Time for Tennessee to Give Environmental Justice to Black Family Poisoned by Toxic Landfill
Written by Robert D. Bullard
The eight-year war against toxic racism is nearly over for Sheila Holt Orsted and the Harry Holt family, an African American family in Dickson, Tennessee whose well was poisoned with trichloroethylene (TCE) from the nearby leaky Dickson County Landfill, located just 54 feet from the family’s property line.Five generations of Holt family members grew up in the rural all-black segregated community on Eno Road in Dickson County. The Holt family survived the horrors of slavery and “Jim Crow” segregation, but it may not survive the toxic terror of the deadly trichloroethylene (TCE) chemical leaked into their wells from the nearby landfill. In 2003, the Holt family and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) sued the city and county of Dickson, the state of Tennessee, and the company that dumped the TCE. And in 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sheila Holt Orsted and her mother Beatrice Holt filed a lawsuit against Dickson City and County governments seeking cleanup of alleged water contamination.
Climate Justice Benefits of Dismantling Energy and Transportation Apartheid
Written by Robert D. BullardClimate change is a major global environmental justice issue of our times. Electric power generations and transportation account for nearly three-fourths (73.8 percent) of the CO2 emissions in the United States annually. Getting these two major greenhouse gas sources under control would go a long way in the fight against climate change and move us closer to achieving environmental justice.
New Book - Discussion and Signing at Texas Southern University
Written by Robert D. BullardI will discuss and sign my latest book, Environmental Health and Racial Equity: Building Environmentally Just, Sustainable, and Livable Communities, from 5:00pm – 8:00pm, Thursday November 17, 2011, Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas.This new book, my sixteenth written over the past two decades, is published by American Public Health Association and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It examines the relationship between a community’s physical environment and health burdens through a racial equity lens. People of color and those with lower income and lower wealth have long borne an unequal burden of environmental health threats in the United States compared to the general population. The poorest of the poor within the United States have the worst health and live in the most degraded environments. One of the most important indicators of an individual’s health is one’s street address or neighborhood. Residents who live on the “wrong side of the tracks” are subjected to elevated environmental health threats. This new book captures the current state of the environmental justice movement and its work around health and racial equity over the past 25 years. While mounting grassroots mobilization efforts over the past three decades has resulted in protective new laws and regulations, people of color neighborhoods continue to serve as “dumping grounds” for polluting facilities, making them more vulnerable to all kinds of health threats and exacerbating disparities.
Toward Environmental Justice for All: Addressing Race, Poverty and Pollution
Written by Robert D. BullardDETROIT, November 9, 2011 - The Fourth National PolicyLink Equity Summit 2011: Healthy Communities, Strong Regions, A Prosperous America opened on Monday in Detroit. This afternoon, I will be speaking on a panel entitled “Tackling Poverty and Pollution: New Directions in Environmental Justice” from 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. The afternoon panel will explore some of the promising strategies communities across the country are using to build successful alliances, develop foresighted agendas, and secure policy wins. Many of the strategies, milestones, and trends detailed in my talk are gleaned from my latest book, Environmental Health and Racial Equity in the United States: Building Environmentally Just, Sustainable, and Livable Communities (APHA Press 2011), a project sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
My Return to Texas Southern University in Houston
Written by Robert D. BullardIt has been three weeks since I rejoined the faculty at Texas Southern University in Houston as the Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs. My first stint at TSU was in the 1970s and 1980s. TSU was my first academic job out of graduate school. Houston, and especially Black Houston, was subject of my early environmental justice research and policy work.I wrote two books on Houston: Invisible Houston: The Black Experience in Boom and Bust (Texas A&M University Press 1987) and Houston: Growth and Decline of a Sunbelt Boomtown (Temple University Press 1991) and started the research on another, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality (Westview Press 1990), while at TSU.
Environmental Health and Racial Equity Book Signing at 2011 APHA Conference in Washington, DC
Written by Robert D. Bullard
WASHINGTON, D.C. – I have attended dozens of public health conferences over the years. However, I am especially excited about participating in the 139th American Public Health Association (APHA) Conference & Exposition held this year at the Convention Center in Washington, DC since I will be signing my latest book, Environmental Health and Racial Equity in the United States: Building Environmentally Just, Sustainable, and Livable Communities, at 2:00pm, October 31, 2011.
As We Celebrate July 4, Let's Not Forget 8-Year Eco-Racism Struggle in Dickson, TN
Written by Robert D. Bullard
The African American community in Dickson, Tennessee, located about 35 miles west of Nashville, has been used as the dumping ground for garbage and toxic wastes dating back a half century. Dickson County is 4.1 percent black. Five generations of the Harry Holt family have lived on their 150-acre farm located in a Dickson community created by “Jim Crow” segregation. The community dates back to slavery. The deadly chemical trichloroethylene or TCE was discovered in the family’s wells—located just 54 feet from the Dickson County Landfill.
Atlanta is often affectionately called the “Black Mecca” of the South. The city has undergone a dramatic demographic shift over the past four decades. Black Atlanta is shrinking. Twenty major trends, a “20-Point Plan,” account for the depopulation of Black Atlanta. Many of these trends are detailed in The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century, a book I edited in 2007.
Atlanta’s Transit Fare Hike Will Leave Poor Stranded on Side of the Road
Written by Robert D. Bullard
Hurricane Season Kicks Off Today: Weather-Weary Americans Learning to Cope
Written by Robert D. BullardA 20-Point Plan to Destroy Black New Orleans After Katrina: Revisited 5 Years Later
Written by Robert D. Bullard
We are just two days away from the start of the 2011 hurricane season and three months from the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Given the timeliness of the upcoming events, I think it's a good time to revisit Katrina and the Second Disaster: A Twenty-Point Plan to Destroy Black New Orleans, an article I wrote five and half years ago.
Why EPA Should Adopt the Strongest Protection Against Pollution from Coal-Fired Power Plants
Written by Robert D. Bullard
Testimony of Robert D. Bullard, Ph.D., Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA
Public Hearing, National Standards for Mercury Pollution from Power Plants, May 26, 2011
Eight-Year War Against Toxic Racism: Theft of Black Health and Black Wealth in a Small Tennessee Town
Written by Robert D. Bullard
Generations of African Americans like the Harry Holt family grew up in the Dickson County, Tennessee Eno Road community and survived the horrors of slavery, post-slavery racism and “Jim Crow” segregation. However, this family may not survive “toxic racism,” the trichloroethylene or TCE contamination assault on their health and family homestead from the Dickson County Landfill.
