News

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman was back in the birthplace of environmental justice last week — Warren County — for the first in a series of Environmental Justice Leadership Academy seminars.

Katey joined representatives from other environmental nonprofits, voting and immigrants’ rights groups, and environmental justice groups from across the state at Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church, the central meeting place of the community that protested carcinogenic PCBs being dumped in a local landfill in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The protests, in which more than 500 people were arrested, started a movement that became known as environmental justice.

“It’s one thing to read about it and watch the documentaries, but another thing to be in the room with the people who birthed the movement,” Katey said. “It was really powerful to be there, to meet them and to hear their perspectives directly on their involvement in the protests, getting arrested and being in jail.”

The first meeting of the Environmental Justice Leadership Academy started with introductions of everyone in attendance, followed by a history of environmental justice, but it was the panel discussion featuring Dollie Burwell and Rev. Bill Kearney, both of whom were an important part of the movement that made national news and put environmental justice on the map.

“The best most and powerful part of the day was the panel discussion,” Katey said. “They discussed from their perspective why they think the movement was successful and how it got so much media attention.”

At the end of the day, attendees traveled by car to the landfill site, where Rev. Kearney talked about the impacts, known and unknown. Though the landfill was eventually cleaned up, residents continue to have concerns about the long-term health impacts of the PCBs.

“In previous years, they’ve walked from the church from the landfill, but because of the heat, we weren’t able to do that this year,” Katey said.

The Environmental Justice Leadership Academy will continue with a series of virtual meetings and two more in-person meetings. Graduation will be held in November.

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