SELC launches "Plantations to Pollution," exposing the unbroken line from slavery to today's environmental injustices

New storytelling series reveals how the South's past continues to shape who bears the burden of pollution

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) announced the launch of "Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward," a new multimedia storytelling series that traces the often-unbroken line from plantation slavery to today's environmental injustices.

The series arrives at a pivotal moment when the federal administration is attacking bedrock environmental safeguards, cutting funding for programs meant to address longstanding pollution in communities of color, and dismantling environmental justice offices at federal agencies. Southern Black communities, many built on or near former plantation lands, bear the heaviest pollution burdens. Through an immersive website, documentary video, photography, and Season 8 of SELC's Broken Ground podcast, "Plantationsto Pollution" follows the throughline from the South's slavery system to today's environmental injustices, offering portraits of persistence, advocacy, and hope.

"History isn't behind us; it's under our feet. That's why we're honored to be sharing this project, 'Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward,'" said Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, senior attorney and leader of SELC's Environmental Justice Initiative. You'll meet people living in communities linked to former plantation sites, now overburdened with industrial pollution and dealing with the impacts of climate change, yet still fighting for clean air, safe drinking water, and a future that respects their right to thrive."

"Plantations to Pollution" highlights the people shaping the South's path forward, those fighting not only for survival but also for fairness, representation, and environmental accountability.

Communities at the crossroads of history and harm

The series shares stories from across the South, each highlighting how decisions rooted in slavery and segregation still shape environmental outcomes today.

• Durham, North Carolina (Hayti District) – A once-thriving Black business community destroyed by urban renewal is now reclaiming its power.
• South Memphis, Tennessee – Burdened by decades of industrial zoning and cumulative pollution, South Memphis now faces a new threat, the burden of being home to the polluting xAI facility.
• Hampton, Virginia (Bay Shore Beach) – Once a haven for Black families excluded from segregated beaches, Bay Shore was lost to inequitable redevelopment and climate-driven erosion. Today, local organizers are working to protect the community from new threats.
• Bucksport, South Carolina – Founded by formerly enslaved people, this historic community is fighting a proposed interstate that would slice through its core.

The "Plantations to Pollution" multimedia storytelling series also includes the latest season of SELC's award-winning podcast, Broken Ground. Host Leanna First-Arai sits down to talk with descendants of enslaved laborers, career historians, and community members to better understand how the choices made in our past created the challenges that communities face today as they look to ensure the longevity of the places they love. 

Together, the immersive website and podcast stories reveal a shared truth: The geography of slavery has become the geography of pollution, and the fight for justice is far from over.

"Because of the South's history of racial injustice, communities across our region face a legacy of environmental injustice today," said DJ Gerken, president and executive director of SELC. "As lawyers and advocates, we're connecting that history to ongoing pollution and policy failures harming communities across our region. 'Plantations to Pollution' highlights these stories because we can't find the path forward to a future where every community breathes clean air, drinks safe water, and lives in a healthy environment, if we don't understand how we got here."

Why it matters now

This project launches amid a federal attack on foundational environmental laws and safeguards that protect community health. As federal agencies weaken enforcement efforts, SELC attorneys are stepping in to fill the gaps left behind, holding polluters accountable and defending our environmental laws.

"At SELC, we're responding the way lawyers are uniquely equipped to respond, by going to court," said Taylor-Sawyer. "Across more than 100 active environmental justice matters, we're enforcing the laws that safeguard clean air and water for communities of color across the South."

Through this work, SELC continues to connect its legal advocacy with the lived experiences of Southern communities. "Plantations to Pollution" underscores that achieving environmental justice requires both enforcement of the law and acknowledgment of the history that shaped these inequities.

Visit "Plantations to Pollution" at https://plantationstopollution.selc.org/ to explore the multimedia storytelling series from the Southern Environmental Law Center featuring community stories and local advocacy efforts.

About Southern Environmental Law Center
The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation's most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region's air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 130 legal and policy experts, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. SELC.org

About Broken Ground
Broken Ground is an award-winning podcast by the Southern Environmental Law Center digging up environmental stories in the South that don't get the attention they deserve and giving a voice to the people bringing those stories to light. Broken Ground podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts. BrokenGroundPodcast.org

SOURCE Southern Environmental Law Center