Editing Ray Nagin (section)

==="Chocolate City" speech===
Shortly after Katrina devastated New Orleans, there were calls for moratoriums on rebuilding certain neighborhoods.
Two weeks after Katrina struck, Nagin took a weekend trip to Dallas to reunite with his family. While there, he was asked to meet with leading New Orleans businessmen to discuss the city's future. Nagin says he made it clear at the meeting that everyone had a right to return home, a claim contradicted by some businessmen in attendance.
Many of the initial proposals to rebuild New Orleans focused on rebuilding areas with the highest likelihood of economic return. Many groups expressed concern that this might radically change the racial make-up of the city.

The land deemed most economically viable was mostly city land above sea-level, in which the most economically-advantaged and white citizens resided; the majority of New Orleanians, especially black residents, lived in the outer edges of the city, where land was mostly below sea-level and deemed less economically viable. Nagin disavowed such proposals, and in response to residents' concerns, he used the phrase "Chocolate City" to signal that New Orleans would remain a majority black city. He first used the phrase during a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration speech in New Orleans on January 16, 2006 and repeated the metaphor several times. This was seized upon and parodied by some 
commentators, cartoons, and merchandising. Various designs of T-shirts with satirical depictions of Nagin as Willy Wonka were sold in the city and on the Internet.

Nagin also said that New Orleans "will be a majority African-American city because this was what God wants it to be." Some people found the implication of Nagin claiming to know God's will to be as troubling as the racial aspects of his speech.He then condemned Washington D.C., by saying God "sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and 
it's destroyed and put stress on this country", suggesting God's disapproval of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In an interview with Tavis Smiley broadcast on Public Radio International on January 13<sup>th</sup>, 2006, Nagin said he used the phrase "chocolate city" in reference to a time in the 1970s when African Americans were just starting to exercise political power in places like Washington, D.C. The term had been used in many of Nagin's previous speeches and welcoming addresses to visitors of the city. The idea reportedly originated with the song "Chocolate City" by the popular 1970s funk group ''Parliament''.