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The Black Communities That Have Fought for Their Right to Exist in the Carolinas

The African-American families embroiled in litigation against toxic animal-feeding operations join a long history of black communities fighting for the right to their health in the Carolinas.
A man looks out at the flooded entrance to his apartment complex in Fayetteville, N.C., in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.
A man looks out at the flooded entrance to his apartment complex in Fayetteville, N.C., in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.David Goldman/AP
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For more coverage of environmental justice in the Carolinas, see “Mapping Where Environmental Justice is Most Threatened in the Carolinas.”

There has been much deserved panic about the thousands of pigs and open-air waste lagoons in the path of Hurricane Florence, mostly in North Carolina. While the state is still waiting for floodwaters to recede so that farmers can assess the damage, the North Carolina Pork Council has reported that one of the waste lagoons that breached since Florence made landfall is in Duplin County (pictured below).