Delia Heck Spoke on Environmental Racism During Black History Month

By Mary Stoudt

Ferrum College celebrated the Black History Month with various events throughout February. In the last week of this year’s celebration, Delia Heck, professor of environmental science at Ferrum, gave a presentation on environmental racism in the US. 

Heck defined environmental racism as an injustice that occurs in practice and policy within a radicalized context and further explained it with numerous examples.

“We’ve known about this problem [environmental racism] but we’ve not made progress addressing it,” Heck said.

(Delia Heck, professor of environmental science at Ferrum. Photo courtesy of Ferrum College.)

Heck spoke on the environmental justice movement that began in the 1960s, along with the research work by Robert Bullard in 1978. Bullard found that over 80% of garbage was disposed of in Black communities; moreover, all city-owned landfills in Houston, Texas located in predominantly Black communities.

Following Bullard’s work, Heck continued to discuss how Black children were affected by environmental racism. She emphasized that Black children - who lived in severely polluted areas - experienced more health issues than White children. 

Heck also spoke about Cancer Alley in Louisiana, which has over 200 chemical plants and is known for highly toxic air. Residents living in this area are predonomitally people of color, who are also 50% more likely to develop cancer than any other locations in the US, according to Heck.

Toward the end of her presentation, Heck discussed another case about the Home Owners Loan Corporation. The HOLC was created during the 1930s and had local real estate developers appraisals in over 200 cities, including Roanoke, Va. Many areas in these cities were redlined, indicating that the area was supposedly dangerous. Residents in these redlined areas were predominantly Black residents who were unable to obtain loans from banks, while white residents in green-lined areas were more likely to.

(A HOLC map of the city of Roanoke, Va. and the redlined area was made up of predominantly Black residents. Residents in redlined areas are less likely to get bank loans than those living in green-lined areas. Photo courtesy of RedliningVirginia.org.)

Heck wrapped up her talk by pointing to recent advancements with environmental racism in the US. On Jan. 27, 2021, President Joseph Biden signed an executive order that made environmental justice a part of the mission of every federal agency. Biden urged agencies to develop programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionate health, environmental, economic, and climate impacts of disadvantaged communities.