatives as a Green Party candidate. He ran against Democratic incumbent William J. Jefferson, Republican candidate Joseph Cao, and Libertarian Party candidate Gregory Kahn. Cao won; Rahim finished third in the four candidate field, receiving 2.8% of the vote.
  In 2009, Rahim's former associate, Brandon Darby, was revealed to have been an FBI informant when he worked with the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans.
   In 2016, muralist Brandan "BMike" Odums helped create a community Mural of Malik Rahim and neighborhood resident Enid Songy
caption: Malik Rahim Mural. Algiers Point, New Orleans
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