WALLACE, La., Oct. 07, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- British Vogue named Dr. Joy Banner and Jo Banner, twin sisters and co-founders of The Descendants Project, as 2024 Forces for Change for their work to protect the health and land of Black descendants of enslaved men and women in Louisiana’s River Parishes—also known as Cancer Alley for its abundance of petrochemical refineries linked to higher cancer rates.
“We are humbled by this recognition and grateful for the attention it brings to our efforts to preserve the heritage of Black communities in Cancer Alley, where for too long we’ve been told that living amid toxic heavy industry was the only way to have jobs,” said Dr. Joy Banner and Jo Banner. “We invite others to join us in protecting the health of fenceline communities harmed by petrochemical pollution.”
“People are sick and dying all around them,” said activist and actor Jane Fonda, who nominated the Banner sisters for the award, “but they have managed to keep industry out of their parish by turning the plantation houses into historic sites that cannot be disturbed.”
In the last year, The Descendants Project successfully blocked, after a three-year legal and public relations fight, what would have been one of the world’s largest grain terminals from going into their rural community. The organization also separately acquired and preserved the nearby Woodland Plantation—the site in 1811 of the largest slave rebellion in American history.
The Banners, who are directly descended from enslaved people who worked in nearby plantations, have also campaigned for the National Park Service to designate an 11-mile stretch in St. John the Baptist Parish as a National Historic Landmark and advocated on the global and national stage for stronger regulation of petrochemical companies.
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The Descendants Project was formed by sisters Dr. Joy Banner and Jo Banner of Wallace, La., to preserve and protect the health, land and lives of the Black descendant community in Louisiana’s River Parishes. It is a 501c3 nonprofit organization established to support descendant communities in river parishes working together to dismantle the legacies of slavery and to achieve a healed and liberated future.
Kimberly Hefling The Descendants Project kimberly.hefling@gmmb.com
