WALLACE, La. — Sisters Jo and Dr. Joy Banner live simply miles from where their forefathers were shackled more than 200 years ago in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Their neat Creole home coffeeshop in the little, river-front town of Wallace lies backyards away from home their great-grandparents purchased more than a century earlier.
It’s a historical location the siblings haveactually committed themselves to keeping complimentary of the heavy market that lines the opposite coast of the Mississippi River.
“We have all these little pockets of totallyfree towns surrounding these plantation walkingstick fields. It’s such a fantastic story of perseverance and how we were able to be economically independent and financially smart,” Joy Banner stated.
Today, miles of sugar walkingstick border homes on Wallace’s west side. Eastward, 2 plantations inform the story of previously shackled individuals: One has more than a lots servant quarters, the other a memorial celebrating a servant revolt.
Directly throughout the Mississippi, refineries and other heavy market crowd the view, proving Wallace homeowners precisely what the Banners are combating versus taking over their side of the river. Together they produced a not-for-profit called The Descendants Project to maintain Black Louisianans’ culture. The instant objective is to stop a 222-acre (89.8-hectare) proposed grain export center from being constructed within 300 feet (91 meters) of the Banners’ residentialorcommercialproperty and near numerous historical websites.
“It would basically pave the method for the entire whole West Bank location that doesn’t have any heavy market on it to simply be industrialized,” Jo Banner stated. “We have a lot of heritage and that’s going to be annihilated if we get these plants.”
Their beliefs echo those of locals who live in other towns along Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, an 85-mile (135-kilometer) passage running along the Mississippi River inbetween New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It’s filled with commercial plants that release poisonous chemicals, consistingof understood carcinogens.
The Descendants’ Project has twisted with Greenfield Louisiana LLC, the business proposing the grain terminal, as well as the regional St. John the Baptist Parish Council for almost 2 years, lookingfor to avoid the Greenfield Wallace Grain Export Facility from being developed.
The center would get and export grain by-products through trucks, trains and barges. While some town locals assistance the job, the Banners and other next-doorneighbors worry it will remove historical landmarks and contaminate the location.
“We currently have problems with market from the other side of the river,” stated Gail Zeringue, whose otherhalf’s