As We Celebrate July 4, Let's Not Forget 8-Year Eco-Racism Struggle in Dickson, TN
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.
MLK Day 2012: 5 Reasons Dr. King Would Be Fighting Environmental Racism in Tennessee
January 16, 2012 marks the 25th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday. Dr. King was called to Memphis in April 1968 on an environmental and economic justice mission on behalf of 1,300 striking garbage workers from AFSCME Local 1733. The Memphis struggle was about much more than a garbage strike. It was also about human dignity and human rights. Memphis was Dr. King's last campaign. However, his legacy lives on in modern day garbage and environmental justice struggles. If Dr. King were alive today there is a good chance the 83-year-old civil rights icon would be standing side-by-side with the African American Harry Holt family in Dickson County, Tennessee, located just 160 miles east of Memphis, whose 150-acre farmland and well were poisoned with the deadly trichloroethylene (TCE) chemical from the leaky Dickson County Landfill, located just 54 feet from the family's property line.
Meet the Authors Book Event at TSU: The Wrong Complexion for Protection
On Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 6:30 PM, the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University is sponsoring An Evening with the Authors to hear Dr. Beverly Wright (co-author, environmental justice scholar, Heinz Award recipient and Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) – Dillard University) and me discuss our new book, The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities (NYU Press 2012), that examines eight decades of government response to natural and man-made disasters. Click HERE for authors’ bios. Event Location: President’s Lounge in the Sterling Student Life Center (4th Floor), Texas Southern University, 3100 Cleburne Avenue, Houston, Texas.
