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Published on February 19, 2025, by Stephanie Oblena and Tyler Sanchez, Loyola Law Environmental Policy Lab, in collaboration with Caitlin O Hunter, Esq., Director of Research and Policy RISE St. James Louisiana.
Think you may have a connection or be a descendant?
If you believe you have a connection to or maybe a descendant of the former Beuna Vista and Orange Grove Plantations (or others in the area), we would love to hear from you. Sign up to join upcoming conversations about our shared history and connections to one another. Together, we can preserve our legacy and honor our ancestors.
In the US state of Louisiana, along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a heavily industrialized ‘Petrochemical Corridor’ overlays a territory formerly known as ‘Plantation Country’. In the region’s majority-Black communities, residents – descendants of people historically enslaved on the same land – breathe some of the most toxic air in the country and suffer one of the highest risks of cancer, along with other serious health ailments.
As industrial development pollutes their air, it also threatens the burial grounds of their ancestors.