Africatown, Alabama’s Ongoing Fight for Environmental Justice
By Erika Pietrzak, April 25, 2025
As Africatown, Alabama approaches its 160th year of existence, the struggle against environmental racism requires both immediate protective action and long-term commitment to environmental restoration and community revitalization.
For decades, residents in Africatown, Alabama have battled with growing industries stationed along the town’s waterfront that have engulfed residents in pollutants. Africatown is where the last known ship of enslaved peoples to the United States arrived. Over time, the enslaved peoples created a thriving community that has survived for over 150 years. Today, the family that brought those enslaved people to Africatown by force on the last illegal boat after banning slave trade–the Meahers–still owns 14 percent of the community’s land.
Of Mobile County’s 47 pollution-producing industries, 30 of those are located within three miles of Africatown. The reality of having to wear masks everywhere was new for most Americans during the height of COVID-19, but for Africatown residents this has been their reality for much longer. Today, Africatown “remains a battleground where the legacy of slavery meets the reality of environmental racism and industrial expansion.”
Environmental Degradation History
The town’s first railroad line was established in 1852 and today services some of the region’s largest transportation companies. Today, the railroad primarily serves as a passing-through for dangerous chemicals, natural gas, and coal heading towards nearby ports in the Gulf of Mexico.
A Terminal Railway train passing one of Africatown’s welcome signs. [Source: Next City]
In 1960, Africatown residents voted for annexation into the larger city of Mobile, motivated by the opportunity to connect to the municipal water system rather than using local, already contaminated wells. However, the resulting rezoning only exacerbated existing environmental problems as Mobile increasingly awarded Africatown’s land to industrial use, and construction of above-ground petrochemical storage tank farms began.
In the 1970s, Scott Paper Company and International Paper Company were granted permission to establish operations in Africatown. However, over two thousand residents of the town were removed and forced to move during the construction phase. Several other companies opened during the decade, displacing around eight thousand Africatown residents; between 65 to 80 percent of the total population. Today, only two thousand residents remain and no grocery stores exist within a five mile radius, rendering the town a food desert. In the 1980s, the town was split in two by a major highway, removing even more homes and businesses, as well as a postal office, grocery store, and pool.
Concentration of industry as seen from the Cochrane-Africatown USA Bridge. [Source: The Architectural League]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has documented the environmental justice concerns in Africatown. Today, the percentage of houses in Africatown with lead paint is more than three times higher than the state average. Average proximity to hazardous waste and to facilities with higher levels of a regulated substance than allowed by the threshold in Africatown is more than six times higher and almost four times higher in Africatown than in the rest of the state, respectively.
Citizens Fight for the Environment
For the first time since 1990, Africatown has been presented with opportunities to improve its living conditions and environmental quality, opportunities that have been bolstered by the passage of federal air quality regulations and the closure of International Paper Company’s mill. In 2012, Africatown was designated as a Historic District, which led residents to believe they were now protected from the environmental hazards of industrialization. Following this, in 2013, Africatown residents founded the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition (MEJAC). Unfortunately, the town was hit by threats of new pipelines and tar sands oil storage facilities the very next year, but MEJAC’s first action was to fight these proposals.
With Plans Pipeline Company building through a schoolyard and another company bidding to build their oil storage tank across the street, these proposals threatened the next generation of a predominantly Black town. As Alabama already ranks 44th of the 50 states in children’s wellbeing, this would have been another blow dealt to an already vulnerable community in an already vulnerable state. Even worse, this pipeline’s placement near Big Creek Lake also threatened the ecosystems of an important lake used for fishing by the town residents. Protests began almost immediately and a group of concerned citizens came together to write a 66-page compendium against continuing the expansion of chemical facilities. The residents of Africatown fought back hard, with their efforts eventually leading “to both the defeat of the tank farm expansion and the discovery of the infamous slave ship Clotilda, which now offers the community opportunities for cultural tourism and alternative economic growth.” As MEJAC’s first fight and first win, this set up the group to address future concerns in the area.
Plains Pipeline Company bulldozes a school yard to build an oil pipeline. [Source: New American Journal]
Another result of this monumental win was the creation of Africatown Clean Health Educated Safe and Sustainable (Africatown CHESS) led by Texas Southern University and in alliance with other similar organizations led by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the Southeast. The organization uses scientific research to fight environmental racism in the town in hopes of revitalizing the once-thriving town and establishing better health outcomes for town residents
These are not the only organizations working tirelessly, however. The Yorktown Missionary Baptist Church, located in the area many Africatown residents were forced into in the 70s, has birthed some of the environmental justice champions in the community. The Mobile County Training School has partnered with Auburn University and the Mississippi State Landscape Architecture Department to develop “innovative and compelling design ideas that incorporate community history while protecting the environment.” National organizations like the Sierra Club and the National Black Environmental Justice Network have also played instrumental roles in Africatown’s efforts for improvement.
Today’s Fight
Situated in an area known as the “chemical corridor” because of the over 300 factories in the 60-mile stretch of land. These polluters have caused a literal shadow of chemicals to grow over the area. Africatown has the worst air quality in the state of Alabama, as of 2022, with exposure to airborne respiratory hazards in the 95th to 100th percentile. Mobile County leads the state in toxic chemical spills, with most of its impacts in and around Africatown. The prevalence of pollutants is so central to Africatown that several streets in the community are named after the hazards, including Cyanide Way and Berg Spiral Pipe Way.
In 2018, 1,200 Africatown residents filed a class action lawsuit against International Paper for spewing ash and releasing hazardous chemicals exceeding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) limits. This included accusing International Paper of ignoring federal regulations by not cleaning up when it closed, which many residents claim has caused cancer in Africatown residents. Without localized cancer data in Africatown, these claims cannot be proven, but are supported by many of its citizens. In 2020, Stewart and Stewart law firm stated that pollutants were no higher than “background levels” and urged residents to instead take cash settlements from International Paper of between $200 and $8,000. Residents of the town mostly took these settlements, but marked them as “another example of Africatown residents getting screwed.” Many residents’ lived experiences directly challenge the findings of this lawsuit, but without the financial means to challenge it, they have had to accept the outcome.
[ Source: EJ Atlas ]
Under the Biden Administration in 2020, Mobile was granted three hundred thousand dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “to restore old industrial sites and other areas back into usable land for the community’s revitalization efforts,” specifically for land that industrial plants used to own. These funds also allow Africatown to test the contamination of its waterways, soil, and air, a feat that has not been funded until now despite years of concern from its citizens. Residents hope that the testing will finally allow them to become a Superfund site, a designation by the EPA that demands government intervention in cleaning the environment of the area and charging the at-fault parties for the cleanup, a designation that many residents believe is long overdue. If the resident’s claims are confirmed, International Paper could be responsible for increased cancer rates in Africatown citizens and contaminated soil that has left it uncultivated.
In 2021, however, another step back occurred when Sterling Specialty Chemicals (formerly Kemira), the Finnish chemical giant, finished its newest major expansion just 1,500 feet away from homes. This went on despite Sterling Specialty Chemicals’ shipment of toxic organic compound bio-acrylamide overheating in 2018 that forced Chickasaw, the town just north of Africatown, residents to evacuate. The evacuation did not go out to Africatown, who’s residents received no warning according to EPA legal documents, despite being closer to the hazard, “leaving its residents exposed and unaware.
Africatown also experienced a major win in 2021. MEJAC led petitions and protests that forced Alabama Power to comply with federal regulations after the Alabama Department of Environmental Management allowed the company to release illegally high levels of sulfur dioxide into the air. Sulfur dioxide exposure, even for just five minutes, can decrease lung function, especially for those with asthma and can lead to “respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity” in extreme cases. The next year, Mobile’s mayor created an industrialized safe zone around Africatown, banned gas and oil storage in most cases near residential homes. Though this did not disband the current industrial plants, it did promise to prevent a similar use after any plants are shut down. The originally designed safe zone meant “any new expansions or changes at industrial facilities would have required city council approval,” but the zone was minimized during negotiations and legal implications mean that the zone does not affect a small number of companies working for the Port of Alabama.
In May of 2024, community activists proved that HO Weaver’s asphalt plant had been using the wrong air permit for the past 25 years, spewing high levels of toxic fumes into the air of the community. The fumes from asphalt plants in Africatown have caused a range of health issues such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and skin cancer.
Now, the question of a new railway through Africatown presents another fight that the residents are forced to take up to protect their homes. A new railway to connect to the second-fastest growing port in the country, the Chickasaw Railroad Lead Line is a 1.9-mile stretch of track for thousands of train cars to run over every year. The track claims it will reduce train waiting time in Africatown from four to two hours, but residents remain steadfast that they do not want the railroad, explicitly stating they do not want further industrial expansion. Particularly, residents fear that this railroad will lead Africatown back down similar avenues of the 70s and 80s that created these dire issues in the first place. With the railroad less than 160 feet of residential Historic 308 Chin Street and less than 310 feet away from athletic school fields.
Resident observes fumes emitted from the Hosea Weaver asphalt plant. [Source: InsideClimate News]
Conclusion
The fight for a clean Africatown is far from over. Africatown residents are continuously under attack from industries prioritizing their financial gains over the wellbeing of citizens in the town they are encroaching in. One resident stated “First, they ask for your arm, so you give them a thumb. That’s a good compromise. Then years go by, and they ask again, so you give them your hand. And maybe they’ll help build a few things like a museum or a welcome center. But let me tell you this: They are still looking at your arm.” With Trump’s overturning of the Justice40 initiative and widespread attacks on environmental justice efforts, the steps forward are at risk of going backwards once again. The time has come to protect Africatown's arm, hand, and thumb by prioritizing the community's health and future over corporate profits and by defending their rights to healthy living. As this historic community approaches its 160th year of existence, the struggle against environmental racism requires both immediate protective action and long-term commitment to environmental restoration and community revitalization.
Change The Chamber is a nonpartisan coalition of young adults, 100+ student groups across the country, environmental justice and frontline community groups, and other allied organizations.