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Royal Oak Community Wants Justice

A group of African American residents in Brunswick County have taken their claims of environmental injustice to court. 

The Royal Oak community has a history going back to slavery.  Today, there are about 300 African American residents living in this unincorporated section of Brunswick County.  But their community also houses a waste transfer station, a sewage treatment plant, the animal shelter and the county’s only landfill.  Lewis Dozier is president of the Royal Oak Concerned Citizens Association.

Lewis Dozier:  "I feel that we have been unjustly targeted because we have activities that threaten our environment and water supply that some of the other communities don’t have."

Dozier filed a lawsuit last week with help from the UNC Center for Civil Rights.  It claims the county’s recent action to re-zone their community with plans to expand the landfill is illegal, and shows a pattern of discrimination.  Brunswick has not responded to the lawsuit yet. 

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
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