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.W JL-/X.X r i-J. V/lliliWllwul i)UJ L1WV 1Y1U V VJ.UV1U, XVXUX^JLW 1V1WU. . . X x WX w' The Rosa Parks of the Environments Jostice movement; Margie Richard Search this ska: Ads by Google >1 <t . ' ,< ~,>r r hurt a ' x >' 10th largest corporation to save her community. by Stave Lerner lints! s smack: on the i ' o _ 1 -is w1 < ' s a shell Chenrocal plant Richarcf, a retired schoolteacher, lived in Diamond, Louisiana,, a small African-American community located on the banks of the Mississippi River, 25 miles west of New Orleans. Looking out. tier window across Washington Street, Richard could see a maze of pipes and giant chimneys; at night, tire dares burned so bright she didn't need to turn on the Sights to read. Sometimes the fumes wafting i u * t i i I r i v x < t < thing fits and stung her eyes until tears ran down her face. i 1r > is evinced that emissions from trie SbeSi plants were making the community sick. When her sister was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a rare i . tt i ties, the doctor asked if she lived near a petrochemical plant. i I. i . * who'd experienced chronic respiratory distress, was hospitalized for a collapsed king. The. Seeker. Acs cl e my m ,'V II ,, , I liberal counterculture IS amazon.,coro/seekewacademy-L-p By (bougie ShSrfQss.Sfatlori : Looking for Shell Gas , Station? Fund exactly what | you want today : r j 1i o j 3 couid to relocate [our communityj i r . ' iw< ,'.,!<.>(! < < ,r i ,,n one of the epic, environmental justice struggles of recent times. A Community at Risk ' > i ', I r ,i i mss, On some nights, when the pollution from the plants collected dose to the ground and seeped under their doors, residents 1, - , > <i e. , Ldo'! from choking. Many kids had asthma while older residents rented oxygen tanks to help them breathe. An unusual skm disorder was disturbingly common In town and, while they couldn't: prove it, residents worried that exposure to chemical releases from the plant might be giving them cancer. Cm a 1 i ,i i >r , d hiv lawn on Washington Street adjacent t.o She!! Chemical when a spark from his Sawnrnower ignited gas I ' I t 1 i I 0 (<.[,!, t, if flamethrower that lit Jones on fire and incinerated the adjacent house of Helen Washington who was ii < i i i < < i lii iti in around until someone grabbed him and wrapped him in a blanket, They laid him under an oak tree j 1 i i. i t of his injuries t the hospital. In the aftermath. Shell gave his mother $500 and purchased Washington's fire-gutted property from her family for $3,000, fC hi1 i ! hi i 1 i iotlva refinery blew up, killing seven Shell workers and injuring 48 workers and residents, Debris from the explosion mas found five mlies away. In Diamond, ceilings fell, windows were blown in, doors were knocked off i' mt iI : t * i t i i had i, id i i 1 i m- i *1 Following this blast, no one in Diamond felt safe and neighbors began to talk about moving out. So in the early 1990s, a group of church-going women in Diamond met: to discuss what to do, Margie Richard came to see what the meeting was about. When slue came through the door, a resident said: ''Wo need someone to help us file a lawsuit agamst Shell.... We need a leader',.. Vve elect you president," Diamond residents knew Richard as an energetic teacher who bestowed on her students a kind of , i , 1 1 ' i isW pi< i i and came from a family that had long taken a leadership role in the community. "All rny life I heard people say that: the [Shell] plant was making t w i i i t f ' t m lira recalled. Her sister's deatf: and tier daughters Illness prompted her to devote tier full energies to the project. Ask- . arid i For l< : i i 1 ! i i ts it fit ' :i ) > ( hi > i , <1 M OCR IT http://commongroundmag.eom/2005/03/margierichard0503.html 12/17/2007 cAjiniiiuii uiuuiiu. iiic ivusa retries ui me niivirumiiciiiai justice Movement; Margie men... rage l ui d lie hard's hoots tier ram,:.. recced its roots in Diamond oner: to slave days when erne of their ancestors took part in the slave rebellion of 18yds. m that vest, 500 slaves rose up and marched on New Orleans. The revolt; failed ana norm/ mbtsi.no staves, armed mostly with agricultural roots, were slaughtered, A number of prisoners we re occapencno in New Orleans, As a warning agamst future revolts, their needs were .irrem: town of Diamond, By i < i, , >t i i i i, i -i i> was i ' s <i f g i re i - r sen, in 1953, ! * ) Sill I ) H < f' wastes inter saleable petrochemical products. Richard's grancifatner was forced to move, and he purchasee several somd properties on me fenceiine with the new Shell Cliernicai plant. During the next decade, the p;anf expanded until If stood just across the street from Richard's house. Her father had (i 1 u I u 1 f i< ( ms, 1 ' u w 1i. "lid jobs went to whites who lived in Norco. in those days, Jsrn Crow rules were observed in Diamond and Norco, Blacks lived in Diamond In a subdivision divided from the whites in Norco by a wooded strip of land. The town theater was for whites inside and a tap for blacks outside, and African- American students sat in the back of the bus. Even Sheiks facilities were segregated, with black ' mi1 ' ill ! 11 > > mm 1 was held on different days for whits and black residents. That legacy left the area racially polarized ami 1 *1.1 ' ml's' w me 1 ''u 1 re e, > re r m - 11 The first time Concerned Citizens of Norco (CCN) fried suing She!!, they lost. But; that: defeat oniy made CCN stronger, Richard claims. She began outreach programs In ioca! churches and private homes, 8 was one of the first out there [picketing Shelf] with tittle Margie," said Janie Campbell, 80, "We would go out: in the hot sun marching. We started picketing [because] so many kids were being sick with all this mess and stuff coming out of Shell, We never stopped because we thought: it was time," observed Campbei! who remembers sitting In a lawn chair along the fenceline with a sign treading: "What's That Smell? It's dust Sheik" Diamond v. Shell For the next 15 years, Richard brought visitors to her trailer on the Shell fenceiine and fold them the > < i i, ft, it -t- 1 , it was God "who opened the door" and allowed her to take that message to a human rights conference in Geneva are! environmental 1 * -1, a- j ' ' 'u', 1 ( , tiie Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, EarthJustice, The Refinery Reform Campaign, The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Corning Clean, and the Louisiana Environmental Action Coalition responded, as did a number of foundations, nonprofits,, religious groups -- and Rep, Maxine Waters (D-CA). All these groups helped mount a media campaign that that made Shell officials nervous, i 1 u' had been major industrial accidents at: their facilities, improvements had been made since the big explosion in 1988, He also argued that Shell was mci federal regulations and that, if they didn't, regulators , would shut them down. But when Diamond residents began sampling the air with citizen air sampling 1' i/ 11 < > i traces of toxic chemicals, which , . . - ; 1 1 U , Are twin by ' 1 , n w n , i < *<-i re m or Shell officials who were just recovering from " >j 1 r r 1 1 j North Sea oii storage i, t <.<-<* > l t < -, ed massive pollution f 1 ** d ire it,'1 ft fl ' 11 The Diamond relocation campaign dearly had the potential to become another media disaster, so, in September 2000, Shell offered to buy out: half the properties on the two streets closest to their fenceiine. Town residents were outraged: Did pollution coming from the plant stop after the second street, they asked? And what would happen to those left behind? In June 2002, after protracted negotiations, CCN won their relocation campaign; Shell finally agreed to buy out; all of file residents of Diamond who wanted to move. For her efforts, on April 19, 2009, Richard became the first African-American woman to win the $125,000 Goldman Environmental Rrize fee grassroots activism. , Wi re , Diamond is now a ghost town. Its residents have tied the toxic air emissions that drifted over the fence from the nearby chemical plant and oil refinery. Most of the houses have been torn down and their 1 t > /1 ih n 1 m / w i r an community with roots branching back to slave days is gone. For the residents of Diamond, the victory was bittersweet: to save their community, they had to destroy their town.. leaving their' homes, churches, and neighbors to seek, housing where the air' was safe to breathe, Nevertheless, Diamond's passing will he remembered as pivotal in the struggle for1 environmental justice. It was a rare, high-prome fenceiine battle that: illuminates tiie plight of residents In hundreds of otlier towns scattered around the country immediately adjacent to highly polluting facilities. As New Feature GOT EVENTS? afecy ATS: Ah WAaAZiwh PlfBwfllhmiOTc yocemaiies http://commongroundmag.com/2005/03/margierichard0503.html 12/17/2007 Common urouncl: I He Kosa Farics ol the environmental Justice Movement: Margie Kicn... rage 3 or 3 ox. spots. Few : i. , >l i 'ii <. i n >u document the trespass of toxic chemicals i n> h i i i im Hh ' > ' * m fl preside eere warnings teat pollution was causing Plnecs. Standards for buffer zones, indicating bow 1 . < ' , " w hV, Since trio government is noing a poor job or protecting fenceiioe communities, it is left: to iocal activists ^ and envsronmeniai -justice aovoceies to agitate for saw: conditions for these citizens. Curiously, many i ;r i( , 1 i - `u r t,v ", .a Club) have been : if , f * ' * ^ i n,, K t i I fogicaiiy mane some of its most dedicated activists. Were the Big Ten environmental organizations to 1i 'i f W t i* f t i f pa s s. i '' <. n e> ' i >i j racially diverse. ; Nor have civil rights groups been quick to recognize that environmental justice struggles, such as the in Diamond, constitute a vital new front of the civil rights movement. Studies i i, n f ji ' i r>,,u i m > h- ; `i , * i i ii "'> i >t fi"> exposed to more environmental health hazards than other segments of society. ; <, ,, i < < ^ I f t < il ; the Diamond ; s fit! <* u t' Os. And that i r m1 i ir n ) ! ' Mi Steve Lemur is a amor of Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana's Chemical Corridor (MIT Press ). m Aecommead tins gage to a friend IlisiiiiS Too Ten pages recommended to friends: 1, Beyond Eco-Apartheid 2, time Gres?: Big Plastic Hassle ?>, Dr. Brormer's Magic Media Soag Opera 4, Brian Greece on the Theory of Everything IS Death Midwifery and the Home Funeral Revolution 6, The Sound of Science ?, Awake At Last 8, Green Cities and the Elnd of the Age of Oil 9. Our Town 10, Leifs Get Vertical a COMMON GROUND I SCM Mission Street. 10th floor I San Francisco, CA. 9410S I Phone: Si 5.459.4900 j Fav: S13M5S.497Z coded ! 1:0s of pay; i Home i privacy policy ? site map . Corscloos CnUyoniiooioK. FoOSAhwa Cuicoso Conscloos CisoKt' | i.os Angeles Wi-iolo lufo Tones j SsstUo Conscious Cisoioe http://commongroundmag.eom/2005/03/margierichard0503.html 12/17/2007