Descendants can pursue challenge to illegal rezoning in environmental racism case, Louisiana court rules 

On Thursday, a district court judge ruled in our case The Descendants Project v. St. John the Baptist Parish that The Descendants Project, a Louisiana-based organization that advocates for the descendants of enslaved people, may pursue its lawsuit challenging an illegal rezoning ordinance that would allow the construction of a massive grain terminal in a historic Black community near the Mississippi river in the heart of “Cancer Alley.” The ruling sets up a legal showdown over an ordinance that sent a former parish president to prison for corruption decades ago yet remains on the books. 

“We are fighting a toxic combination of corporate greed and environmental racism,” said Jo Banner, who founded the Descendants Project with her sister Joy. “We will not stop until this deadly combo is eradicated and our community is free from the bonds of an injustice that has held it hostage for over thirty years.” 

San Francisco-based investor Christopher James, celebrated elsewhere for “impact investing” and environmentalism, is relying on the ordinance in question to build a massive grain terminal in Wallace, an unincorporated town of 1,245 forty miles east of New Orleans. Wallace residents see it as a grave threat not only to their health and way of life but to the very existence of their community, which contains two landmarked former plantations and possible burial sites of enslaved people.

Learn more about The Descendants Project, founded by sisters Jo and Joy Banner, and our lawsuit The Descendants Project v. St. John the Baptist Parish by visiting our website. Watch a short video discussing Thursday’s outcome here.

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