Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective

When both levees and governments failed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, an organization calling itself the Common Ground Collective formed to become the largest anarchist inspired organization in modern US history. In solidarity with people in New Orleans, Common Ground built medical clinics, distributed aid, formed neighborhood assemblies and created food security through community gardens. The group also defied unjust laws by resisting home demolitions, and defended communities from white militias and police brutality.

Black Flags and Windmills—equal parts memoir, history and organizing philosophy—maps the intertwining of Common Ground co-founder scott crow’s radical experiences and ideas with Katrina’s reality, vividly illustrating how people under extraordinary circumstances built local grassroots power and collective liberation. It is a story of resisting indifference, rebuilding hope amidst collapse, and struggling against the grain to create better worlds.