About this episode

Chandra Taylor-Sawyer discusses the fight for environmental justice in the U.S. South and the tools communities can use to combat environmental racism.

What does it take to confront generations of environmental racism and win? In this episode, Senior Attorney Chandra Taylor-Sawyer of the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) pulls back the curtain on what it really means to fight for environmental justice in the U.S. South. From zoning decisions that quietly turn Black neighborhoods into dumping grounds, to federal rollbacks that threaten the very civil rights tools that communities rely on, Chandra explains how injustice is built and how organized communities can dismantle it. She shares her journey from North Carolina to national leadership, the creation of SELC’s Environmental Justice Initiative, and the urgent battles unfolding right now to protect civil rights regulations, defend bedrock environmental laws, and challenge discriminatory permitting practices. Chandra also highlights SELC’s groundbreaking storytelling project, “Plantations to Pollution,” which traces how historic disinvestment shapes present-day environmental harms and how communities are rising to demand a different future. This episode is both a warning and a rallying cry. Even as federal protections are dismantled and civil rights enforcement is…

People in this episode

Host: Lesley Joseph

Guest: Chandra Taylor-Sawyer

Topics covered

• environmental justice
• environmental racism
• civil rights
• community organizing
• zoning decisions
• environmental law

Keywords

• environmental justice
• racism
• civil rights
• community organizing
• zoning
• environmental law
• SELC

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Southern Environmental Law Center

Books & works: Plantations to Pollution

Places: North Carolina

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