How protests in rural North Carolina county almost 40 years ago brought environmental racism to nation's attention

Protests against dumping carcinogen-contaminated soil in Warren County, North Carolina, in 1982 (Photo by Ricky Stilley)

A long, detailed Washington Post story recounts how protests in a North Carolina farming town in 1982 spurred the first use of the term "environmental racism," an issue that has since gained increasing nationwide attention, more so recently.

"Protests had erupted over North Carolina’s decision to dump 40,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals in a poor Black farming community in Warren County, and [Ben] Chavis was a leader of the revolt," Darryl Fears and Brady Dennis report for the Post. When a state trooper pulled Chavis over on a pretext and arrested him, Chavis said, "This is environmental racism."

Warren County, N.C.
(Wikipedia map)

"The term stuck, and now — nearly 40 years after Chavis spoke the words that have come to define decisions by governments and corporations to place toxic pollution in communities of color — the issue has risen from the fringes of the American conservation movement to the heart of President Biden’s environmental agenda," Fears and Dennis report. Biden has made environmental justice a key part of his plans to fight climate change and has named Native Americans and African Americans to key administration and advisory posts. 

"Systemic racism has long influenced where major sources of pollution are located within communities. Beginning in the early 20th century, White government planners in many municipalities drew redlining maps that identified Black and Latino neighborhoods as undesirable and unworthy of housing loans. Heavy industry was permitted to cluster in those places, adding a toxic dimension that persists today," Fears and Dennis report. Today, Black people are much more likely to live near a plant or factory, and almost four times more likely than White people to die from pollution exposure. 

Poverty among Black and Latino Americans is also correlated with poorer Covid-19 outcomes. "More than half of all in-hospital deaths from the start of the U.S. outbreak through July 2020 were of Black and Latino patients, according to researchers at Stanford and Duke universities. Black patients were far more likely to require ventilation," Fears and Dennis report. 

Texas Southern University professor Robert Bullard, who wrote Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality, told the Post: "If your ZIP code is buried with garbage, chemical plants, pollution … you’ll find there are more people that are sick, more diabetes and heart disease. . . . Covid is like a heat-seeking missile zeroing in on the most vulnerable communities."