Below are links to news articles, broadcasts, panel discussions and videos connected to the 1982 protests and the 40th anniversary of the PCB protests. Also included are links news stories, books, scholarly papers as well as environmental, church, community, university and government groups that have ties to and information about the Warren County, N.C. community and the 1982 demonstrations. 

2024 stories, videos, podcasts and panel discussions about Warren County and the PCB landfill

SouthTalks — “We Birthed a Movement” with Jenny Labalme

SouthTalks — “Southern Environmental Justice” with Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr.

INDY Week — “The Right to Enjoy the Planet On Equal Terms”: Warren County Marks 42 Years Since Landmark Landfill Protests

NC Local News Workshop — New documentary ‘Our Movement Starts Here’ chronicles legacy of Warren County’s environmental justice movement

Our Movement Starts Here — A 2024 Documentary film about the Warren County protest and its environmental justice legacy. Produced and co-directed by John Rash and Melanie Ho who work at The Southern Documentary Project.

WTVD — ABC 11: Warren County PCB Protesters Reflect on Historic Movement Against Toxic-Waste Landfill

Duke Today: Rev. Benjamin Chavis Jr. on Building Community with Equity and Environmental Justice

Atmos: Nourishing Roots in the Birthplace of Environmental Justice

2023 stories, videos, podcasts and panel discusions about Warren County and the PCB landfill

North Carolina Civil Rights Trail podcast — North Carolina: Greensboro Sparks a Movement (the last portion of the podcast includes a section on the Warren County protests)

Activists Reflect on Exhibit Commerating Their Historic Environmental Justice Protest

WUNC and NC Health News – From outliers to luminaries: Warren County’s PCB protests get mainstream attention 

NPR Throughline – How everyday people started a movement that’s shaping climate action to this day

Duke University – What is Environmental Justice? 

The Christian Century – Honoring Mothers of the Environmental Justice Movement

Smithsonian Sidedoor Podcast – Building a Movement

The Warren Record – Update on PCB levels in soil 

Earth in Color – A conversation with Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis about Warren County

North Carolina Museum of History – Remembering Warren County: North Carolina and the Continuing Struggle for Environmental Justice (panel discussion)

PBS News Hour – EPA Awards $177 Million to Environmental Justice Groups

2023-24 exibits with photos of the North Carolina Protest

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

MoMA – Photos of Exhibit

Anacostia Community Museum (Smithsonian)

Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University

Sept/Oct. 2022 stories about the 40th Warren County Protest Anniversary

NC Health News

Henderson Daily Dispatch

The Warren Record

The Statehouse File

WUNC 91.5

Duke Today – story about Jenny Labalme

United Church of Christ

Duke Today — story about Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Catherine Coleman Flowers

19th News.org

MSNBC – Ali Velshi

 

Sept. 2022 videos, panel discussions and exhibits about the 40th Warren County Protest Anniversary

NC Health News – Health Care Half Hour. NC’s role in birthing the environmental justice movement

UNC Wilson Library Video — Birth of the Environmental Justice Movement in Five Images

Duke University Panel Discussion Sept. 14, 2022 — “Recalling Warren County|Discussing the Birth of a Movement”

UNC Chapel Hill — Panel Discussion and Exhibit Reception Sept. 15, 2022. Video courtesy of The Southern Documentary Project at University of Mississippi

Duke University Wilson Lecture — “Environmental Justice: Past, Present and Future” with Rev. Dr. Ben Chavis and Catherin Coleman Flowers Sept. 15, 2022

UNC – Chapel Hill — Abbreviated Online Exhibit of the Warren County Protests

University of Mississippi’s Southern Documentary Project: We Birthed a Movement — Celebration of the birth of the environmental justice movement 40 years later.

Sept. & Oct. 2022 stories about $3 Billion in EPA funds slated for pollution-affected communities

The Warren Record

NC Health News

Henderson Dispatch

The News & Observer

UCC.ORG

The Washington Post

Associated Press News

The New York Times

CNN

Reuters

Sierra Club

EPA News Release

 

Background and previous articles, books and videos specifically about the protest in Warren County

WBTV – News – 1982 TV footage, possibly from the first day, of the protest

Dumping On Warren County – 1988, by Jenny Labalme. Story appeared in Environmental Politics, Lessons from the Grassroots, published by the Institute for Southern Studies and edited by Bob Hall. A comprehensive article that explores the history behind the landfill and how local citizens fought back. Republished online September 2022

PCB Site Declared Clean – 2004, The Warren Record

Warren County: Real People, Real Stories – 2006, UNC’s Exchange Project

Transforming Environmentalism – 2007, by Eileen McCurty. A definitive scholarly book on Warren County, PCBs and the Origins of Environmental Justice

Warren County Library Exhibit Commemorates PCB Protests– 2012, WRAL-TV

WRAL – TV Thirty-Year Anniversary of the Protests – 2012

Warren County Environmental Action Team – link to numerous videos ab†out the protest

Warren County PCB Protest 30th Anniversary Celebration – 2012 Scientist Charles Lee speaks

Warren County Documentary – 2018 by Michael Pearce

Warren County North Carolina, Birth of the Environmental Justice Movement – panel discussion hosted by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

The Warren Record – 2021 Plans about the 40th Anniversary protest commemoration

Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien – 2021, How a North Carolina Community Came Together to Fight Environmental Racism

North Carolina Black Alliance Environmental Injustice and Healthcare Summit: Grounded in Justice, Rooted in Wellness. Keynote Address by Shauna Williams  – August 12, 2022

Books, local and national broadcasts about the environmental justice movement

Environmental Justice in North America — 2024 Edited by Paul C. Rosier

Environmental Justice in Post-War America – 2018 Edited by Christopher W. Wells

A Brief History of the Environmental Justice Movement – 2018 Pro Publica

American Masters PBS – 2014  A brief, 2-minute clip with interviews and some footage from the 1982 protest in Warren County.

Environmental Justice: Opposing a Toxic Waste Landfill | PBS LearningMedia – 2010, WGBH-TV Boston (PBS). A 4½-minute long educational program about Warren County’s protest that features Jenny Labalme’s photos and interviews with the Rev. Ben Chavis and Robert D. Bullard.

Where We Live Work and Play, The Environmental Justice Movement and the Struggle for a New Environmentalism – 2000 by Patrick Novotny

Dumping in Dixie – 1990 by Robert D. Bullard, who often is referred to as the Father of Environmental Justice. The book follows the efforts of five Black communities, empowered by the civil rights movement, to link environmentalism with issues of social justice.

More recent articles about the Warren County Protests and their place historically

National Public Radio – 2021 Hope and Skepticism as Biden Promises to Address Environmental Racism

The Washington Post – 2021 ‘This is Environmental Racism’ How a protest in a Black N.C. farming town sparked a national movement.

 

Warren County and North Carolina environmental justice groups

Warren County Environmental Action Team

North Carolina Environmental Justice Network

Warren County NAACP

 

Churches and their involvement in the protest

United Church of Christ

 

A selection of Universities and Colleges with Environmental Justice Programs that have connections to Warren County, N.C.

 

Duke University — Just Environments at The Kenan Institute of Ethics

University of Michigan – 2020 Environmental Justice Summit at Leads to Four Published Articles

Yale University — Yale Center for Environmental Justice

 

Environmental groups with links to the Warren County Protest

The Natural Resources Defense Council – The Environmental Justice Movement

Sierra Club – People and Justice

 

Government links

US Department of Energy – History of Environmental Justice

US Environmental Protection Agency – Environmental Justice

US Department of Interior – Environmental Justice

The White House – Environmental Justice