Beverly Wright

Wright was born in Louisiana, close to a highly polluted area that was known as ‘cancer alley,’.[1] She has said that these childhood experiences were essential in shaping her research career. Wright studied sociology at Grambling State University. She moved to State University of New York at Buffalo as a graduate student.[2] During her early research, Wright realised the racial disparities of cancer alley, noticing that the majority of people who lived along the polluted corridor were communities of colour.[3] In an interview with Vice magazine Wright remarked, “All the birds had disappeared except for the crows. Screens on their windows were rusting and falling off in like three months. The air was so corrosive that the paint on their cars was being melted off,”.[3] In 1991 she attended the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., where she met Damu Smith.[3] Smith was the founder of the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN).[3]

In 1992 Wright became the founder and executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) at Dillard University.[4][5] The DSCEJ is a community–university partnership that investigates the impacts of environmental and health inequality along the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Center, which is so polluted that it became known as Cancer Alley.[6][7] Her research combined population and demographic data with Toxics Release Inventory reports to better understand the correlations between race and pollution.[8] She has shown that almost 80% of African-Americans live in polluted neighbourhoods.[8] Wright and the DSCEJ developed an environmental justice curriculum for elementary schools in New Orleans.[6] She worked on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Minority Worker Training and Brownfields Minority Training Program, which helped people from underserved communities find careers in environmental and health sciences.[9] Working with Robert D. Bullard, Wright popularised the Latinx term “the wrong complexion for protection”.[10]

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Wright focussed on outreach and training programmes for the African-American community in New Orleans. She has worked to support displaced residents in returning to their homes, working with policy makers to address issues surrounding environmental restoration.[11] Hurricane Katrina's flooding resulted in lead saturation in New Orleans soil.[12] Wright showed that lead exposure was particularly bad in areas where there were significant numbers of Black families.[12] She worked with American steelworkers to design a programme known as A Safe Way Back Home, which looks to clean abandoned homes and neighbourhoods of pollutants.[12] The DSCEJ were involved with the response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[2]

Wright has worked with Mitch Landrieu on his Sustainable Energy and Environmental Taskforce.[2] In 2017 she delivered expert testimony to the Council of the City of New Orleans to describe the risks associated with a Entergy gas power plant.[8] In 2019 Entergy were fined $5 million for bringing in paid actors to influence to council's decision making process.[13]

As Wright became more involved with environmental issues she started to realise how underrepresented Black people were at international climate events.[1] In response, she organised a climate change conference for students at historically black colleges and universities, hosted at Dillard University and including a tour of East Plaquemines Parish.[1] Wright is a member of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, which reformed in June 2020.[14] With the newly reformed NBEJN Wright has been serving as an advisor for Joe Biden's climate emergency plan alongside Tamara Toles of 350.org.[3]

• 2006 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Award[15]
• 2008 United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Achievement Award[6]
• 2009 Heinz Award[16]
• 2010 TheGrio 100 History Makers[12]
• 2011 Urban Affairs Association’s SAGE Activist Scholar Award[17]