9-Year-Old Rachel Could Save Thousands of Her Ancestors' Lives

A proposed petrochemical plant from Taiwanese company Formosa named 'The Sunshine Project' has the potential to triple exposure to carcinogens for residents of the primarily Black area of St. James Parish, Louisiana. Genealogist Lenora Gobert, along with other members of the community, are fighting back against the proposed plan by citing that enslaved peoples may be buried on the land, and to build there would be a violation of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act.

Lenora Gobert, a genealogist working with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a grassroots organization, has dedicated time to researching old mortgage documents and putting a story to Rachel's name. Gobert believes that Rachel was a young girl born into slavery who died before her 10th birthday, discovered in mortgage documents for the Buena Vista plantation in 1832.

Suppose Rachel was buried on the land that the petrochemical plant is arranged for. In that case, that means the production of it would be a direct violation of the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, which states that it is illegal to disturb historic sites. Already, the facility has been paused for a few years due to an environmental review from regulators worried about potential gravesite desecration.

The rights for air permits for the facility were revoked in early September in Louisiana after Judge Trudy M. White cited slavery in her ruling, saying current community members living near the proposed project site "are descendants of men and women who were kidnapped from Africa; who survived the Middle Passage; who were transported to a foreign land; and then sold on auction blocks and enslaved."

One of the most foundational parts of this crisis is the systemic nature of biological warfare against the current ancestors of enslaved peoples. Where enslaved African Americans were once enslaved to tend to sugarcane on plantations, petrochemical facilities are today replacing agriculture in the Cancer Alley.

"Environmental justice, racial justice, and social justice are intertwined. And the racial justice that we are trying to achieve, that we want to achieve, that we believe we will achieve is to keep these communities on the land where they have been for over 100 years. By these communities staying on this land and fighting the petrochemical industry, that is climate justice for them and everybody else because they will no longer be polluting the Mississippi River. They won't be polluting the land. They won't be polluting the air that has caused Cancer Alley to become Cancer Alley. So it's all connected." - Lenora Gobert.

Gobert urges African Americans from enslaved peoples to look into their family's history: "So reparations – that, to me, is opening up the archives and every place that houses documents pertinent to enslaved people's lives, and making them easily accessible." She believes Black people in America must fight back against institutional and generational racism, "The more information that we uncover about the actual people who were a part of this plantation, the more we can help build out the story for why this plot of land should be preserved."

Resources: 

1. Living on Earth: The Power of Black History

2. This nine-year-old was enslaved in the US. Her story could help stop a chemical plant