Martha Owens and Sandra Stokes are leaders in a growing movement to reopen Charity Hospital, an iconic concrete structure that has been around for decades. It has been closed since shortly after Katrina, severely hampering health care in a city with a high poverty rate.
After the protest had finished, I cornered the two leaders for a ten minute interview about the hospital and the efforts to reopen it. Mayor Mitch Landreau has said that he'll listen to them if the supporters of the hospital can come up with 10,000 petition signatures. At the time of the protest, they had around eight thousand signed petitions.
The interview was conducted on the steps of New Orleans City Hall at the end of the protest, which consisted of a "second line" with bands and a program with several speakers as the group arrived at City Hall.
The Second Line started at the site of the closed Charity Hospital.