For this professorship, I am proposing the production of a documentary that looks at the issues of environmental racism in 1996 and the attempts by then Governor Foster and the state of Louisiana to violate the constitutional rights of citizens of Convent, Louisiana. Specifically, among other constitutional rights, I will be looking at the violations of First Amendment, specifically the right to free speech and the right to peacefully assemble.
Background:
In 1998, Robert Kuehn and Oliver Houck, professors of environmental law at Tulane University and the student organization they created and directed, the Environmental Law Clinic came under attack from then Governor Mike Foster and many business organizations.
For thirty years, the …show more content…
The citizens of Convent, who were mostly African American and underprivileged formed a group called St. James Citizens for Jobs and the Environment (SJCJE). It was through this organization that the citizens approached the Environmental Law Clinic for assistance in fighting …show more content…
Today in that area, the environmental situation is not much better than it was in 1996. In 2016, the media has brought the issues of racial inequality into our living rooms. This presidential election has ignited an onslaught of racially motivated speech on all sides of the issue. The incidents of lead poisoning in Flint, MI suggest that environmental racism is still prevalent today.
Finally, I have a personal stake in this documentary. My parents have lived more than sixty years in Convent. I grew up in St. James Parish and saw the immense growth of the chemical plants in this area. My father retired from Ormet, a bauxite refinery in Burnside, Louisiana.
My mother and father’s neighbors have always been African American. One afternoon about fifteen years ago, one my parent’s neighbor went out to the mailbox to collect her mail. At that moment, the plant across the river had a leak in one of their lines, and a cloud of hydrochloric acid omissions came across the river, and she breathed it in. Her larynx, her lungs and her esophagus had severe chemical burns, to the point were she could not eat solid food for the rest of her life. She had difficulty speaking, and was plagued with pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses. About five years ago, after living with this condition for ten years, she passed away. During her lifetime, she was unable to receive
Background:
In 1998, Robert Kuehn and Oliver Houck, professors of environmental law at Tulane University and the student organization they created and directed, the Environmental Law Clinic came under attack from then Governor Mike Foster and many business organizations.
For thirty years, the …show more content…
The citizens of Convent, who were mostly African American and underprivileged formed a group called St. James Citizens for Jobs and the Environment (SJCJE). It was through this organization that the citizens approached the Environmental Law Clinic for assistance in fighting …show more content…
Today in that area, the environmental situation is not much better than it was in 1996. In 2016, the media has brought the issues of racial inequality into our living rooms. This presidential election has ignited an onslaught of racially motivated speech on all sides of the issue. The incidents of lead poisoning in Flint, MI suggest that environmental racism is still prevalent today.
Finally, I have a personal stake in this documentary. My parents have lived more than sixty years in Convent. I grew up in St. James Parish and saw the immense growth of the chemical plants in this area. My father retired from Ormet, a bauxite refinery in Burnside, Louisiana.
My mother and father’s neighbors have always been African American. One afternoon about fifteen years ago, one my parent’s neighbor went out to the mailbox to collect her mail. At that moment, the plant across the river had a leak in one of their lines, and a cloud of hydrochloric acid omissions came across the river, and she breathed it in. Her larynx, her lungs and her esophagus had severe chemical burns, to the point were she could not eat solid food for the rest of her life. She had difficulty speaking, and was plagued with pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses. About five years ago, after living with this condition for ten years, she passed away. During her lifetime, she was unable to receive