Dear friend,
"When the [petrochemical] plants first came, we were excited. We were going to have jobs," Sharon Lavigne, Founder and CEO of Rise St. James, a U.S. grantee ally, remembers.
Unfortunately, those corporations would take more from the St. James, LA communities than they would give. Over the course of the next four decades, the industry would turn into an ongoing nightmare.
In the area now called Cancer Alley, the 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that is filled with fossil fuels and petrochemical industries, people are getting inflicted with everything from infertility to cancer at an alarming rate.
The chemicals and pollution that leak out into the air and water have resulted in Louisiana having one of the nation’s highest preterm birth and infant mortality rates.
"Ninety-two-percent of stakeholders are Black," says Robert Taylor of St. John's Baptist Parish, pointing to the deep-rooted racism at play.
Sharon Lavigne shared further,
“We will not be silenced about the institutional racism, the environmental racism that is coursing through the river parishes. We are not just going to lie down and let the industrial plants kill us off.”
The community-centered work of Rise St. James to mobilize residents and keep local government officials accountable is so critical. Because of this work, community members achieved victories in stopping construction of additional industry plants and reclaiming their communities.
