Environmental Racism in North Carolina
Protesters lying in the road to stop the dumping of toxic PCB waste in a landfill in Warren County, 1982. Jenny Labalme
Climate injustice is not distant, neither by time nor geography. In 1982, a toxic landfill containing soil contaminated by illegally dumped, highly toxic PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls, man-made chemicals formerly used in industrial and commercial industries until they were banned in 1979) was to be constructed in Warren County, North Carolina, an impoverished and predominantly Black community, despite the site’s incompatibility with EPA guidelines. The weeks of nonviolent protest led by Black folks in the community and civil rights activists throughout the South did nothing to stop the North Carolina government from constructing the landfill. Later reports confirmed the community’s worst fear about the landfill - it was leaking PCBs, polluting the air and ground, and exposing the community to toxic chemicals. Decades later, the government eventually cleaned up the contamination.
Climate/Cataclysm, Mike Marks
Despite the devastating outcome, the North Carolina PCB protests were one of the first major milestones in the environmental justice movement, garnering national outrage and leading to the landmark study, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, which reported strong statistical correlation between race and location of toxic waste sites. The report was led by Dr. Benjamin Chavis, a North Carolina native and civil rights activist who first coined the term “environmental racism.” He defined it as “racial discrimination in environmental policy making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the ecology movements.” More simply, it is “a disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color”. It is a joining together of the environmental crisis and racism, undeniably linked but far too often seen as separate issues. To combat both, we first have to acknowledge that they are the same issue and that this is an unavoidable global crisis.
Climate/Cataclysm, Mike Marks
At the core of this is a valuing of capital over life. It is choosing financial gain over creating an equitable future. The landfill in Warren County was purposefully constructed there because the land was seen as dispensable, and the government thought the community did not have the means to fight against it. While there were alternative solutions, the government chose what appeared to be the “easiest” without the concern for the damages it caused the community. This devaluing of life continues, by running pipelines through Indigenous lands, threatening their water supply and sacred lands; by failing to properly treat a new water source,causing undetected lead poisoning for an entire city; by targeting poor, Black communities as places to construct CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operations) despite high flood risks, releasing toxins into the ecosystem and severely decreasing quality of life; and countless other examples of environmental racism.
Case Study, Durham Claire Alexandre
Two major, racially segregated projects were developed in the early 1950s as a result of the Housing Act of 1949: a few Gardens for white residents and McDougald Terrace for Black residents.
Health threats from carbon monoxide leaks plunged hundreds of McDougald Terrace residents into a crisis in the winter of 2019.
After Durham County EMS Assistant Chief Lee VanVleet noticed an unusual number of EMS calls linked to the hazardous gas, nearly 900 residents were evacuated over the span of several months.
Exposed electrical wires and ventilation problems, including misaligned chimneys and faulty ventilation systems in water heaters, were among 153 health and safety deficiencies detailed in the federal Housing and Urban Development 2019 inspection report.
Source: The Indy Week
Case Study, Rogers Road Claire Alexandre
The Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood is a historically Black community, with origins dating back to the 1700s. By the late 19th century, the Rogers-Eubanks neighborhood was composed of Black-owned family farms and sawmills from Homestead to Eubanks Roads, north of Carrboro and Chapel Hill.
In 1972 the Chapel Hill Board of Commissioners chose this area to host the Orange County Regional Landfill after concluding that this area was sparsely populated and less objectionable than their original location of 200 acre near the Camp Chestnut Ridge (a predominantly white area). The New Hope Improvement Association was created by community members to organize vocal advocates; the group grew to have approximately 500 members. The NHIA filed a suit against the county which was heard in late September and denied in early October. In late 1972, an unlined landfill was built on 80 acres of land on Eubanks Road. This site was expanded in 1980 despite outspoken community protest.
This community has dealt with Orange County’s landfill in their backyards for almost 40 years with little compensation.
Source: The RENA Community Center website
Distance from the exhibition to where the landfill was constructed