Surviving Cancer Alley: A Story of Five Communities!

Aug 1, 2020 | The Latest News

The Mississippi River Chemical Corridor produces one-fifth of
the United States petrochemicals and transformed one of the
poorest, slowest-growing sections of Louisiana into the working class
communities.

Yet this growth has not come without a cost: the narrow corridor absorbs more toxic substances annually than most entire states. An 85-mile stretch along the corridor, infamously known as “Cancer Alley,” is home to more than 150 heavy industrial facilities, and the air, water, and soil along this corridor are so full of carcinogens and mutagens that it has been described as a “massive human experiment.” According to the Centers for Disease Control, Louisiana has consistently ranked among the states with the highest rates of cancer. Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping by the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice not only shows a correlation between industrial pollution and race in nine Louisiana parishes along the Corridor but also finds that pollution sources increase as the population of African Americans increases. (Read DSCEJ Surviving Cancer Alley Report)

Why the Larger Climate Movement is Finally Embracing the Fight Against Environmental Racism

Jul 9, 2020 | The Latest News

Fight for Environmental Justice

The 2019 fire at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery started with a simple failure: one leaky elbow pipe in a 1,400-acre facility covered with pipes, tanks and industrial towers. Within a few hours last June, enough gaseous propane had seeped into the air to ignite the facility into a fiery hellscape with an explosion hurling human-size pieces of industrial equipment into the air and shaking the ground miles away.

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Caring Is Training

Jun 18, 2020 | The Latest News

Stop the Spread Community Awareness Initiative: Where Caring Meets Training
DSCEJ Educates Communities on How to Stop the Spread of COVID-19

June 2020   “We are living in a global pandemic of a new and highly infectious virus that is taking the lives of Black people at a rate that is three times higher than White people in this country. We have developed specialized trainings based on science that provide people in vulnerable communities with clear and accurate information on how they can protect their health and stop the spread of COVID-19.”
Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

Over the past four months, as the coronavirus continued to spread across the United States, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Inc. has conducted much needed and informative virtual community awareness trainings, the first of which was held on April 24, 2020. People who attended these training events left armed with the knowledge of practical steps they could take to mitigate against infection in their homes and contagion in various settings, including places of worship, retail shops, construction sites, and package delivery services. Each training, uniquely designed for online delivery, featured interactive elements within a two-hour framework. DSCEJ’s team of experts in community health, workplace safety, and disaster response and preparedness designed and conducted the trainings to meet a growing need for accurate and reliable information amidst a sea of misinformation.

Tapping into one of its major strengths, the Center rolled up its sleeves to once again work with community-based organizations to meet the challenge head-on together. As co-sponsors for the series of COVID-19 training sessions, Achieving Community Tasks Successfully, a coalition of community organizations in Houston, Texas; CHESS, founded within the historic community of Africatown in Mobile, Alabama; EEECHO in Gulfport, Mississippi; and Unity in the Family Ministry in Pensacola, each conducted outreach in their respective communities to mobilize and energize neighborhoods, businesses and churches in a concerted effort to help save lives and slow the spread of this highly infectious disease that disproportionately claims the lives of African-Americans.

True to its goal to maintain relationship with affected communities, the Center continued its educational efforts by sending to training attendees weekly updates of COVID-19 health statistics and environmental data for Escambia County, Florida; Harris County, Texas; Harrison County, Mississippi; Mobile County, Alabama; and Orleans Parish, Louisiana.  Each community organization facilitated the wider dissemination of the update information and actively encouraged additional participation in the trainings.

Complete schedule of DSCEJ virtual trainings on COVID-19:
April 28, 2020
10:30 am – 11:30 am
COVID-19 Community Awareness Training
Hosted by
HBCU-CBO Gulf Coast Equity Consortium

May 28, 2020
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
COVID-19 Community Awareness Training

June 9, 2020
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
COVID-19 Community Awareness Training

June 23, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
COVID-19 Awareness Training for Faith-Based Organizations

June 25, 2020
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
COVID-19 Community Awareness Training

June 27, 2020
12 noon – 2:00 pm
COVID-19 Community Awareness Training

July 11, 2020
12 noon – 2:00 pm
COVID-19: Essential Worker and Returning Worker Health

July 14, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
COVID-19 Awareness Training for Returning Businesses
Hosted by
New Orleans Regional Black Chamber of Commerce and
Atlanta Black Chambers

July 21, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
COVID-19: Essential Worker and Returning Worker Health

July 23, 2020
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
COVID-19: Essential Worker and Returning Worker Health

July 30, 2020
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Hurricane and Disaster Preparedness in the COVID-19 Pandemic
Hosted by
Unity in the Family Ministry
Pensacola, FL

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice COVID-19 Trainings are funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).