The issue of preservation of historic Black spaces and environmental racism has come to the fore in the last several years with the preservation of the Underground Railway, slave cabins on the plantations in the South, several museums including the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the capital mall, and the Legacy Museum documenting the history of slavery and racism. Historically, any time a Black town or group was successful, whites would destroy it e.g. Rosewood, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Philadelphia among others. Few historical Black towns remain.
We have one in Arizona we must preserve and protect – Randolph, Arizona, about five miles south of Coolidge. It was founded in the 1930s when Blacks came from Oklahoma and Hope, Arkansas (the home of Bill Clinton) to pick cotton in the dust bowl times. The development of the town is outlined in the book Not All Okies are White: The Lives of Black Cotton Pickers in AZ, by Geta LeSeur. Since the 1960s when mechanical pickers took away the jobs, the town has struggled.
Another disturbing historical trend in America is the placement of environmentally destructive industries and facilities in minority communities, sometimes referred to as green-lining (echoing the financial discrimination against minority communities by the practice of red-lining) or environmental racism.
Randolph, Arizona has become the site of several heavy industries over the years in a process of green-lining right here in Arizona; e.g. El Paso Gas, Kinder-Morgan Gas, Western Emulsion (asphalt), Stinger Welding, and the SRP natural gas plant. Now SRP wants to double the size of its plant. It’s terrible idea for many of the reasons laid out cogently by SRP Board Member Randy Miller.
Concerns for environmental racism, the urgent need to transition to renewables having fewer climate and health impacts, and the accelerating climate change emergency and its disparately severe impact on minority communities have been raised by Sierra Club and Western Resources regarding the continued use of fossil fuels rather than transition to renewables in the SRP plant expansion. The residents of Randolph found an attorney through the efforts of the NAACP and are raising these issues of environmental racism and the destruction of the historic Black community. They need help in getting that message out and making the Arizona Corporation Commission hear it clearly.
The hearing on the SRP plant expansion in Randolph is coming up at the beginning of February.
You can help by filing comments about the building of this plant. To submit a comment, click on this link and put in the name and docket number of the case.
Company: Salt River Project, Coolidge Expansion Project
Docket Number: DOCKET NO. L-0000B-21-0393-00197
Some suggested topics:
- Environmental racism
- Destroying a historic black town
- More fossil fuel power when we need to transition to renewables
- AZ is a harbinger of climate change
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