SOC 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Warren County, North Carolina, Institute, West Virginia, The National Law Journal
Document Summary
The distribution of environmental contamination tends to be unequally distributed along lines of race and ethnicity, economic class, and region according to the literature. This situation appears to be exacerbated by the unequal application of environmental law. The term environmental racism was coined in 1982 when the. United church of christ commission on racial justice came to the aid of a small black community in warren county, North carolina, that was fighting a hazardous-waste cleanup plan to move polychlorinated biphenyl (pcb)-contaminated soil from around the state to a landfill near their homes. Home to approximately 16,000 blacks, warren county was one of the poorest counties in north carolina with a per capita income of ,984 in 1982. More than 400 people were arrested. in the" first large environmental demonstration in the united states that centered on the issue of race.
