2006

A 2006 Army Corps internal report confirmed levees at the 17th Street and London Avenue canals breached due to design failures, not overtopping. This meant flooding of Black neighborhoods was government engineering negligence, supporting billions in legal claims filed by residents.

A 2006 Army Corps of Engineers internal report — followed by an independent Team Louisiana study — confirmed that the levees breached not primarily from being overtopped but due to design and construction failures, particularly in the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. This meant the flooding of Black neighborhoods in the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly was a result of government engineering negligence. The finding supported billions in legal claims filed by residents.

NYPD detectives fired 50 shots at Sean Bell, 23, and two friends outside a Queens strip club the night before Bell's wedding, killing him. No gun was found. Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper were charged with manslaughter. In April 2008, Judge Arthur Cooperman acquitted all three in a bench trial, ruling the officers' actions were not criminally reckless. The acquittal provoked widespread protests.

Sean Bell, 23, was shot 50 times by five NYPD detectives outside a Queens strip club on the night before his wedding. Bell and two friends were unarmed. Detectives fired 50 shots total. Three officers were tried and acquitted of all charges on April 25, 2008. The case became a rallying point for police accountability activists in New York.

Post-Katrina, Louisiana converted New Orleans' public school system almost entirely to charters, firing all 7,500 public school teachers, predominantly Black women with union protections and pension benefits. Critics called it disaster capitalism dismantling a Black institution. A 2012 civil rights complaint alleged the mass firings were racially discriminatory.

In the aftermath of Katrina, Louisiana used the disaster to convert New Orleans' public school system almost entirely into charter schools, firing all 7,500 public school teachers — predominantly Black women with union protections and pension benefits. Critics called it disaster capitalism that dismantled a Black institution. A 2012 civil rights complaint alleged the mass firings were racially discriminatory.

Martin Lee Anderson, 14, died at the Bay County Boot Camp after guards and a nurse subjected him to sustained physical abuse — recorded on video — when he collapsed during exercise. Seven guards and a nurse were acquitted by an all-white jury. Florida Governor Bush had ordered the camp closed.

Martin Lee Anderson, 14, a Black teenager, died at the Bay County Boot Camp in Florida after guards and a nurse subjected him to sustained physical abuse — recorded on video — when he collapsed during exercise. Seven guards and a nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter. All were acquitted by an all-white jury in 2006. Florida Governor Jeb Bush had ordered the boot camp closed before the trial. The acquittals renewed calls for abolishing juvenile boot camps.

Independent investigations, including a congressionally mandated study by the American Society of Civil Engineers, concluded that the levee failures that flooded New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina resulted from engineering and design failures by the Army Corps of Engineers — not the storm surge alone. The Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly Black neighborhood, suffered the worst flooding. The federal government was found liable in 2009.

Louisiana's $10 billion Road Home program, designed to help homeowners rebuild after Katrina, calculated grants based on pre-storm property value rather than rebuilding cost. Because systemic discrimination had suppressed property values in Black neighborhoods, Black homeowners received on average $20,000 less than white homeowners with comparable storm damage. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center sued; a 2011 HUD agreement secured $62 million in additional payments.

Louisiana's Road Home rebuilding program, funded by $10.4 billion in federal aid, calculated grants based on pre-storm property values rather than rebuilding costs. Since property values in Black neighborhoods were systematically lower due to decades of segregation, Black homeowners received significantly smaller grants. The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center filed a federal discrimination complaint in 2008.

President Bush signed the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006, extending Section 5 preclearance requirements for 25 years. Civil rights organizations documented continued voter suppression in covered jurisdictions. The reauthorization passed 390–33 in the House and 98–0 in the Senate, though Justice Department enforcement remained inconsistent in practice.

Six Black students in Jena, Louisiana — Mychal Bell, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, Theo Shaw, and Jesse Ray Beard — were charged with attempted second-degree murder after a schoolyard fight following months of racial provocation, including white students hanging nooses from a tree. Charges were widely condemned as racially disproportionate, triggering a major civil rights march in September 2007.

HSBC's Household Finance subsidiary — acquired 2003 after a $484 million predatory lending settlement — continued targeting elderly Black homeowners in Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit. Black prime-credit borrowers were placed in subprime mortgages at 2-3 times the rate of equivalent white borrowers.

HSBC's Household Finance subsidiary — acquired in 2003 — had already paid $484 million in 2002 to settle predatory lending claims. Internal documents showed systematic targeting of elderly Black homeowners in Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit with high-fee refinance products. Subsequent analysis found Black borrowers with prime credit scores were placed into subprime mortgages at two to three times the rate of white borrowers with equivalent credit profiles.

Post-Katrina insurance claim data revealed systematic denial patterns in predominantly Black New Orleans neighborhoods. Insurers frequently attributed flood damage to wind — or vice versa — to avoid paying under either policy. Investigations found Black policyholders faced higher denial rates and lower settlements than white policyholders with comparable damage.

At Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, three white students hung nooses from a tree in the school courtyard — referred to by students as the 'white tree' because Black students rarely sat beneath it — after Black students asked the principal for permission to sit there. The students received three-day in-school suspensions. The principal recommended expulsion; the school board overruled him.

Deval Patrick was elected Governor of Massachusetts, becoming only the second Black governor elected in U.S. history (after Douglas Wilder in Virginia in 1989). Patrick's campaign, run by David Axelrod and featuring the phrase 'Together we can,' became a template for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential run. His election was seen as a breakthrough in a state with a complex history on race and busing.

Deval Patrick was elected Governor of Massachusetts, only the second Black person elected governor in U.S. history after Douglas Wilder (Virginia, 1989). His campaign became a template for Obama's 2008 run.