Wayan Barre
Wallace
The Mississippi River in Louisiana. On the right is Wallace, a majority-Black residential area surrounded by green fields that were once sugarcane plantations. On the left, in Gramercy, is Atlantic Alumina Company (ATALCO), the last operating alumina refinery in the United States.
In the heartland of Louisiana, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a 150-mile corridor along the Mississippi River tells a tale of environmental degradation, social injustice, and economic struggle. This region, home to more than 150 behemoth chemical facilities and oil refineries, is also home to numerous communities, predominantly low-income and marginalized. Nearly 50 percent of the residents are African American, their roots intertwined with the land for centuries, dating back to the days of slavery when they were forced to cut and process sugarcane on vast plantations that dominated Louisiana’s River Parishes.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports a staggering 95 percent higher risk of cancer due to air pollution for residents in this area compared with the rest of the United States. This tragedy has earned the corridor the morbid moniker “Cancer Alley,” a term underscored in 2021 by United Nations human rights experts as a stark example of environmental racism.
On the front lines of this battle, women—most of them African American—are powering the environmental justice movement. Here are a few of their stories.
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Sharon Lavigne, seventy-two, lives in Welcome, a small, predominantly Black community in the heart of Cancer Alley. A retired special education teacher, she has taken a leading role in the fight against these industries. Driven by her faith, Lavigne founded RISE St. James, a grassroots organization dedicated to stopping the expansion of petrochemical plants in her community. Lavigne has organized marches, filed lawsuits, and worked with national environmental groups to challenge these industries, as well as government officials. Despite the challenges, she remains hopeful and continues to fight for environmental justice in her community, believing it to be her “divine calling.”
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Janice Ferchaud, sixty-seven, looks out the window of the trailer in St. James that she has called home since Hurricane Ida destroyed her house in August 2021. Frustrated by the lack of awareness about Cancer Alley, she speaks openly about her own battle with breast cancer, describing the lasting impact of her mastectomy—a stark reminder of the region’s harsh realities. More than twenty people from her neighborhood have had cancer, and Ferchaud attributes her own cancer, along with the deaths of family members, to pollution from nearby plants. A long-time fighter, Ferchaud works tirelessly to halt the spread of new petrochemical plants in her parish and beyond. She has been involved with various environmental justice organizations, including Exclusive Ladies, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and RISE St. James. She is also founding her own organization, L.O.V.E. (Love Opportunity Victory Everlasting), to help others secure trailers and recover from hurricanes.
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Cows in front of Denka Performance Elastomer facility
This farmland lies adjacent to the Denka Performance Elastomer plant in LaPlace, Louisiana, where livestock and nearby residents are exposed to chloroprene, a chemical classified as a likely human carcinogen used in the production of neoprene. Neoprene is a type of elastomer—a flexible plastic commonly found in products such as rubber bands, seals, and gaskets. Denka Performance Elastomer, which acquired the plant from DuPont in 2015, has been in conflict with federal authorities over regulations aimed at reducing chloroprene emissions, which the EPA determined to pose a significant health risk to nearby communities. The EPA has been pushing for stricter emissions controls to lower local cancer risk levels, leading to a contentious dispute. Governor Jeff Landry has criticized the EPA’s rule, claiming it unfairly targets a single company and could lead to job losses in Louisiana, potentially benefiting international competitors like China.
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Wilma Subra is a chemist and environmentalist who has dedicated her career to protecting the environment and the health of communities. In 1981, she founded the Subra Company, a chemistry lab and environmental consulting firm. Her work has earned her numerous awards, including a MacArthur “genius grant,” and she has served on multiple councils and committees, including with the EPA. Additionally, she provides reports for the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN). Subra works to help ordinary citizens understand, cope with, and combat toxic chemicals in their communities.
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Twin sisters Joy and Jo Banner live in St. John the Baptist Parish, just miles from where their ancestors were enslaved. Their Creole cottage cafe in the small riverfront town of Wallace stands on land their great-grandparents bought more than a century ago. The twins, who are known for their work in environmental justice and cultural preservation, co-founded the Descendants Project in 2020, a nonprofit focused on protecting Black communities’ land and heritage from industrial threats in Cancer Alley. Grounded in their Creole culture, the sisters are committed to advocating for a healthier and more equitable future for their community. The Banners played a pivotal role in halting the Greenfield grain elevator project, which posed a significant threat to their community in Wallace. Their efforts ultimately led to the project’s suspension, protecting historic Black communities and the environment.
Wayan Barre
Plant(ation)
Workers harvest sugarcane near the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Garyville, Louisiana. This area was once dominated by vast plantations, now replaced by industrial plants. One of Joy and Jo Banner’s missions is to raise awareness about the intersecting histories of enslavement, settler colonialism, and environmental degradation.
These photos, along with another version of this story, are scheduled to appear in the January 2025 edition of Country Roads magazine in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.