Plantations to Pollution

The White Lion, an English privateer based in the Netherlands, arrived in then Point Comfort—now a part of modern-day Hampton, Virginia—in August 1619 with approximately 20 enslaved people from Africa. Today it is known as Old Point Comfort and was the site of Fort Monroe. It is only approximately 5 miles from Buckroe Beach.

The peak of landownership by Black people in the United States totaled 15 million acres. Of this, 218,000 Black farmers are full- or part-owners.

Up to 81 percent of these landowners, by one estimate, due to lack of access to legal resources, did not make wills. These lands became known as heirs’ properties that lacked legal protections and were vulnerable to forced sales, contributing to further land loss among Black landowners as the 20^th century progressed.

On July 14, the Housing Act of 1949 was signed into law. The Act furthered the “Urban Renewal” program, providing significant funding for cities to acquire “slums” and properties perceived as “blighted” and sell them for public or private redevelopment, resulting in the displacement of Black communities.

The passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act bolstered the build out of the United States’ federal interstate system. The Act enabled the government to seize homes via eminent domain, isolating neighborhoods, breaking apart communities and undercutting Black families’ opportunities for generational wealth.

The Clean Air Act of 1963, the first federal legislation providing for the control of air pollution was introduced. Amendments in 1970, 1977 and in the 1990s expanded federal authority regarding air pollution control.

The Clean Water Act amended the 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act, laying the foundation of modern water pollution control regulations.

As a result of historic redlining, the location of polluting industries in and near neighborhoods, and the targeted development of highways, communities of color experience a disproportionate burden of environmental pollution and the associated, detrimental health effects.

Many credit Afton, North Carolina, as the birthplace of environmental justice for the residents’ protest in the 1980s against the proposed siting of a hazardous waste landfill intended to receive Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB)-laden soil in their predominantly Black community.

In the early 1990s the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established their Office of Environmental Justice (then Equity) and National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Presidents Clinton and Biden signed executive orders in 1994 and 2021 requiring, respectively, that federal agencies implement environmental justice policies and direct 40 percent of climate, clean energy and infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities. The current administration rescinded these executive orders in January 2025.