As federal protections weaken, Black communities facing disproportionate pollution burdens are turning to grassroots organizing and data collection to demand accountability and protect public health. In Black Houston neighborhoods, air monitors bring long-awaited, air-quality data in areas beset by industrial pollution — and government inaction.
In the Fifth Ward community, a historically Black neighborhood on Houston’s northeast side, there are reminders of the neighborhood’s roots in arts, music and politics around every corner.
The community was settled by freedmen in the mid-1800’s and is home to a vibrant local art scene along Lyons Avenue. Fifth Ward also was home to not one but two influential Black members of Congress: Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland.
But for years, Fifth Ward families have wondered what’s in their air.
Residents live with constant reminders of the heavy industrial activity running alongside and through their community: diesel trucks, metal recycling operations, railways and rumbling traffic along two major interstates that converge blocks from residential streets where kids play.
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