2024 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 61

first privately owned uranium
enrichment plant. [Some links
with background on the lawsuit
and its outcome: https://
www.nirs.org/juneteenth-honoring-a-landmark-environmentaljustice-victory-in-louisiana;
https://earthjustice.org/feature/
homer-louisiana-nuclear-nonsense;
https://www.ejnet.org/ej/
LES.pdf]
Most of uranium, right now,
sits at [the Department of
Energy], but [the collaborators]
wanted to privatize, and
the community that they
wanted to put it in, northwest
Louisiana . . . was sandwiched
between two unincorporated
Black communities-Forest
Grove and Center Springs. The
draft environmental impact
statement [DEIS], submitted
to the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory
Commission] for the
plant, reported the closest
community to the proposed
facility was Homer, some five
miles away. However . . . Forest
Grove Church and Centers
Spring Church, located in
these two Black communities,
date back to 1865 and 1910.
White racism erased these
two historic Black communities
and made them invisible
in the DEIS. My [environmental
justice] analysis was to make
them visible to the [government's]
licensing authority.
And this case was in front
of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Licensing Board,
a three-judge panel, in 1989.
I was one of the expert witnesses.
I did the analysis,
showed the process . . . they
went through to find the suitable
site, and [how,] the closer
they got to [finding] the suitable
site, the Blacker the community
. . . got. And by the
time they winnowed down the
list to the final site and opened
the envelope . . . the winner . .
. was Forest Grove and Center
Spring, [a pair of] communities
. . . where Black people owned
land.
The NRC judges ruled,
" Permit denied. " Boom. That
was a major EJ victory to celebrate.
UL:
Where did you grow up,
and who was the most influential
person in your life?
Bullard: I grew up in Elba,
Alabama, a small [town] in
southeast Alabama where
everything was segregated. My
parents were sticklers for education.
Education is everything.
My grandmother was also
a stickler for education. She
only had a sixth-grade education
but had a PhD in living,
financial management, and
holding on to her inheritance.
Her mother and father were
enslaved, but 10 years out of
slavery, in 1875, they were able
to acquire 240 acres (97 ha)
of timberland in southeast
Alabama. We don't know how
my great grandmother and
great grandfather were able to
acquire the landholdings. But
they did. Our family's position
has always been, " don't ask,
don't tell. " The land is still in
my family. It was drilled into
us to never sell the land and
[to] keep it in the family. My
father and grandmother would
sell timber from the land every
five or six years and divide the
money among my father and
his three siblings. The sale of
trees from this land provided
money to send my three
brothers, my sister, and me to
college.
My parents and my grandmother
were instrumental in
shaping my worldview, and
what I see as my role and
responsibility as a college professor,
and as someone who
values service. They taught me
the importance of giving back.
No matter how high you go,
always remember someone
helped you along the way. And
never forget where you came
from. UL
Dr. Robert Bullard and U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touring
the flood-damaged Shiloh community in Alabama.
SIBLEY FLEMING is editor in chief of
Urban Land.
FALL 202 4
URBAN LAND
61
BEST PRACTICES
DR. ROBER T BULL ARD AND THE BULL ARD CENTER F OR ENVIRONMENT AL JUS TICE
http://https:// http://www.nirs.org/juneteenth-honor https://www.earthjustice.org/feature/ https://www.ejnet.org/ej/
2024 Fall Issue of Urban Land

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