New Orleans looks good from the bus, and better on the streets in the French Quarter. You can say a prayer at the Cathedral or have your palm read, tarot cards cast, caricature sketched right outside in the plaza. Promises of beignets, po boy sandwiches, gumbo, jambalaya and chicory coffee come from cafés lining the narrow streets, overhung by balconies adorned by lacy ironwork.

A shadow lies behind it all--a consciousness that Katrina destroyed lives and homes and neighborhoods invisible from this pretty tourist part of town. The French Quarter and the business district and the more prosperous parts of the city have been/are being rebuilt, but the Black and poor sections of the Ninth Ward still suffer and struggle. Driving through Mississippi, I sensed the same shadow lurking just beyond the trees. Ther has been great progress, but segregation persists, as it does in Chicago, as it does in the Twin Cities. Schools are integrated in name, but segregated in fact because whites attend private schools or move out of the cities.

There's still work to be done, all over this land. On Saturday, the CCC members move from the cultural work of song to the carpentry work of Habitat for Humanity. They are a beacon of hope for the future.