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Life Celebration for A Community Voice President Lanny Roy

Lanny Roy, President of A Community Voice,  departed this earth on December 3rd, after a very long illness.  At long last he is at peace. If you know him, or even just met him, you would know that he was truly one of a kind social justice fighter, and leader.
 
His funeral services will be. . .

Wake
Friday Dec 13th
5pm – 8pm
Fondel Funeral Home
832 N Lyons St, Lake Charles, LA 70601

Funeral
Sat Dec 14th
1pm
Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church
2031 Opelousas St, Lake Charles, LA 70601

Albert Lanny Roy

Raised in Southwest Louisiana by Acadiana Creoles, hard-working poor parents, his mother said that she worked from sunup to sundown in the fields like a man for a dollar a day.  Lanny became employed as a “fire fighter” who was hired to put out the fires in numerous petro-chemical plants in the Lake Charles area.  This gave him access to integrate all of their lunchrooms, bathrooms and break rooms. As a result of this conflict at PPG, he was given a faulty suit, and along with another co-fighter was exposed to a tank of chlorine gas. After 30 minutes, they called the ambulance, and he survived with only one functioning lung, His coworker didn’t make it. This became a turning point for Roy as he was permanently disabled and started organizing in his community with ACORN and the NAACP. He was the volunteer leader and organizer for Lake Charles A Community Voice and leader of the state operation. Campaigns he has led have created institutional change in banks in redlining fights.

But that was the tip of the iceberg because Lanny had brought so much more to the fray to the fabric of life in southwest Louisiana, so much so that he was called upon to visit small rural areas where sheriffs ran the towns and roads like they owned them, and harassed black women, a lot. This includes sexual oppression.  They called Lanny to stop this nonsense and he did. And more than once.

He rode to Deridder and stopped a racist owner from stealing back a home purchased by a black family there; he negotiated a landmark agreement with the Sheriff’s office in Calcasieu to end police brutality; he negotiated with racist bankers who didn’t want to lend to blacks but then they did.

Mr. Roy has also directed and won several major Fair Housing lawsuits and discrimination cases that altered illegal real estate and lending practices. Some of the community campaigns he has won are as diverse as preventing a railroad from cutting off his neighborhood to forcing a radio station to continue to air local gospel music and not canned soft rock – and many other victories, too many to enumerate. He was a southwest Louisiana legend and community hero.

Lanny enjoyed the support of the members all across Louisiana and had held the presidency for decades of Louisiana ACORN and then A Community Voice until his death.

He knew the best and the brightest of the organizing members and he joined the top of their ranks by the vote of the members.

There is never a time when one would consider a discussion of the history of ACORN  and its cousin A Community Voice without discussing the hero organizer leader from Lake Charles, child of strong Louisianans who knew how to stand up, organize and fight.

Rest in Power Lanny Roy!

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Beulah Labostrie Community Organizing Hero

We can never put into words how much Beulah meant to us at ACORN and  A Community Voice. She was the spirit and embodiment of all that we are . . . our values, why we do this work  and what we hope for the future.  We would like to celebrate her life and work.

Here is just some of her legacy . . .

Beulah Labostrie was a self described “Social Justice Fighter” and leader in the nation’s largest community organization, ACORN, representing the southern region on ACORN’ Executive Committee.  In 1977 she began as a neighborhood member of the Fair Grounds ACORN group, she then went on for two decades to rule as President of Louisiana ACORN, when she retired to become President Emeritus of the group and its successor organization A Community Voice.  Under her leadership the group became the largest community organization in the South as it battled housing/banking discrimination and her negotiations with banks created landmark programs for affordable housing.  In New Orleans 2002, she mobilized a successful living wage ballot initiative, led a winning fight to stop privatization of the Sewerage and Water Board and in 2005 began a tremendous campaign that fought for the funding, return and rights of Hurricane Katrina survivors.  She led picket lines, registered hundreds of voters, formed coalitions and worked tirelessly to organize and to show “the fight in us.”  A Community Voice has an award named the Beulah Labostrie Social Justice Fighter Award.  Revered in her organizations she made her love of people apparent as was true of her work with her beloved church.

Statement from Lanny Roy, President of A Community Voice

“I am honored to have served alongside Ms. Beulah Labostrie for over 40 years, first in Louisiana ACORN and then A Community Voice, fighting for justice for low to moderate income families in Louisiana and across the world. Her tireless efforts to fight for the fair and equal treatment of all people has always been an inspiration for me in my work. We will continue to honor and feel her with us as we keep fighting for social justice.”

A Celebration of Beulah’s life will be held on Saturday, September 8, 2018 at The Asia Baptist Church, 1400 Sere Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70122. Visitation from 9:00a.m-11:00a.m. Service will begin at 11:00a.m. Reverend Kenneth G. Thibodeaux, officiating.

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Fights SWB with Justice and Beyond

ACV is fighting the Sewerage and Water Board with our coalition Justice and Beyond in NOLA. So far, we have won no shutoffs for elderly, disabled and very poor but we have to keep fighting. This Monday August 6th, 2018 4:45 pm Justice and Beyond will continue the fight to fix SWB meeting with the acting director of SWB at Cafe Istanbul in the Healing Center 2300 St Claude at St Roch.

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B37AcV Uncategorized

Action Alert: Save Medicaid and Health Care in Louisiana

Email all members of the ways and means committee and tell them you want them to fully fund our health care system and not cut Medicaid.  Please save our hospitals and clinics and do not let the elderly and disabled be displacement from their homes.

Find members of the Committee here

You can copy and paste these committee members’ emails below:

abramson@legis.la.gov, barrast@legis.la.gov, bouiej@legis.la.gov, davisp@legis.la.gov, devillierp@legis.la.gov, dwights@legis.la.gov, harrisj@legis.la.gov,hortond@legis.la.gov,hunterm@legis.la.gov, huvalm@legis.la.gov, iveyb@legis.la.gov, james.ted@legis.la.gov, johnsoro@legis.la.gov, legerw@legis.la.gov, larep001@legis.la.gov,morrisjc@legis.la.gov, schexnayderc@legis.la.gov, stefanskij@legis.la.gov, stokesj@legis.la.gov, thibautm@legis.la.gov

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