Ziba Kashef

About the author: Ziba Kashef is the senior editor Essence.com, an online magazine.

The charge of "environmental racism" has been leveled at companies that build polluting industrial plants in lower-income, largely minority, communities. An important episode in this conflict took place in Convent, Louisiana, an African-American community where the operation of several heavy industries has brought about one of the nation's most polluted regions and the nickname of "Cancer Alley." In 1996, Convent resident Emelda West, a retired schoolteacher, decided to lead a protest against the building of yet another toxic plant in her neighborhood.

When Emelda West's neighbor called one July morning in 1996 to warn her about a new toxic chemical plant moving into their town of Convent, Louisiana, the then-72-year-old retired schoolteacher immediately thought about her daughter, Yolanda.

Mysteriously stricken with breast cancer...