Activists from A2 member organizations recently gathered with other environmental advocates in Washington, D.C., to “talk dirty” about pollution and viable solutions in the American South.

The panel, entitled “The Dirty South: The Legacy of Pollution in America’s Black Belt,” was hosted by A2 member Black Millennials for Flint. The organization was founded in 2016 to empower communities to act and advocate against lead exposure in communities of color. The discussion was a part of the group’s Green Table Talk series, a monthly, intergenerational dialog recorded in Washington, D.C., and streamed via Facebook Live breaking down topics of environmental racism from Black and Latinx perspectives.

Panelists at the December 14 discussion included A2 member organizations Sowing Justice of Memphis, TN, represented by founder and executive director Marquita Bradshaw, and Greater Birmingham (AL) Alliance to Stop Pollution (GASP), represented by communications specialist/storyteller Madison Naves. Also on the panel — Shamyra Lavigne of Rise St. James, St. James Parish, LA.

Moderator Kayla Shannon, a senior at historically black Spelman College and an advocate for Flint, Mich., started off the discussion with some grim facts, noting that while environmental injustice is no stranger to nearly every place where there are black and brown folks in this country, the American South has some of the most saturated instances of environmental racism starting as far back as the slave trade. (The plantation system negatively impacted the environment through deforestation, soil erosion, compromised waterways, etc.)

According to the Pew Research Center, the American South has the highest concentration of the U.S. black population at 59 percent as of 2021, which includes an area of Louisiana infamously known in environmental circles as Cancer Alley.

The 85-mile-long industrial stretch along the Mississippi River is home to an abundance of petroleum plants — and cancer cases for many of the black people who work at these plants and live in surrounding cities and towns.

Lavigne said she hadn’t heard of the term “cancer alley” until she went away to college. Previously, as a child, she saw St. James as an oasis, though she does recall being told, “we could not drink the water or we would get sick. We knew that if we played outside sometimes, we’d get sick. We knew about the dust in the air and we knew the smell.”

“Oh, they called South Memphis ‘Funky Town,’ “ said Bradshaw in reference to the pungent smells emanating from nearby industrial plants in her hometown. “Walking to school when I was a kid, you didn't know what you were gonna smell.” Bradshaw’s mother, Doris Bradshaw, is recognized as the mother of the environmental justice movement in Memphis for taking on the U.S. military and its polluting depot situated in the middle of a black neighborhood. (Bradshaw tearfully shared that her mother had died in June.)

Naves also shared a childhood memory of her home in Birmingham: “My father had an apple tree that everyone would come out and pick from.” But now, after seeing her father reach for a piece of the fruit from the tree, she had to warn him, “You know, you can’t do that anymore!”

Birmingham, Hoover and Talladega in Alabama are nationally ranked as the 18th worst areas for year-round particulate pollution and the 35th worst for ozone. Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, also received an “F” rating for its high ozone days on the American Lung Association's 2023 State of the Air report, citing continued use of coal power plants and diesel engines as the main culprits.

Closing out the discussion with proposed solutions, the panelists had some choice words for the federal government:

Lavigne: Increase fines for corporate violations to a minimum of $1 million per incident. Eliminate tax breaks for violators. Allow for trusted air monitoring – NOT the industry monitoring themselves. Remove state authority to permit new industries.

Bradshaw: Create a corporate-funded pool of resources to treat environmentally induced diseases in affected communities.

Naves: Get out of the way and let the grassroots organizations take the lead!

Dorothy Terry is a journalist/writer with Anthropocene Alliance who lives in the Washington, D.C. area, and was happy to meet A2 members in person during the Green Table Talk at the historic Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.