If anything, a mandatory evacuation order from Nagin was a reason to stay in New Orleans through Katrina. “A black man playing front man for the white establishment,” Hill said of Nagin, and one who hadn’t bothered helping those without means remove themselves from harm’s way. That July, city officials had distributed a DVD in low-income communities around the city. Its purpose was to let people know New Orleans was too broke to help even the infirm or the disabled in the event of a major hurricane. Our main message, the DVD’s producer told the Times-Picayune, “is that each person is primarily responsible for themselves.”Hill, who is white, worked for Tulane University as an adjunct history professor and executive director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research, a center devoted to better race relations in the South. His wife, Eileen, was a public school teacher. They were graying empty nesters with enough spare cash to get themselves out of town and seemingly the good sense to make it happen.
