ABSTRACT
Environmental racism combines with public policies and industry practices to provide benefits for whites while shifting industry costs to people of color. Apartheid-type housing, development, and environmental policies limit mobility, reduce neighborhood options, diminish job opportunities, and decrease choices for millions of Americans. African Americans have always constituted a sizable share of the population of southern states, where the plantation economy was dominant—as in Louisiana. The state's economy slowly began to change in the early 1900s from an agricultural and fishing economy—based on its cypress swamps, waterways, and fertile soil—to one based on oil. Terrace residents are elderly, retired, disabled, or living on fixed incomes. After enjoying nearly the decades of home ownership, which is still an integral part of the American dream. The town's African American residents were not offered the same opportunities for being bought out that were given to their white counterparts.
