Lauri Dorrance: The date is Janu home at 5100 Florence Blvd.

(Om here to talk about Hurricane Katrin with me today Mr. Leonard, I very

L uri A. Dorrance r to be assigned d part one of three

Collecti Bobby

o y eonard at his rleans and we're o for speaking

Dorrance: First I just want to go 0 r some lifestyle-type data, d ., How long

have you lived in the New Orleans a?

14 and I am here with Mr NE). Mr. Leonard is fro orm and the aftermath. T ch appreciate it.

Bobby Leonard: You are quite w 1

Leonard: On and off all my life.

Leonard: Yes.

Dorrance: Was your family gro Orleans?

d in ... were they from th 1 of swell, of New

Leonard: Yes.

Dorrance: How many generation ack does your family go?

Leonard: In the city?

Dorrance: In the city, yes.

Leonard: Four.

Dorrance: Wow, that's a lot off

Leonard: Yes. I'd guess about h ... just about all of my f have a sister that is in Houston pr s tly. She moved to Detro' of my family stayed in the area.

. New Orleans. I Huston. But most

Leonard: No. In fact, the majori across the river in Marerro, and th wiped out. Some lived in New 0 I

they returned to New Or

y family lived

o a pretty much V ed below the

Dorrance: Stayed in the area. H

of my family has not. Mo ection they lived in in M ns East-same situation.

I

Industrial Canal-same situation. I they working on her house now. A gone.

ve an aunt that has move uple of people in Marero

ac u town ... [1:35] t b th ofthem are still

Leonard: Well, I'm a salesman an that sales, I've traveled, d

or more in Atlanta, five years or m r in the Houston area, but Orleans all the time.

Leonard: Almost 20 years.

Dorrance: Oh really? In Omaha ...

Leonard: No, I owned my own bu

Dorrance: Oh, you owned your 0 that?

Leonard: Telemarketing sales. Te telemarketing. And it's a lucrative thing came through. That kind of h

Dorrance: So, when living in Ne your family kept down in New Orle

Leonard: Well, we were a very sp family are members of Zulu.

Dorrance: Yeah, that's neat. Leonard was wearing at the time of

Leonard: Zulu doubloon. But mo club and we do a lot of outreach thr and have been community oriented. that's, I don't know where you live, was right off of [?] [3!40] and Jack a number of years. So I mean you ingrained in us. I mean there are th

lived five years home in New

Oh, ok, I'm so

business was

arketing sales-I did a n iness, it was a lucrative b a lot of us.

o things in

til the No Call

rIeans, what were like so s?

f my family are members the organization. We'r had a youth program in th t Jackson Avenue near th _ We had a youth progra w New Orleans is, the tra s like now you know, we'

lu. It's a social

o ity oriented

t. h mas project area iv , t. Thomas area he c lIed Rebirth for io s New Orleans is n p rading this year.

2

Dorrance: Zulu is not?

Leonard: Zulu is not as far as we w. We're not parading a because we have so many members t at's not in the city anymon

that came out of the Calliope area, that whole area is just wi t 0 we don't

know. We're spread out pretty thin ou know all across the crl''',- a d so [?] [4:30] ..

. we're thinking about that, we're ing about what needs to assist people

where they are. And that's a lot of things I do out here is try ist people

where they are. Try to make a smo t transition for those of us e ound to be here

for a while. Try and make sure tha possible, that its constru so its a lot to

do, its a lot to do out here. We've ady been displaced for fo

months is not enough time for a lot people to make the adjus

the adjustments but I think to deal some of the, some of the

encounter. Its not been sufficient ti yet. ... [5:25] In terms

you know we are, New Orleans has i own flavor. It has its ow own culture and we are pretty muc oted in that culture, tradit

Dorrance: So does it surprise you organization to all of the sudden yo

fmd all of the sudden Zul e kind of going nation-wi

Dorrance: Really?

Leonard: Not under the circums

and tradition, a 0 life, it has its

g om a city-wide

s because we are a social ub A such, the well-

being of our members is important q s, and though we've not bl to locate a lot

of people, those that we have, those . embers of Zulu, we're in t ith and we try to

make sure that they're getting the I of assistance that's neces or hem to have in

order to make the transition. To fm ut what is necessary to g he ck to the city,

those that want to go back to the ci nd can't go back. There' 0 us that want to

go back but can't go back for vario easons, primarily becaus

longer in existence.

Dorrance: How are you keeping i ontact with the different

I ... dth

organization IS, an ey

bers, but that's not a ... t we already have. We ha case management that h le, this past Friday, yester a in fact. I think a coupl luffs (Iowa, just across th ut here-s-that's part of m things that are needed. F ogically from what we've ow the things that they're

Leonard: I personally am not, but I keep in contact with some of the dealing with the number of people t in this immediate area, and thus far has been educational. Like for exa meeting of just the evacuees in this interviewed ... [?] [7:20] in Counci Weare trying to organize our effort becoming clear now with the kinds many of us are going to suffer psyc to them individually and they tell m

newsletters and is full out here, ly 400 people ovided for us ad our fIrst

fp 0 e that you

f om Omaha, NE). s n ibility, and its

le, I know that

n tough. I talked ie cing as a result

3

of the storm. So individually we di J ss these things and we've collectively until yesterday to lay th I things out on the table a some type of plan to assist people i whatever problems they did the helicopter experience; I was s rprised at the number of p haunted by the sound of the helicop s, including myself.

ee an come together to 0 come up with h v· g. A lot of us pl w 0 were still

Leonard: No. I was not rescued b elicopter, but you have to in the city two weeks after the hurri e. We were there for tw

of us with expose to the Superdom the Civic Center, not the

Convention Center there. We were e posed to atrocities that to

example, like myself, I did not kno at my mother was in the

the hospital when the storm occurre d they moved them to th

not know that. We had no comm . tions to know that and so during the time, the week that they : people inside the Superd my mother was in there. None of ~ amily did. And, you kno situation and know that my mother erienced it first-hand, it's

and my mother is 76 years old. She djust had hip surgery rep wasn't good. She went through a 1 t: So to look back on that e that my mother went through even . rse than I went through, y

conflicting thing, you know, emoti lly. I traveled in and out

basis and I'll never forget, you kno the kinds ofthings that Is

to deal with the kinds of things that Ii een and I'm still not. But

ability to talk about, the more I talk a, out it, the more comforta comfortable, but able to deal with i : ithout a lot of emotional a

I

we first got here, the places that I called on to go speak, I c

becoming emotional and crying an J ,the more I do now, I'm ~tIlmlp: is for me to relate the experience, p s of the experience. I do familiar with Camp Street that reac Magazine Street, Camp town, it was the only dry section in I n, and so we had a treme

that area. And I lived right at the :D of the Superdome bridge.

right near Lee Circle on St. Charles ow on the uptown side 0

side of St. Charles, it was flooded. t the water didn't pass St.

uptown beyond that avenue, and I a a bicycle; that they stole but I could still get around on my b a cle, and we had several bi

available to us on a daily basis. An e went out and we saw a

happening in the area, and, you kn it still has an effect on us

we were crying and pleading for bu to move people out ofth

Superdome and I mean you know a I t of people didn't underst the city couldn't use buses that the d is because they were f1 of the barns where the buses were e t was flooded, flooded ba

buses in or out. So we were pleadi for people to send us bus people and during that time, and as aid, I was at the foot of th everyday we saw people walking a rss the bridge, trying to m until they stopped them. they grabb and stopped them coming

t until then. in

4

[12:18] the evening there was three I us who would walk the b the bridge and uh, take the bodies 0 he bridge, two or three bo

them down to Earhardt there at the t of the bridge so that the

pick up the bodies on a daily basis. d uh, you know, just goi

thing. We didn't want to see peopl st stay on the bridge. We

bodies just stay and people would I mean they would walk

You know, so I went through those ds of things and those ki

me. They haunt me. And at this p . I I mean, and I have a deg just imagine what it was doing to 0 ,r people, who was not pre with it the way I did and so that's i I do what I do to try and it, and helping others I help myself. 0 we had our first meetin quite productive. We're going to e t again Tuesday and once until, we don't know how long its g to last, but because the sufftcient mental help available for here. We had a psycholo

he's working now with the people went from Nebraska to

there: policemen, firemen, medical I ople that went, you know

they're having serious problems so time that's available for

more so by those people than by us. 0 all they do is evaluate u evaluation is made, they pass us on nothing, and so we came

concept ofhavirig a therapy group ions in order to help us.

doing with the evacuees is ... [14: -I ••• this right here went 0 should be mailed on Monday, but e ust put it together yesterd with Workforce in order to provide ining, job training, job sk the evacuees and what we're going i do is we're going to have

the evacuees and then we're going c to get as many people

possible, because that's one thing t ! 's lacking. Its difftcult fo get going on their own here. We d 't know whether we are, w we're going to be stuck here and w' kinda in limbo and we'r for FEMA (Federal Emergency Ma ement Agency) assistanc gotten any FEMA assistance, inc1u . g myse ... well, I've gotte and I got $360 from the Red Cross he last four months. Tha had, so I'm trying to, I'm in fluxju t ike everybody else waitin still waiting, and because we're in t kinda like that no man's which way to turn, but I know that t, time for us to begin to do with our lives and to begin to feel b er about ourselves as peo being productive is one of the thing at I feel that is important, going to do. We have 27, the 27th i e deadline for people wh

go to work, and we're looking to h one or two training sessi

and they've been real helpful in te of being able to work wit

understanding what our problems a nd trying to get people to

have a lot of people here who are I tioning illiterates, who ne

filling out job applications, who ne assistance in getting aro paycheck or two under their belt. th need to get back and fort its cold out here when it does get c I . Its very difficult for peo waiting on the bus and what have y to try to get around, espe how to read alright to get around. e're trying to pull those

p to the height of d y. Just to bring c uld come by and that kind of

oming back and been taken up once the

e up with the thing that I'm the evacuees; it e een negotiating p ople here, for

1 aining for just

5

[17:00] by hooking people up with ntors that need it, who wi necessities of getting back and fort tl work, getting to a doctor' to various places like that, so we're ing to put that type of a th through the churches and civic org ations, social organizatio time, on a day-to-day basis, I'm inv i ed in trying to do for the that requires me doing a different n ber of things, intermediati

disputes, dealing with people who e drug problems or alcoho

problems, you know, and whatever ir problems are on a day-t

have case management here to wor ith them. And the case m

work with us is not doing his job. a omebody has to do it, an do it. I've taken on the responsibili 0 do it. And so now I'm

recognized as the person to contact the evacuees, for whatev

having. I've even had the police kn on my door (laughter), b

problem with the evacuees that was I even in this house, but th because somebody has to do it. An s I said, we have a case m us who is also heavily involved in 0 r things that he was invol heavily involved in those things an i not want to deal with 0

issues.

(Workforce Developmen trina evacuees)

Dorrance: [18:43] May I keep thi skill workshop dated 1/27/2006 for

Leonard: Yeah, you can keep that

Dorrance: Thank you.

Leonard: I can get another one.

Dorrance: Thank you, I appreciat

. So you went to school .

I

Dorrance: Really?

Leonard: Uh huh. (silence as Mr. onard retrieves a short bi sentenced to 104 years in federal pr n, and it wasn't until I go learn that I could learn how to read used to use this as an intr Leonard: Then and Now. A Biogr Y of a Life Changed by th places that I went to speak in the ci And that just gives some on myself and the kinds of things a I did. But I served12 yea in federal prison and I came out wi I degree in psychology.

Dorrance: Wow, that's amazing.

at were you, how did yo

prison?

6

Dorrance: [20:10J Bank burglary.

Leonard: Yes, I was sentenced to years in prison.

Leonard: No.

Leonard: No, it wasn't parole--it of Hodgkin's disease.

a medical release. I was pe' te to die in 1979

Dorrance: Oh, ok.

Leonard: And so they released me medical science to deal with Hodgki guess they just didn't want to spend had less than six months to live so t released. Thank God I'm still here.

m prison because in 1979 disease. It was a very ex money on me. And acco released me. October th

Dorrance: Yeah. (Leonard laughs

Leonard: So you can also have a c

of that if you like.

Dorrance: Yes, I would, oh this is I ulous. Thank you so muc

Leonard: So when I said I had a yo program in New Orleans

was designed to try and help kids to id some of the pitfalls th

life.

Dorrance: Right, right.

Leonard: And its total volunteer. had school and in the St. Thomas ar auditorium, and a gym that the Chur lost the school in 1984. The overhe it gutted the school and we became

had over 500 kids involv ight adjacent to the proje the Catholic Church allo prinkler systems, the pipe

functional.

I

Dorrance: Yeah.

Dorrance: That sounds fascinating. 0 you have been very hea communities that you find yourself' .

7

w snotthe

d basically it perienced in

i vo ved with the

[21:10] Leonard: Yes.

tradition for you then.

Dorrance: So this is just continui

Leonard: Yes.

owing up in New Orlea

Dorrance: Ok, ok. What was it li

Leonard: Well, it was uh, ok now, rew up in Rosen (7), LA I was 13. And I got that ... [22:33 f education being in the edt __ ,fMI

Growing up in the city, once I got t e city at 13, was uh, it w

fun, because in the country you di 'have fun. I mean, you kn

to have fun like you did in the city. II wasn't until I learned my able to read handicap, it wasn't unti ! that and the humiliation t and I didn't go to school in the city cause I thought that every

read, and I knew that I would stand t not being able to read

ridiculed and I didn't want to take . So rather than going to

education. I learned how to steal. I 11 arned how to do the thing

did that hung in the street, and so th was my second education.

farming; my second education was I e. My third education 'Cause that's the way I see it.

Dorrance: There you go. Yeah. thoughts when you came into city?

Leonard: At the time?

Dorrance: hmmm mmm.

Leonard: Oh I was fascinated wit e city. I had been to the

my family. My mother had five oth children beside myself. T three sisters and two brothers, and I I uld spend time with the And going to the beach and just be' able to do, you know, the

Where in the country, the little tow at I was reared in that wa

population. Its very small, its very al ... [24:32] type of enviHll ..........

of hard work. In the city, it was a I t ftime to have fun. So go filled, at least I thought it would be, t at's what I wanted it to be different than my life in the country wanted to be city, I didn' looked forward to being able to hav 'I lot of fun and just do wh in the country I couldn't. I mean I a opportunities to play bas you know with the kids I grew up i ,but primarily in the cou living on a farm with, you know, wi the responsibilities that m reared me, my grandmother and my andfather, my grandfather nine, and it paralyzed his left side. I a lot of the responsibility

you know, in terms of! had to do a more then than I did whe

couldn't get around to feed the chic s and slop the hogs and p

8

a six of us. I had c ty occasionally. li ts of the city. 1,500

and it was a lot city was funnt d it to be

s oke when I was fa fell on me,

e as mobile. He

e ields and, you

Dorrance: Right.

, I mean was it largely j

[25:48] know, do that kind of stuff ~ t I had to do growing up. to getting away from that. You kno when I went to the city, I those kinds of things.

Leonard: Yeah.

Dorrance: Right. So what kind of farm or a live stock farm ...

Leonard: Yeah, livestock. It was icultural and livestock.

a small farm and that we garden mo t f what we ate, we grew.

we had cattle, you know a few cows e had chickens and hogs

year, chickens for eggs and food, I n, you know, ... [26: 30]

Dorrance: Yeah. (laughter)

Leonard: It was my norm you kno it was my norm. So uh,

animals in the winter to survive on. e did the normal things th

coming up in the country in the 50s I 60s you know.

Dorrance: So when you moved to did you find yourself in?

Leonard: First on Dryads Street be

w Orleans when you were

I

I een Second and Third.

Dorrance: Dryads?

Leonard: Uh huh. Ok, lets see, yo

iliar with Washington en e?

Dorrance: Yeah.

Dorrance: Hmmm-mmm.

Leonard: Ok, on the downtown sid You know where St. Charles A venu

fWashington Avenue, ?

Leonard: Ok, from Washington to Charles I lived maybe a e.

Dorrance: Ok.

Leonard: On the uptown, the north rth of St. Charles.

Dorrance: Ok.

9

looked forward get away from

agricultural

bl k is Third Street.

[27:33] Leonard: It was, my mo I lived in that area. A big in. And I'll tell you that was a part my experience of, that on was a sweet shop and in the sweet s p was a juke box and a po

kids hung out there in the evenings at that time, on the juke

records for a quarter ok? And there I as six of us. And so my quarters and we would each pick a e ord. And the first time th able to read had a detrimental effec as in that sweet shop, and

my records. That was the first thin at I remember you know,

my own records because I couldn't d. I couldn't read the lab

significant then because a lot of tim I was faking, a lot of time

(laughter) [28:30] and so that made aware, that drew the con

everybody in the city because you w my sisters and brothers

own records. The other kids that h out in the sweet shop co

records, and to me that meant they ld read, you see, and I wa

couldn't pick my own record, and t 's when I decided not to g

Because I felt that everybody woul ake fun of me as they did

Eventually, you know, people got t cognize that I chose that

(laughter) you know?

Leonard: Yeah.

Dorrance: So you were how old

n you got out of prison?

Leonard: I was 32.

Dorrance: 32.

Leonard: I was 19 when I went in d 32 when I got out.

Dorrance: When you got out, wha id you start to do? What up getting into?

Leonard: The first job I got when ot out was a machine ope Mississippi River; a place called T . e Products. I worked ther enough money there to go to the au t ns and I purchased two converted those to ice cream trucks d that was my first busine cream truck thing in the community . sold ice cream from my that was my first business in 1980. I d it was a very prosperou I put a lot of time and energy into it mean I did not, the perso mpnson.

Dorrance: Right.

10

Leonard: But particularly when yo ok at the amount of time

personally sentenced to 104 years in I ederal prison is a long ti say that twelve years is a long time t 0 its not long in comparis done. So to me, it was just God's w of releasing me at the tim released. At the time I was ready to I released, he did so and h vehicle to get me out of there becaus ! didn't have any, any ave court or getting a reduction of sente d or anything like that-th

got out. And that's how I got out. I I stayed here 26 years lat

I

Leonard: [30:25] I was not the s f person that came out of

out of prison with the ability to mak ecisions, sound, rational came out of prison with the ability t ccept responsibility for m

out of prison with imagination, wit ive, with a real thirst for s

be independent. I wanted to be on own, and when I got out

think about dying, because I mean, j st didn't. I didn't come 0 "Well I got six months to ... ", well a tually the thing that happe aunt took me to Charity Hospital weI got out, and at Charity x-ray, my thing started in prison wh they did chest x-rays and on each side of my lung 'bout the si of a half a dollar and they under my arm and they discovered I gkin's disease and they so they sent me from the Atlanta Fe ·al Penitentiary to Springfi the federal prison hospital. And at t I hospital they decided that advanced to do surgery. That if the I ened me up they would table because the air would circulat ~ e disease-it would just s they didn't want to kill me. So they s t me back to Atlanta and Atlanta, they decided to release me ~ a medical parole release. my mother and my aunt took me to t ; I hospital at Charity and th over again and they did chest x-rays . d they discovered that my biopsied the lymph node under the . ik here and they couldn't fi

me. And so I just proceeded with Ii el I

mean I came for myself. I ions. I came dI wanted to

a mistake?

i

Leonard: Well, I don't know, I me ; it would be extremely rar

I

Dorrance: Yeah. I

Leonard: Yes.

t ha. I mean

d lthough people

to t I could have

a In ededtobe body as the ing back in the only I coulda er)

Dorrance: There ya go. There ya g the ice cream trucks and working in telemarketing and urn ... So when K you residing in New Orleans at that

that's rockin'. So you got achine shop, had your 0 ina or during the month 0 t?

Dorrance: Ok. And what was, wh rea did you live in again?

11

Leonard: [33:52] Camp Street. e r Lee Circle ..

Leonard: Right off of St. Charles. block, a block and a half

Leonard: In Calliope near Lee Cir I . Lee Circle is right there block from Earhardt.

Dorrance: Ok. So, urn, at that tim, hat were you doing at th

Dorrance: Near Lee Circle?

Leonard: Ummm hmmm.

Dorrance: Ok.

Dorrance: Ok.

Leonard: At that time I was a drug did counseling with drug abuse and

Dorrance: Right. Ok.

Leonard: Again, my degree in psy .. well, Goodwill rehab. I work with e So when they had special cases that placement counseling then. People employment, that had to go into the through them as a consultant and m

Dorrance: Mmmm-hmmm. Huh.

Leonard: Mmm-hmmm.

use counselor at a progra oholics.

and also, well, I was a co handicap except the tot . [? 34:41] ... I wasn'tju o were being phased out instream of society, I wo ll-time job was as a drug

. And so, uh, and you are

Dorrance: I know that it's a very schy thing to ask and ifI' improper, let me know. Can you re e 1 the position that you hel

Leonard: I'm a member.

Dorrance: Just a member?

Leonard: Yeah. Just a member. an, I uh ... my father was and my family has always been heav I involved, but I did not w things that I was doing, to hold an 0 1 ial position in Zulu. It is consuming, because of the numbers we deal with. Zulu has that's full-time members, and we ha e auxiliary members, proba

16,000, but active membership gro that is people who are t

ridge House. 1

omething

hold in Zulu?

12

twice of Zulu

sections and participating and eve g during the course of th ea - ot just at Mardi

Gras time, but all year long. Its pro ly around 3,000 consiste so it requires

the participating executive [sp 36:1 ] you have to have time to a t the

organization because we don't pay n body. You have to have t e organization, and I was not at that. .. look to be sixty and retire 58), so before you take on an execu position with the organiz mobility, the freedom, the time to d hat's necessary on a dayclub. And I wasn't there yet. I was se, I was looking forwar was close. But out here, a lot of the r sources that I had, still bei

basis is try to assist people, to just g t by. You know? We've p we purchase medicine for people be se they did not, for some not cover various treatments for peo , I mean, you know, it wa Katrina-related and you could prove t at it was related, a preexis you came here, it was difficult to ge EMA to purchase medicin real hard on a lot of people, and we' done everything that we c them to the point where they can ge d. We're kind of like in a resident of Omaha for six months b re the government can do because we've only been here four nths, we cannot, now we like food stamps, that's the only exc ion that we get.

Leonard: Well, here's what they to us. When we came out h would get three months free. What y did was, beginning this LAD), is they say that they did not n that we would get three meant was that we could go three m hs, they would delay pay but each month the bills stacked up, d so rather than every mo backlogged with payments because ..

Dorrance: Now you got big debt.

Leonard: Now we got a big debt.

s, now we got a big debt.

Dorrance: Ok.

Leonard: And that is true with just out across the board, whe housing for periods of time. It was j delay in payment-it wa than having a month-to-month bill, 0 we are three months beh

we're having to catch up that in this er here and then all the t

spread out, but when we came here, Omaha Housing Authori

be eligible for three months free. 0 . Now they're saying that's meant.

e promised free e t all. So rather ents and

Dorrance: Ok, I understand.

13

Leonard: That's what we're dear g ~ith. And I'm dealing wi th e ery day, with a whole lot of people. Most of us tha ave section 8 ...

Phone rings. (39:40]

Dorrance: Did you want to take a rt break for a moment? I smoker ...

Leonard: No, go ahead.

Tape ends (40:08]

14