SCLC threatens tourism boycott of New Orleans over student's death

The president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference says the group will organize a boycott by black tourists if authorities don't take seriously the idea that racism was part of the reason a black student died in a fight with three white bouncers. The bouncers have been booked with negligent homicide. It should be murder, Charles Steele said at a news conference Friday asking New Orleans' black community to boycott the Bourbon street nightclub where 25-year-old Levon Jones died Dec. 31. ''Racism is alive and well here in New Orleans,'' said Steele, flanked by about a dozen local black leaders. ''We didn't come here to play with you, and we're sending notice that we'll raise hell in New Orleans. We've been receiving complaints for years about New Orleans and its racist attitudes.'' Both New Orleans' mayor, Ray Nagin, and Police Superintendent Eddie Compass are black. Steele said he has written to Nagen and hopes to meet with him and Compass to discuss Jones' death and ''several other'' complaints the SCLC has received about racism in New Orleans. Most are that French Quarter businesses either spurn black customers or close during major black social events like the Bayou Classic or the Essence Music Festival, Steele said. The coroner found that Jones -- a senior at Georgia Southern University in town for a flag football tournament -- suffocated while one bouncer held him in a headlock for 12 minutes and another pushed down on his back. A third bouncer held Jones' legs. [more]