Ninety years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and South Carolina Gov. Ibra Blackwood worked together to bring electricity to rural South Carolina. But to build the power plant that would make it happen, they destroyed the homes of 900 Black sharecropping families. With them, 6,000 graves — including those of formerly enslaved people — were […]
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Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice, Land Pollution, Partner Content
Black Women are Leading the Fight Against Polluters in Louisiana — and They’re Winning
Originally Published with WWNO Louisiana’s Republican governor is opening the door wider to industry. But the voices opposed to the expansion of oil, gas and petrochemicals here — and its impact on vulnerable communities — are stronger than ever. A collection of local nonprofits and grassroots organizations leading the charge have something in common: They’re led […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Partner Content
Small Town’s Trash Policy Has Left Black Moms Criminally Charged Over Unpaid Garbage Fees
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News. CHICKASAW, Ala.—Shaquala Jackson’s three-year-old daughter screamed. A rat was scurrying across the bathroom floor. “I grabbed the kids and ran out of the house,” she said. Jackson said that was the day she knew she and her three young children could no longer live in Chickasaw, a […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
Biden’s $150M Cancer Pledge Clashes with Reality in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
NEW ORLEANS — In one of President Joe Biden’s first public appearances since ending his reelection campaign, he spoke on something very personal to him — cancer. But Louisiana’s Black activists say he still missed the point. Over the past decade, Biden has not shied from explaining how the life of his son, Beau Biden, […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather, Technology
Crypto-Mining Creates New Environmental Injustices for Black Texans
Bitcoin is more than just a shiny new way to lose money. It’s also fueling Texas’ energy struggles as the state prepares for another year of record-breaking heat. And Black communities are caught in the crosswires of climate change, those booming data centers, and the power plants needed to meet both demands. Last year, during […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Politics & Policy
SCOTUS Allows ‘Big Business’ to Have Greater Say in Federal Regulations
Last week, in a monumental decision, the conservative U.S. Supreme Court made it harder for the federal government to regulate virtually everything that impact’s Americans’ daily lives. Arguably the most damning impact of the SCOTUS decisions will be on how the country faces the mounting impacts of pollution and climate change. While the ruling’s impacts […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Health, Partner Content
More Than a Third of All Americans Live in Communities with ‘Hazardous’ Air
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News. Within 5 miles of Kim Gaddy’s home in the South Ward of Newark, New Jersey, lies the nation’s third-busiest shipping port, 13th-busiest airport, and roughly a half dozen major roadways. All told, transportation experts say, the area where Gaddy and her neighbors live sees an average […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The Last Black Neighborhood in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO — In November 1978, Pete Holmes was among the hundreds of Black San Francisco residents killed in one of the most notorious mass murder-suicides in history. Three weeks later, Holmes’ granddaughter Kamillah Ealom was born in a San Francisco hospital more than 4,000 miles away from where her grandfather and others perished in […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
Marvin Hayes Is Spreading ‘Compost Fever’ in Baltimore. He Thinks it Might Save the City.
This story is published in partnership with Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Marvin Hayes pulled up outside a beige brick home in Baltimore’s leafy Mount Washington neighborhood in his white cargo van to collect the bucket of food scraps his […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice, Partner Content
On a ‘Toxic Tour’ of Baltimore, a Hidden Part of the City is Revealed
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. Harm City: First in a series about environmental justice and climate adaptation in Baltimore’s neighborhoods. Nicole Fabricant seemed like a natural guide. A professor of anthropology at […]