Sharon Lavigne | |
|---|---|
 |
Sharon Lavigne (born May 1950) is an American environmental justice activist in Louisiana focused on combating petrochemical complexes in Cancer Alley. [1] [2] She is the 2022 recipient of the Laetare Medal, the highest honor for American Catholics, and a 2021 recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Lavigne, who is from St. James Parish, Louisiana which is at the center of the alley, has testified before Congress, and runs a faith-based organization, RISE St. James, focused on preventing expansion and worsening petrochemical plant pollution in the area. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Lavigne is also a collaborator on the Coalition Against Death Alley, a regional environmental justice group. [3] She is also a plaintiff in White Hat v. Landry , an environmental justice case, focused on changes in Louisiana Oil and Gas law. [6]
Lavigne is focused in part on defending the cultural heritage of the African American community. [2] In 2019, she organized the community against a new Formosa Plastics Corp factory that would have disrupted a slave grave in the community. [2] [3] [4] In December 2020, the plant's process was stalled by court ruling. [7] She had previously help stall similar projects from Wanhua Chemical Group and South Louisiana Methanol.
Lavigne was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2021. [8] [9] She was named the 2022 recipient of the University of Notre Dame's Laetare Medal on March 27, 2022. [10] The same year, RISE, Earthjustice, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and other plaintiffs won a lawsuit against Formosa that argued the potential air pollution of the proposed plant would violate federal standards. [11]
Lavigne is a retired special education teacher. [3] Her father was a sugarcane farmer in the area, and her mother a homemaker. [3] Her family participated in civil rights actions in the area during the civil rights movement. [3]
She is also a Black Catholic, a parishioner at St. James Catholic Church in St. James, Louisiana.
Charles Joseph Bonaparte was an American lawyer and political activist for progressive and liberal causes. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he served in the cabinet of the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. He was a descendant of the House of Bonaparte: his grandfather was Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Emperor Napoleon.
St. James Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Convent. The parish was created in 1807. St. James Parish is a part of the New Orleans–Metairie, Louisiana metropolitan statistical area, sitting between New Orleans and Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River. According to the 2020 United States census, the population was 20,192.
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campus of 1,261 acres has a suburban setting and contains landmarks such as the Golden Dome, the Word of Life mural, Notre Dame Stadium, and the Basilica. Originally for men, the university started accepting undergraduate women in 1972.
Helen Prejean is a Catholic religious sister and a leading American advocate for the abolition of the death penalty.
Joseph Louis Bernardin was an American Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Cincinnati from 1972 until 1982, and as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996 from pancreatic cancer. Bernardin was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983 by Pope John Paul II.
Marie Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs was a politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later as United States Ambassador to the Holy See. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana. She was also a permanent chairwoman of the 1976 Democratic National Convention, which met in New York City to nominate the Carter-Mondale ticket. She was the first woman to preside over a major party convention.
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.
Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday in the season of Lent, in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. Traditionally, this Sunday has been a day of celebration within the austere period of Lent. This Sunday gets its name from the first few words of the traditional Latin entrance verse (Introit) for the Mass of the day. "Laetare Jerusalem" is Latin from Isaiah 66:10.
Formosa Plastics Group is a titular Taiwanese conglomerate of diverse interests, including biotechnology, petrochemical processing and production of electronics components. The group was founded by Wang Yung-ching and his brother Wang Yung-tsai, and is chaired by Wong Wen-yuan. Despite its name, its holdings include several companies prominent in the high tech electronics sector, including VIA Technologies and Nanya Technology Corporation.
Formosa Plastics Corporation is a Taiwanese plastics company based in Taiwan that primarily produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins and other intermediate plastic products. It is the corporation around which influential businessman Wang Yung-ching formed the Formosa Plastics Group, and it remains central to the Group's petrochemical operations. The president of Formosa Plastics Corp. (FPC) is Jason Lin (林健男).
Norman Christopher Francis is an American academic who served as president of Xavier University of Louisiana from 1968 to 2015. He was the first Black and first lay president of the school, and the second African American to ever serve as president of a Catholic university in the United States.
George Gilmary Higgins was an American labor activist and Catholic clergyman known as the "labor priest". He was a major force in the Catholic Church's support for Cesar Chavez and his union movement.
The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the University of Notre Dame in recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society. The award is given to an American Catholic or group of Catholics "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity." First awarded in 1883, it is the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.
Margie Eugene-Richard is an African American environmental activist. Richard’s childhood neighborhood, impacted by its proximity to a Shell Oil Company Chemical Plant, inspired her to fight for environmental justice. In addition to forming advocacy groups in her neighborhood, Richard has worked with other communities experiencing similar environmental injustices. Because of her advocacy work, Richard was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2004.
Diane Wilson is an American environmental activist, an anti-war activist, and an author. In 1989, she was a shrimp boat captain in Calhoun County, Texas, and she saw an Associated Press article saying that the county had the most toxic waste disposal of all counties in America. Texas produces the most amount of chemical waste than any other state in the United States, with the majority of the pollution concentrated on the state's Gulf Coast. Wilson began a campaign against Formosa Plastics, a Taiwanese chemical company then building a PVC facility near her town, with tactics including several hunger strikes and sinking her own boat to draw attention to the matter. In 1994 she won "zero discharge" agreements from Formosa and Alcoa.
Timothy Edward Howard was the 43rd Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, professor at the University of Notre Dame, writer, and Civil War veteran. He served in the Indiana Senate from 1886 to 1892.
The University of Notre Dame's annual commencement exercises are held each May, currently in the Notre Dame Stadium. The exercises award undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Claire L. Babineaux-Fontenot is the CEO of Feeding America, a national foodbank across the United States. In 2020, Time named her among the 100 most influential people in the world.
Gloria Majiga–Kamoto is a Malawian community development officer and environmental activist, who was awarded the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa, in recognition of her work in advocating for the enforcement of a national ban on the importation, manufacture and distribution of single-use plastics in Malawi, in 2019.
Formosa Petrochemical Corporation is a Taiwanese energy company engaged in refining of crude oil, distribution of refined petroleum products, the production and sales of olefins, and the generation of electricity and steam. It was founded as a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Group, and went public in 2003. It is headquartered in Mailiao Township, Yunlin County, in Taiwan.