As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to curb the amount of cancer-causing pollution spewed out by 218 of the country’s largest oil and chemical plants, environmental leaders and Black residents in some Southern states say the proposal doesn’t go far enough. Roughly two-thirds of these plants are sprinkled across Texas and Louisiana, where many of […]
Louisiana
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
As Disasters Pile Up, Louisiana’s Hurricane Victims Wonder if They’ll Ever Recover
Nearly two years after Hurricane Ida gutted her home, Maria Populis cries every day because she’s lost everything – and fears she’ll be homeless. “I’m not supposed to be living on nobody’s street,” the 60-year-old grandmother says. “I feel like a failure.” The record-breaking storm destroyed her Edgard, Louisiana, home – which had been in […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
Proposed Bill Treats Environmental Justice as a Civil Rights Issue
Almost two years to the day of its last introduction, progressive leaders are reinvigorating a push to pass the Environmental Justice For All Act, a potential landmark bill that aims to address environmental disparities in majority Black, Latino and Indigenous communities. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, the proposal hopes to address public health […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Meet the Trailblazing Black LGBTQ Official at ‘Ground Zero’ for Climate Justice
In 1969, a state-mandated consent decree desegregated the school system in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Forty years later, continuing conflict over that desegregation effort in the city — evenly split between Black and white residents — inspired a young Davante Lewis’ first foray into public service. His high school was strapped for cash and required much-needed […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Five States Are Voting Whether to Outlaw Slavery (Yep, You Read That Right)
Update: Four states — Alabama, Tennessee, Oregon and Vermont — voted Nov. 8 to amend their constitution to close the “slavery loophole,” an exception clause that legalized the treatment of convicted individuals like slaves. Polling showed the measure failed in Louisiana, but the results were expected by voting rights activists, who were concerned that the […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Officials Withheld Funds Over an Abortion Ban. Black Louisianans Are Most At Risk.
Sitting in the Louisiana Senate chambers last week, Democratic Sen. Jimmy Harris received a text alert: A brewing storm heading toward his New Orleans district had prompted a flood advisory. Moments later, the state’s all-male bond commission voted 7-6 to temporarily block a $39 million loan that New Orleans planned to use for a power […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Black Louisianans Still Haven’t Recovered From 2020’s Storms
As Tropical Storm Laura rapidly transformed into a Category 4 hurricane and barreled toward the Gulf Coast in the summer of 2020, residents of southern Louisiana had little time to react. In Lake Charles, Tasha Guidry was thinking about how to evacuate with her elderly parents in the middle of a pandemic, a task made […]