Historically Black town in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley is divided over a planned grain terminal

Associated Press

WALLACE, La. (AP) — In a clash over the past versus the future, some descendants of enslaved people in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, are fighting to keep a grain terminal from being built in their historic Black neighborhood. The Greenfield Wallace Grain Export Facility would take in and export grain byproducts via trucks, trains and barges. Some residents are concerned construction and pollution from the facility will destroy the historic Black community of Wallace. Other residents hope it will bring jobs and revitalize the town. They fear that without it, Wallace’s population will continue to decline.