By Luke Denne, NBC News, June 21, 2020
Robert Taylor has lived on the banks of the Mississippi River in Reserve, Louisiana, his entire life. Both of his parents worked in the local sugar refinery when plantations made up this stretch of the river between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
But where sugar cane once grew, chemicals now spew from smoke stacks.
When the petrochemical industry moved in, the predominantly Black community’s health began to suffer.
“We didn't know why. We were just ignorant plantation hands, you know, the descendants of slaves," he said.
Comments (0)