ER Louisiana / Lower Mississippi / Cancer Alley

The Poison Next Door: Measuring Risk in Cancer Alley

| Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health | Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine | April 23, 2026

This article discusses air-pollution risk in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and the work of researchers and community advocates to measure exposure in fenceline communities. It is useful for documenting how petrochemical pollution risks in Black communities may be underestimated by conventional monitoring and regulatory systems.

EPA Calls Out Environmental Racism in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley

| Lylla Younes | ProPublica / Grist | October 19, 2022

This article reports on the EPA’s civil-rights concerns in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, where Black residents face disproportionate cancer risk from industrial air pollution, including exposure near a predominantly Black elementary school.

“We’re Dying Here�: The Fight for Life in a Louisiana Fossil Fuel Sacrifice Zone

| Antonia Juhasz | Human Rights Watch | January 25, 2024

This major report focuses on Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, an 85-mile corridor with roughly 200 fossil-fuel and petrochemical operations. Human Rights Watch found that severe health harms from industrial pollution are disproportionately borne by Black residents.

The Fight Over Cancer Alley Pollution Heads to Trial

| Adam Mahoney | Capital B News | February 11, 2026

This article covers litigation arguing that the disproportionate placement of polluting facilities in Black Louisiana communities may be tied to the legacy of slavery and racial discrimination.

Mossville Environmental Action Now v. United States

| Inter-American Commission on Human Rights | IACHR | March 17, 2010

This human-rights decision concerns Mossville, Louisiana, a historically Black community surrounded by chemical plants and industrial facilities. Petitioners alleged that U.S. environmental policies exposed Mossville residents to a disproportionate pollution burden amounting to environmental racism.

CNN Investigates a “Toxic America�

| Earthjustice | Earthjustice | June 2, 2010

This article highlights Mossville, Louisiana, where residents lived near numerous chemical plants and reported serious health concerns. It is useful for documenting how national media and advocacy groups framed Mossville as a toxic pollution and environmental justice case.

Life in Mossville, Louisiana: Policy Implications of Toxic Waste Contamination in a Historic African American Community

| Christopher Kelsey | Rochester Institute of Technology | 2022

This thesis examines Mossville, Louisiana as a historic African American community affected by nearby chemical plants and toxic contamination. It is useful for understanding the policy failures and environmental racism claims surrounding industrial development in the community.

A Chemical Firm Bought Out These Black and White US Homeowners. The Black Owners Got Less

| Sara Sneath | The Guardian | November 17, 2021

This article examines buyouts in Mossville, Louisiana, where Black families lost ancestral homes as petrochemical development expanded. It reports that Black homeowners received less compensation than white homeowners, connecting industrial pollution, property loss, and racial inequality.

David and Goliath in “Mossville: When Great Trees Fall�

| Brown University School of Public Health | Brown University | February 8, 2024

This article discusses the documentary “Mossville: When Great Trees Fall� and the environmental racism themes at the center of the film. It is useful for documenting how Mossville became a symbol of petrochemical pollution, displacement, and public health harm.

Mossville, Louisiana: Environmental Racism and Mass Exodus

| ArcGIS StoryMaps | ArcGIS StoryMaps | May 10, 2024

This story map examines Mossville, Louisiana as a case of environmental racism and displacement. It describes how chemical plants and industrial expansion transformed a historic Black community and pushed residents out.

Prince George’s County Leaders Must Assist Brandywine’s Fight Against Environmental Racism

| Shane McIntyre | The Diamondback | February 23, 2021

This opinion article argues that Brandywine’s concentration of power plants in a predominantly Black area is an example of environmental racism. It connects local pollution burdens to broader racial health disparities and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Venezuelan Oil Brought to the U.S. Would Be Refined in Black Gulf Communities

| Adam Mahoney | Inside Climate News / Capital B | January 6, 2026

This article reports that Venezuelan heavy crude brought into the United States would likely be refined in Black Gulf Coast communities. Residents and advocates warned that the policy could worsen environmental racism in Texas and Louisiana refinery corridors.

In Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,� Excitement Over New Emission Rules Is Tempered by Legal Challenges

| Victoria St. Martin | Inside Climate News | May 10, 2024

This article covers new EPA rules aimed at reducing toxic emissions in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. It also discusses political and legal resistance to federal efforts addressing environmental harms linked to systemic racism.

Environmental Racism in Death Alley, Louisiana

| Forensic Architecture | Forensic Architecture | June 28, 2021

This investigation examines petrochemical development in Louisiana’s “Death Alley� and the Black descendant communities affected by it. It connects refinery and chemical-plant siting to plantation history, racial violence, land dispossession, and ongoing pollution.

Critical Infrastructure, Environmental Racism, and Protest: A Case Study in Cancer Alley, Louisiana

| Columbia Human Rights Law Review | Columbia Human Rights Law Review | No date listed

This legal article examines how critical infrastructure laws can criminalize protest in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. It is useful for showing how environmental racism and restrictions on protest intersect in Black communities fighting petrochemical expansion.

Fighting Environmental Racism in Cancer Alley, Louisiana

| University Network for Human Rights | University Network for Human Rights | No date listed

This project page documents research and advocacy around Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. It is useful for connecting petrochemical exposure, health harms, and environmental racism in Black communities along the Mississippi River corridor.

African Americans on the Frontline Fighting for Environmental Justice

| Robert D. Bullard | Dr. Robert Bullard website | No date listed

This article surveys African American environmental justice struggles across refinery, petrochemical, coal, and industrial communities. It is useful for documenting fence-line Black communities in Houston, Port Arthur, Corpus Christi, Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Southwest Detroit, North Richmond, and Los Angeles.

Lessons from Ag Street: African American Neighborhood Built on a Toxic Dump

| Bridge the Gulf Project | Bridge the Gulf Project | March 30, 2011

This article discusses the Agriculture Street Landfill in New Orleans, where a Black neighborhood was built on contaminated landfill land. It is useful for documenting how toxic land-use decisions became a long-running environmental justice struggle in a community of color.

Commentary: Environmental Justice in the Big Easy? The Agriculture Street Landfill Tragedy

| Craig E. Colten | Environmental Practice | 2001

This article examines the Agriculture Street Landfill in New Orleans as a Superfund and environmental justice case. It is useful for understanding how a former dump became a residential neighborhood and why remediation alone did not resolve the community’s sense of harm.

Environmental Justice in New Orleans

[https://journals.tulane.edu/elj/article/view/2196/2030

| Bradford C. Rajotte | Tulane Environmental Law Journal | 2007]
This law journal article discusses environmental justice in New Orleans, including Cancer Alley and the Agriculture Street Landfill. It is useful for documenting how contamination and environmental burdens have disproportionately affected communities of color in Louisiana.

Local Residents Demand Closure of Agriculture Street Landfill

| New Orleans Historical | New Orleans Historical | No date listed

This history page documents community demands to close the Agriculture Street Landfill, which caused smoke, odors, pests, and neighborhood hazards. It is useful for showing the older roots of New Orleans environmental justice struggles before the site became a Superfund case.

How the Promise of Affordable Housing Lured Black New Orleans Residents to Gordon Plaza

| Katie Moore | WWL-TV | May 12, 2023

This article reports on Gordon Plaza residents in New Orleans who were sold homes on land later recognized as part of the Agriculture Street Landfill Superfund site. It is useful for documenting how Black homeowners were drawn into a toxic housing development and then fought for relocation.

Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor

| Don VanderMeer | Environmental Health Perspectives | 2005

This article reviews the environmental justice struggle in Diamond, a Black neighborhood in Norco, Louisiana, located next to Shell chemical facilities. It is useful for documenting a nationally significant fight over refinery and chemical-plant pollution in Cancer Alley.

Black Residents of Diamond Win Fight with Shell Chemical for Relocation, 1989–2002

| Global Nonviolent Action Database | Swarthmore College | No date listed

This case profile documents how residents of Diamond, Louisiana organized against Shell Chemical and won relocation after years of pollution and explosions. It is useful for documenting successful Black community resistance to environmental racism.

How One Woman Took On Shell to Save Her Louisiana Town

| Reid Frazier | The Allegheny Front | April 7, 2017

This article profiles Margie Richard and the Diamond, Louisiana fight against Shell. It is useful for documenting how local organizing exposed the environmental justice harms of chemical industry pollution in a Black fence-line community.

Shell Games: Divide and Conquer in Norco’s Diamond Community

| CorpWatch | CorpWatch | No date listed

This article examines Shell’s relationship with the Diamond community in Norco, Louisiana. It is useful for documenting race, class, relocation, and corporate power in a Black neighborhood located beside major chemical facilities.

“Waiting to Die�: Toxic Emissions and Disease Near the Denka Performance Elastomer Neoprene Facility

| R. Nagra et al. | Environmental Justice | 2021

This peer-reviewed article examines toxic chloroprene emissions near the Denka Performance Elastomer facility in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. It is useful for documenting health concerns in a predominantly Black Cancer Alley community facing some of the nation’s highest estimated cancer risks from air pollution.

Reflections on Fighting Environmental Racism in St. John the Baptist Parish

| Marianne Engelman Lado Jordan | Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review | 2022

This legal article discusses the fight against toxic chloroprene pollution in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. It is useful for documenting civil-rights strategy, community organizing, and environmental racism in Cancer Alley.

Justice Department Files Complaint Alleging Public Health Endangerment Caused by Denka Facility

| U.S. Department of Justice | DOJ | February 28, 2023

This federal release describes a Justice Department complaint seeking to reduce hazardous chloroprene emissions from the Denka neoprene facility in LaPlace, Louisiana. It is useful for documenting official federal action over toxic air pollution in a heavily burdened Cancer Alley community.

In Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, a Deserved Reprieve for St. John Residents After Years of Environmental Injustice

| Deena Tumeh and Adam Kron | Earthjustice | May 27, 2025

This article discusses Denka’s halt of toxic neoprene production after years of community pressure from St. John the Baptist Parish residents. It is useful for documenting a major community victory in a Black Cancer Alley community fighting industrial air pollution.

“You Have to Speak Up�: How Advocates in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley Helped Push a Toxic Chemical Facility to Close

| Rebekah Sager | Moms Clean Air Force | April 22, 2026

This article discusses organizing against the Denka facility in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. It is useful for documenting how residents and advocates challenged chloroprene emissions in a Black community facing extreme cancer-risk estimates.