Beverly Wright | |
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Academic background | |
Alma mater | Grambling State University State University of New York at Buffalo |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Dillard University |
Beverly Wright is an American environmental justice scholar and the founder of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University. Her research considers the environmental and health inequalities along the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor. Her awards and honours include the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Achievement Award.
Wright was born in Louisiana,close to a highly polluted area that was known as ‘Cancer Alley’. [1] She has said that these childhood experiences were essential in shaping her research career. Wright studied sociology at Grambling State University. She moved to State University of New York at Buffalo as a graduate student. [2] During her early research,Wright realised the racial disparities of cancer alley,noticing that the majority of people who lived along the polluted corridor were communities of colour. [3] In an interview with Vice magazine Wright remarked,“All the birds had disappeared except for the crows. Screens on their windows were rusting and falling off in like three months. The air was so corrosive that the paint on their cars was being melted off,”. [3] In 1991 she attended the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington,D.C.,where she met Damu Smith. [3] Smith was the founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN). [3]
In 1992 Wright became the founder and executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) at Dillard University. [4] [5] The DSCEJ is a community–university partnership that investigates the impacts of environmental and health inequality along the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Center,which is so polluted that it became known as Cancer Alley. [6] [7] Her research combined population and demographic data with Toxics Release Inventory reports to better understand the correlations between race and pollution. [8] She has shown that almost 80% of African-Americans live in polluted neighbourhoods. [8] Wright and the DSCEJ developed an environmental justice curriculum for elementary schools in New Orleans. [6] She worked on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Minority Worker Training and Brownfields Minority Training Program,which helped people from underserved communities find careers in environmental and health sciences. [9] Working with Robert D. Bullard,Wright popularised the Latinx term “the wrong complexion for protection”. [10]
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,Wright focussed on outreach and training programmes for the African-American community in New Orleans. She has worked to support displaced residents in returning to their homes,working with policy makers to address issues surrounding environmental restoration. [11] Hurricane Katrina's flooding resulted in lead saturation in New Orleans soil. [12] Wright showed that lead exposure was particularly bad in areas where there were significant numbers of Black families. [12] She worked with American steelworkers to design a programme known as A Safe Way Back Home,which looks to clean abandoned homes and neighbourhoods of pollutants. [12] The DSCEJ were involved with the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. [2]
Wright has worked with Mitch Landrieu on his Sustainable Energy and Environmental Taskforce. [2] In 2017 she delivered expert testimony to the Council of the City of New Orleans to describe the risks associated with a Entergy gas power plant. [8] In 2019 Entergy were fined $5 million for bringing in paid actors to influence to council's decision making process. [13]
As Wright became more involved with environmental issues she started to realise how underrepresented Black people were at international climate events. [1] In response,she organised a climate change conference for students at historically black colleges and universities,hosted at Dillard University and including a tour of East Plaquemines Parish. [1] Wright is a member of the National Black Environmental Justice Network,which reformed in June 2020. [14] With the newly reformed NBEJN Wright has been serving as an advisor for Joe Biden's climate emergency plan alongside Tamara Toles of 350.org. [3]
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Emelle is a town in Sumter County, Alabama, United States. It was named after the daughters of the man who donated the land for the town. The town was started in the 19th century but not incorporated until 1981. The daughters of the man who donated were named Emma Dial and Ella Dial, so he combined the two names to create Emelle. Emelle was famous for its great cotton. The first mayor of Emelle was James Dailey. He served two terms. The current mayor is Roy Willingham Sr. The population was 32 at the 2020 census.
Chalmette is a census-designated place (CDP) in, and the parish seat of, St. Bernard Parish in southeastern Louisiana, United States. The 2010 census reported that Chalmette had 16,751 people; 2011 population was listed as 17,119; however, the pre-Katrina population was 32,069 at the 2000 census. At the 2020 U.S. census, its population rebounded to 21,562. Chalmette is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan statistical area. Chalmette is located east of downtown New Orleans and south of Arabi, towards Lake Borgne.
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Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) is a private historically black Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic HBCU and, upon the canonization of Katharine Drexel in 2000, became the first Catholic university founded by a saint.
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Entergy Corporation is a Fortune 500 integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations in the Deep South of the United States. Entergy is headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, and generates and distributes electric power to 3 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of $11 billion and employs more than 13,000 people.
Cancer Alley is the regional nickname given to an 85-mile (137 km) stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains over 200 petrochemical plants and refineries. This area accounts for 25% of the petrochemical production in the United States. Environmentalists consider the region a sacrifice zone where rates of cancer caused by air pollution exceed the federal government's own limits of acceptable risk.
Environmental justice or eco-justice, is a social movement to address environmental injustice, which occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has generated hundreds of studies showing that exposure to environmental harm is inequitably distributed.
Hurricane Katrina struck the United States on August 29, 2005, causing over a thousand deaths and extreme property damage, particularly in New Orleans. The incident affected numerous areas of governance, including disaster preparedness and environmental policy.
The Common Ground Collective is a decentralized network of non-profit organizations offering support to the residents of New Orleans. It was formed in the fall of 2005 in the Algiers neighborhood of the city in the days after Hurricane Katrina resulted in widespread flooding, damage and deaths throughout the city.
As with many countries, pollution in the United States is a concern for environmental organizations, government agencies and individuals.
The Tulane Environmental Law Clinic (TELC) is a legal clinic that Tulane Law School has operated since 1989 to offer law students the practical experience of representing real clients in actual legal proceedings under state and federal environmental laws.
Robert Doyle Bullard is an American academic who is the former Dean of the Barbara Jordan - Mickey Leland School Of Public Affairs and is currently a Distinguished Professor at Texas Southern University. Previously Ware Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, Bullard is known as the "father of environmental justice". He has been a leading campaigner against environmental racism, as well as the foremost scholar of the problem, and of the Environmental Justice Movement which sprung up in the United States in the 1980s.
Naled (Dibrom) is an organophosphate insecticide. Its chemical name is dimethyl 1,2-dibromo-2,2-dichloroethylphosphate.
McCastle v. Rollins is a case that was filed on behalf of the residents of Alsen, Louisiana against Rollins Environmental Services, Inc., and. Although the decision in this case allowed the plaintiffs within this community to be certified as a class, and allowed them to be viewed as a unit when filing their lawsuit, and thereby reversing the decision that had been made at the trial and appellate level, the case was not reheard in the lower courts. Instead, Rollins Environmental Services, Inc. settled with the plaintiffs outside of court in 1987. Although this case is primarily cited for what a group of people need to do in order to obtain class certification, it is also often cited as one of the pivotal moments in the Environmental justice grass roots movement that has been occurring within communities of color. The people involved in the suit look at the way in which their community was disproportionately impacted by toxic waste polluters in light of their race and class, in comparison to communities that are composed of people who are racially and economically privileged and advocated for more considerate treatment by state regulators and operators of waste disposal plants. Through looking at the development of the McCastle v. Rollins lawsuit, one can see the way in which class, race, legal claims, community activism, public health and environmentalism can be viewed and used in conjunction with one another to protect the rights of people living within a given community.
A sacrifice zone or sacrifice area is a geographic area that has been permanently changed by heavy environmental alterations or economic disinvestment, often through locally unwanted land use (LULU). Commentators including Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, and Steve Lerner have argued that corporate business practices contribute to producing sacrifice zones. A 2022 report by the United Nations highlighted that millions of people globally are in pollution sacrifice zones, particularly in zones used for heavy industry and mining.
Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles(CCSCLA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) community-based organization whose mission is to work for social justice and economic and environmental change within the South Central community. CCSCLA works to involve community members in identifying social, economic, and environmental areas of concern to them, and give them the tools necessary to engage with institutions, such as industries or political leaders, to enact change.
Eboni Kiuhnna Williams is an American lawyer and television host. She hosts the nightly news show The Grio with Eboni K. Williams on TheGrio. She co-hosted a talk show on WABC Radio in New York City and was a co-host of Fox News' 2017 show Fox News Specialists. In October 2020, she was cast in The Real Housewives of New York City for its thirteenth season.
Dumping in Dixie is a 1990 book by the American professor, author, activist, and environmental sociologist Robert D. Bullard. Bullard spotlights the quintessence of the economic, social, and psychological consequences induced by the siting of noxious facilities in mobilizing the African American community. Starting with the assertion that every human has the right to a healthy environment, the book documents the journey of five American communities of color as they rally to safeguard their health and homes from the lethal effects of pollution. Further, Bullard investigates the heterogeneous obstacles to social and environmental justice that African American communities often encounter. Dumping in Dixie is widely acknowledged as the first book to discuss environmental injustices and distill the concept of environmental justice holistically. Since the publication of Dumping in Dixie, Bullard has emerged as one of the seminal figures of the environmental justice movement; some even label Bullard as the "father of environmental justice".
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