Bridgeport, CT – On Sunday, April 3rd, Bridgeport residents, statewide organizations and prominent advocates from the #BlackLivesMatter movement held a rally to raise awareness about environmental justice. The rally was part of a week-long series of events called the #HolyWeekofAction, which drew attention to a number of issues affecting black communities.
Moral Monday CT, a faith-based affiliate of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, hosted the #HolyWeekofAction. Co-sponsors of the event included the Healthy CT Alliance and Capitalism vs. the Climate. Speakers included Bishop John Selders, founder of Moral Monday CT, and Reverend Sekou, an author and theologian active in the #BlackLivesMatter movement. They declared it unjust that low income communities and communities of color – from Bridgeport, CT to Flint, MI – are consistently exposed to higher levels of pollution. State Representative Jack Hennessy, State Senator Marilyn Moore, community leaders Ernie Newton, Jorge Cruz, Tony Barr, hip hop artist Emcee Elvee, and 10-year-old Jaysa Mellers also spoke at the event.
Flint, MI made national headlines after it was discovered that the town’s drinking water had long been contaminated with lead. Many accused the state of Michigan of participating in “environmental racism.” In other words, they argued that Flint was neglected for so long because its population is predominantly black and low-income. Bishop Selders believes that Bridgeport is not so different. Selders said, “Environmental racism is bound up with Connecticut’s industrial past and continues to feed health disparities and economic injustice. Natural resources and marginalized peoples have been relegated as dumping grounds in our urban areas – 5 cities are home to 71% of Connecticut’s people of color and at least 20% of pollution sources. Yet, large majorities of people of color support environmental justice. That’s why Moral Monday CT supports clean power – to the people! Green is for all of us. Black loves Green!”
Toxic facilities in Bridgeport include wastewater treatment facilities, a trash incinerator, a coal-fired power plant, and a fracked-gas plant. PSEG plans to begin building a new fracked-gas plant next year, locking in decades more of pollution in the South End. Forbes Magazine has ranked Bridgeport the country's fourth dirtiest city. Meanwhile, Spectra Energy's fracked-gas pipeline construction near New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant endangers Bridgeport residents and others in the New York metropolitan area, since there is a small but real chance that a pipeline rupture could trigger a meltdown at Indian Point. A recent headline in The Nation warned, “A HighPressure Pipeline Next to a Nuclear Power Plant… What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
Bridgeport resident Gabriela Rodriguez said, "Bridgeport kids are sick with lead poisoning and asthma. My siblings are sick with lead poisoning and asthma. It isn't right for poor black and brown communities to be exploited like this for profit."
Rodriguez’s family is not an outlier in the city. According to the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition, nearly 4,000 children aged 14 or younger visited the hospital last year for asthma related incidents. This rate is nearly double the state average. In addition, the number of children who screen positive for lead poisoning is on the rise in the Bridgeport. In fact, children under age six have seen an 18% rise in lead poisoning since 2012. Jorge Cruz of Healthy CT Alliance said, "We have to come to the realization that there is a significant problem in Bridgeport with the environmental injustices being perpetrated on low-income and minority communities. We need to expose the hypocrisy of city and statewide officials who claim to care about the community but disregard them when dollar bills are waved around. It's counterproductive to the health of Bridgeport residents."