Warren County's
​Environmental Justice History

1982 PCB Protests

​In 1982, Warren County residents mobilized against the establishment of a PCB toxic waste dump in the mostly-Black community of Afton. PCB, or polychlorinated biphenyl, is a toxic chemical that had been dumped along highways in North Carolina in 1978.

​Through legal action and protests, community members fought the State's decision to store the state's contaminated soil in a toxic waste dump in the mostly-Black community of Afton, NC. The 1982 protests, known as the PCB Protests, succeeded in ensuring only Warren County's waste would be stored in Warren County. Decades later, community members again organized to ensure North Carolina would keep its promise to decontaminate the toxic site.  

The PCB Protests are recognized as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. The events prompted a landmark national study of hazardous waste landfill siting in low-income communities of color and began a global movement against environmental racism.

Photo taken at the 30th Anniversary Celebration of the PCB Protests

External Resources

Learn more about Warren County's rich history of environmental justice organizing through several existing resources:

• Warren County: Birth of a Movement (documentary produced by Michael Pearce)
• Remembering Kearneytown (documentary produced by Pavithra Vasudevan)
• Warren County: Real People, Real Stories (case study documented by UNC's Exchange Project)
• Birthing the Environmental Justice Movement (radio episode by Backstory Radio)
• New Growth in the Birthplace of Environmental Justice (radio episode by NPR's Living Downstream: The Environmental Justice Podcast)
• Environmental Justice Panel Discussion (panel hosted by North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences)
• "This is Environmental Racism": How a Protest in a North Carolina Farming Town Sparked a National Movement (article by Washington Post)
• PCB Site Declared Clean (article by the Warren Record)
• How a North Carolina Community Came Together to Fight Environmental Racism (coverage by WJCL)
• Warren County Celebration Remembers More Toxic Times (coverage by WRAL)
• PCB Protests Historical Marker (North Carolina Department of Historical Resources)

​
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also houses a number of important historical materials relating to African American history in Warren County more broadly, including:

• A selection of oral history interviews across a range of projects. 
• Archived radio broadcasts from the former WVSP radio station, including recordings of poetry readings and interviews, produced pieces, and public service content. All of these materials are part of the “Media and the Movement: Journalism, Civil Rights, and Black Power in the American South” collection.

30th Anniversary Celebration of PCB Protests

2012 marked the 30th anniversary of the PCB protests in Warren County. Community members renewed their commitment to ongoing environmental justice struggles with a celebration featuring music and speeches from leaders such as Charles Lee, principal author of landmark report "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States"; State Senator Doug Berger; Congresswoman Eva Clayton, Representative Frank Balance; and many more. Videos from the 30th anniversary celebration are available on the WCAAHC YouTube channel.

30th Anniversary Celebration Videos

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