Kamis, 22 Agustus 2013

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The Environmental Justice Movement

The Environmental Justice Movement

a movement sparks

poor, rural and overwhelmingly black, warren county, north carolina, may seem an unlikely spot for your own birth the most political movement. though when the state government determined that the county would build a perfect home for 6, 000 truckloads of soil laced with toxic pcbs, the county became the focus of national attention.

the dump trucks 1st rolled into warren county in mid-september, 1982, headed to produce a newly constructed hazardous waste landfill within the whole small community of afton. however several annoyed residents and also their allies, furious that state officers had dismissed issues over pcbs leaching into drinking water provides, met the trucks. and that they stopped them, lying down on roads leading directly into landfill. six weeks of marches and nonviolent street protests followed, and a little over 500 folks were arrested -- the very first few arrests in u. s. history during the siting the most landfill.

the folks of warren county ultimately lost the battle ; the toxic waste was eventually deposited as landfill. however their story -- one in all normal folks driven to desperate measures to safeguard their homes a toxic assault -- drew national media attention and fired the imagination of individuals across the country who had lived through similar injustice. the road protests and legal challenges mounted from the folks of warren county to fight the landfill are thought of by almost to remain the very first few major milestone within the whole national movement for environmental justice.

alternative communities of color had organized to oppose environmental threats before warren county. within the whole early 1960s, latino farm workers organized by cesar chavez fought for workplace rights, as well as protection from harmful pesticides within the whole farm fields of californias san joaquin valley. in 1967, african-american students took in the streets of houston to oppose a town garbage dump in his or her community that had claimed the lives of 2 youngsters. in 1968, residents of west harlem, in new york town, fought unsuccessfully against the siting the most sewage treatment plant in his or her community. however the warren county protests marked the very first few instance relevant out to an environmental protest by folks of color that garnered widespread national attention.




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