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Film scratches overlay1/15/2024 ![]() ![]() And there was a very active investigation that was taking place in North Birmingham around bribery in fact, there were elected officials that were indicted during that time period, all to keep this community from receiving the justice that they really deserve. What I did not know was that the state of Alabama, and I think historic and systemic racism that is prevalent throughout our country, was going to be just as strongly involved in that space, even with or without me. So together, we worked on how we could reclaim the land through Brownfields funding. So when I came into the North Birmingham community, it was incumbent upon me as a part of the Obama administration, but also as a part of this community, as an African-American woman born and raised in the South seeing what look like myself, to be as much help as I could be in this space in this moment. There was a high rate of cancer, a high rate of airborne illnesses, asthma, impacts that really were directly related to the air pollution, but nobody really recognized it or acknowledged it as such. And they had been for a long time asking for help to not only clean the land but also to recognize the impacts of this pollution on their health. People talked about how it left almost like an itchy, filmy residue on the skin. And this particular community had been inundated with years of air pollution, so much so that you could feel it in the air and on the street. HEATHER MCTEER TONEY: North Birmingham, Alabama, had been fraught with environmental injustices of a local coke plant and that’s not Coca Cola, like the product we drink, but coke, which is a byproduct of coal, and burning of coal. So one of the examples that really opened my eyes to the challenges of both government and officials, when they try to make changes, is the North Birmingham story that you tell in your book. And she is now the Executive Director of Beyond Petrochemicals. Toney served as the Southeast Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama. ![]() The former mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, Ms. Now, Heather McTeer Toney is saying Black America, along with everyone else, needs to take climate action before the darkness of climate catastrophe descends. So, the quest for justice now must include addressing the climate emergency, writes Heather McTeer Toney in her 2023 book, “Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions.” Black kids were often told to “Get home before the streetlights come on,” words of caution to avoid situations that could endanger young Black lives. Generations of Black Americans have faced racism, redlining and environmental injustices, such as breathing 40 percent dirtier air and being twice as likely as white Americans to be hospitalized or die from climate-related health problems. STEVE CURWOOD: On June nineteenth of 1865, enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally got the news that more than two years earlier President Abraham Lincoln had already emancipated three and a half million enslaved people in the Confederate States in rebellion against the Union.Īnd though we’ve come a long way since then, true freedom and equality for all have yet to arrive. From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview on Juneteenth by Host Steve Curwood with Heather McTeer Toney, former Southeast regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama. ![]()
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