by Bernice Powell Jackson

Black farmers in North Carolina, along with those in other southern states, have felt under siege for a long time now, as they have battled to save their family farms and run into institutional racism in banks and U.S. Agriculture officials. And the environmental justice movement was launched in north Carolina some 15 years ago when toxic wastes were being dumped in Warren County, a largely poor and African American county in the eastern part of the state and has more recently focused on the hog farm industry which threatens homes and churches and schools.

But now Hurricane Floyd, September, 1999, has brought both of these threats together as African Americans find themselves battling once more to survive. Ironically, at the very time that the Agriculture Department announced that some 15,000 black farmers had filed claims in the class action suit which was recently settled, black farmers in North Carolina now face the prospect of losing not only this year’s crops but also their farms because of the flooding. Farmers who lease land will lose their income and probably not be eligible for loans offered by FEMA. Farmers who own their land will be forced to borrow more money to rebuild their homes and their farmland. Loans won’t help many of these already over-extended and poor farmers. Only cash grants may help. Otherwise, many will lose everything in the process and with only 18,000 African American farmers left in this country (less than 1 percent) that will be a loss not only for the farmers but for the entire black community as well.

Then there is the environmental disaster caused by the flooding. Estimates are that more than 100,000 hogs, 2 million chickens and a half a million turkeys have died in the flooding and many of those carcasses are floating through streets and communities and are contaminating the water supply systems for many counties. The huge hog farms located throughout eastern North Carolina, many in primarily African American and poor communities, were already posing threats to wells and were polluting the air around the farms. In some counties it is believed there were more hogs than people. And while state law prohibited the placement of such hog industry farms less than 2000 feet from golf courses, homes and churches could be as close as 1500 feet from these giant farms.

Similarly, the waste of millions of chickens being raised in Virginia and North Carolina was thought to be one possible cause of a viral infection of thousands of fish over the past few years. Now that waste may be running throughout communities hit by the floods together with farm chemicals and manure. Perhaps this natural disaster will force a closer examination of the environmental dangers posed by the huge livestock industry in North Carolina.

Finally, there is the story of the oldest town in the country established by freed slaves which is now totally immersed in flood waters. Princeville is a small village of 2,000 near Tarboro. Freedom Hill was where the freed slaves escaped to and where they founded their own town, a legacy that has only recently been reclaimed and publicized. At the height of the flood the water stopped about six inches below the stop lights in Princeville and the entire population was evacuated. Several lost their lives, including small children. The still-under-construction boys and girls club was destroyed, along with almost every other building in this historic place. Will Princeville ever be able to be re-built or will another piece of the history of African Americans be lost for all time?