Dollie Burwell once fought against the EPA. The EPA is finally listening.

The environmental justice movement sprang from a protest in Warren County, North Carolina in the early 1980s. A small, predominantly Black community was designated as the dumping site for a hazardous waste landfill. The landfill would store thousands of tons of PCB-contaminated soil. But when the truckloads of tainted soil began to arrive at the site - hundreds of protesters showed up to oppose the injustice. Dollie Burwell was one of the leaders of the protest. She’s been credited as the “mother of the movement”. Ultimately, Burwell and her fellow activists lost the fight against the 22-acre dump. But 40 years later, the EPA announced the creation of a high-level office dedicated to environmental justice and civil rights.