Latria Graham: The Roots of Environmental Injustices

Writer Latria Graham helps us unearth the surprising ways in which long-ago plantations and modern environmental injustices are intertwined in the South. From some of the earliest Freedmen’s communities built on frequently flooded land, to contemporary Black neighborhoods now hemmed in by polluting industries, we map the many ways that racist systems codified during plantation slavery still dictate who thrives in the South today – who breathes clean air, who owns land, who is most impacted by climate change. A fifth generation South Carolinian, Latria also shares her family’s own experience of flooding and Black land loss.  

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