Identity-rhetoric, unity &amp; the Warren County protests of 1982

In the autumn of 1982, a relatively small and rural county in North Carolina called Warren County started the environmental justice movement. The allocation of a hazardous landfill to the county sparked this start. Residents argued that the landfill was only allocated to Warren County because the county was predominantly African American and poor. Protesters said that the authorities did not expect African American and poor people to have the political clout to significantly rebel against the construction of the landfill. Yet both African American and white residents strikingly did rise up together in a direct-action protest of roughly four weeks. Only a few years prior, both of those races had still lived segregated in North Carolina with their separate environmental struggles. Now, they were protesting together for an environmental concern. How did this unity come about? This study aims to provide a part of an answer to that question by focusing on how identity-rhetoric generated...Show moreIn the autumn of 1982, a relatively small and rural county in North Carolina called Warren County started the environmental justice movement. The allocation of a hazardous landfill to the county sparked this start. Residents argued that the landfill was only allocated to Warren County because the county was predominantly African American and poor. Protesters said that the authorities did not expect African American and poor people to have the political clout to significantly rebel against the construction of the landfill. Yet both African American and white residents strikingly did rise up together in a direct-action protest of roughly four weeks. Only a few years prior, both of those races had still lived segregated in North Carolina with their separate environmental struggles. Now, they were protesting together for an environmental concern. How did this unity come about? This study aims to provide a part of an answer to that question by focusing on how identity-rhetoric generated unity among African American and white people in Warren County. It concludes that two core narratives of race and class as well as the identity issues religion, public health, and the relation between governing authorities and citizens generated a sense of unity that incorporated all people of Warren County and even beyond.Show less

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Identity-rhetoric, unity & the Warren County protests of 1982