Gayle Tart: "you wanna say no, I can't do it, I just can't, not anything else, not another problem, not another person."

by Ben Greenberg

DSCN1358.JPG, originally uploaded by BenTG.

Gulfport attorney Gayle Tart's brother, Sam Tart, and his two-year-old son John were drowned in their own home in Pass Christian, MS during Hurricane Katrina. On Monday, September 5, 2005, Gayle Tart had to go downtown to get her other brother out of jail.

My brother was in the downtown across the track. That track that runs east-west, but it separates north-south. He was on the wrong... well I won't say the wrong side of the track, but he was on the business side of the track, where all the hotels are and the banks, businesses. And he was with this cousin and they were picked up and just thrown in jail. They even maybe might have had a bottle of water or something. They had something that the police didn't think they should have, whatever...

I went to get my brother out and since they knew who I was and knew I was an attorney and knew I had suffered this terrible tragedy, loosing two people in my family, I was able to get my brother and my cousin out. Because I told them, I needed them to help me arrange the funerals of my loved ones. And they were nice enough for me to do that. But walking out the door, I turned to look around, people sayin', Miss Tart, what about me, can you help me?

And it was the wildest time in my whole life. It was 100 degrees. Here it is, the mosquitoes are terrible. It was like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. And I mean you wanna be selfish, and you wanna say no, I can't do it, I just can't, not anything else, not another problem, not another person. But in good conscience, I could not leave the people there that needed legal assistance. I couldn't do that. So that whole week. That was Monday. The whole week from Monday to Friday, I was representing people, trying to get them preliminary hearings. I had not yet buried my brother nor my nephew. I was representing people. Because they just got caught up in it. And I knew the people needed representation. I was sayin' to myself, where are the lawyers? Did everybody leave? And I was the only Black lawyer there. I had at least 100 people I helped.

Technorati Tags: activism, class, katrina, mississippi, gulfport, racism

 

Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!).
2/01/2006 02:54:00 AM