Polluted Promises

Across recent decades, residents of many neighborhoods have discovered toxic chemicals and industrial waste seeping into the ground near their homes. Many of these communities have lived beside factories and industrial sites for years, and their residents often report unusually high rates of illness and long-term medical conditions.

Melissa Checker follows one such place, Hyde Park in Augusta, Georgia, a neighborhood of roughly two hundred African American families that was once encircled by nine polluting industries. The book traces how these residents organize and press to be heard and to make their streets safe again.

The author argues that, even after the civil rights era, race and class still determine who bears the burden of pollution and who gets a say in the decisions that follow. The book co-won the Association for Humanist Sociology's 2007 Book Award and was runner-up for the 2006 Julian Steward Award.