In 1978, a group of Warren County residents formed the Warren County Citizens Concerned about PCBs (WCCC) to prevent the planned landfill. The WCCC pushed legal battles, rallied local supporters, solicited national, state, and local politicians to oppose the landfill site, and pressed Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. to select another location for the landfill.
After three years of pressure and unsuccessful legal battles, the group reassessed their strategy. In 1982, WCCC enlisted the help of local and national religious leaders with experience in the civil rights movement and nonviolent protests. With the addition of new civil rights groups, the WCCC expanded its original focus on the health of one community to include an emphasis on all poor, minority communities. In addition, the group called attention to racially motivated environmental injustice. Unified, the WCCC, civil rights activists, and students readied themselves to do what they could to stop the dump trucks from bringing the hazardous waste to the landfill.
Warren County Citizens Concerned About PCB billboard,
November 24, 1984
TONY RUMPLE, WARREN COUNTY, NC
The Warren County Citizens Concerned (WCCC) about PCBs formed almost immediately after Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. announced the decision to place the PCB landfill in the Afton community. Led by Ken Ferruccio, the WCCC grew from grassroots social action against the landfill and led the fight against toxic aggression. The group of over 400 members worked to bring attention to the danger a PBC landfill would pose to the community by erecting billboards, flooding the area papers with letters, and lobbying local politicians.
Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection
North Carolina Collection
Bumper Sticker, ca. 1981
WARREN COUNTY CITIZENS CONCERNED ABOUT PCBs, WARREN COUNTY, NC
Governor James B. Hunt, Jr.'s administration was undaunted by the concern of the WCCC and county residents that the dump site would pollute the water and deter new investment in what was an already vulnerable local economy. The WCCC realized the enormity of their plight when they discovered the push by the EPA and Governor Hunt to loosen landfill regulations during a trip to Washington. Governor Hunt never swayed from his decision to use the Afton site, with one administration official’s brash declaration that the construction of the landfill would continue, "regardless of public sentiment."
Bob Hall Papers
Southern Historical Collection
Brochure, ca. 1982
WARREN COUNTY CITIZENS CONCERNED ABOUT PCBs, WARREN COUNTY, NC
With legal options dwindling, the WCCC began to reconsider their strategy and began to enlist help from leaders with experience in nonviolent direct action. These new supporters included leaders such as Rev. Luther Brown of Coley Springs Baptist Church and Rev. Leon White of the NC United Church of Christ from the local community, and national figures such as Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. of United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, Dr. Joseph Lowery of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Walter Fauntroy, a congressional representative. These men had experience with social action from their work in the civil rights era. They also brought a shift in ideology to the campaign. Together, they formed a shared understanding of justice at the crossroads of environmentalism and civil rights, leading to a national awareness that these types of environmental injustices were racially motivated.
John Kenyon Chapman Papers
Southern Historical Collection
Community meeting on the eve of the protest, September 14, 1982
JEROME FRIAR, WARRENTON, NC
When community outcry and political pressure failed to alter the state's plan to use the landfill in Warren County for PCB disposal, the people readied themselves for the next steps. Leaders from within the WCCC, along with help of religious and civil rights leaders and others now part of the landfill opposition, prepared for nonviolent direct action. On Tuesday, September 14, a community meeting was held to encourage residents to "Stand Up!" and ready themselves to march, protest, and disrupt the dump truck bringing the PCB contaminated soil to the landfill the next day.
Jerome Friar Photographic Collection
North Carolina Collection
Copyright: Jerome Friar, 1982