People's Power Lab

  Did you know that North Carolina is considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement when Black community members fought against cancer-causing PCB dumping in Warren County (also the birthplace of Ella Baker) in the late 70s and early 80s? The words "environmental racism" and "environmental justice" became part of the global social justice vocabulary as a result of this movement. Black working-class community members are at the forefront of many environmental justice struggles in North Carolina (and beyond) since then, including winning a multi-million dollar lawsuit against swine industry pollution that is causing sickness and deaths in Black, Brown, working-class people living around those areas. It is not surprising that polluting industries, trash landfills, and major highways causing particulate pollution are often located close to where Black and people of color communities live. Black-led movements have also shut down the Atlantic Coast gas P...

 A Profile in Courage - Naeema Muhammad Naeema Muhammad is a veteran social justice organizer based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Sister Naeema is the founding member of North Carolina-based B lack Workers for Justice (BWFJ), an organization dedicated to building Black working-class movement for racial, economic, and other forms of justice. Since 2001, Sister N aeema has been a community organizer for the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network . She served as a community organizer working with communities fighting to stop waste caused by industrial hog operations in eastern part of North Carolina, among other environmental injustices. Sister Naeema has used her skills as community organizer to collect data on health impacts due to swine lagoons, conduct environmental justice education, and organize community members against environmental racism . Members of People's Power Lab visited Sister Naeema in June 2023, and collected the following information. A native of Rocky M...