Oral history interview with Jacquelyn Clarkson, June 9, 2006
Subtitle: interview U-0228, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Hamilton, Pamela, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Chapel Hill, N.C
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; City council members; Hurricane Katrina, 2005; Disaster relief; First responders; City planning; Politics and government
Other titles: Interview U-0228, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Jacquelyn Clarkson, June 9, 2006; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson, a former real estate agent, councilwoman of New Orleans and Louisiana legislator, opens the interview by explaining why she ran for city council. After her time in the legislature, she returned to the council. Her father had been on the council in the 1940s and started the recreation department. She remained in the city during Katrina, working with the mayor from his headquarters in the Hyatt Hotel. Though the city had many rescue workers, they did not have the other help they needed. She praises the work done by the National Guard, police, firefighters and other first responders who had remained within the city. She kept an eye on her district, contacting constituents she knew and then relaying information from them back to the first responders though the rescuers would not allow her to go out in the helicopters. Her family went to Baton Rouge to wait out the storm. In the recent election, she had decided to relinquish her seat and run at large, but lost the race. She has returned to her volunteer work. She is concerned by issues of development and historic preservation post-Katrina.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 23, 2009).

Interview participants: Jacquelyn Clarkson, interviewee; Pamela Hamilton, interviewer.

Duration: 00:48:19.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: MP3 file, 88.5 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series U, The long civil rights movement: the South since the 1960s, interview U-0228, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Emily Baran. Original transcript: 22 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.