Roadside Revolutions

In rural northeastern North Carolina, where pines edge red clay fields and country roads stitch together generations, Warren County has long been a homeplace shaped by resilience. A predominantly Black community with deep agricultural roots, Warren County nurtured churches, farms, and family land long before environmental injustice carved its name into national history. In 1982, those same quiet roads would become the stage for one of the most defining civil rights and environmental justice movements in the United States.

From Illegal Dumping to Environmental Crisis

In 1978, the Ward Transformer Company and its contractors decided to get rid of PCB-contaminated oil—banned under the Toxic Substances Control Act—by spraying more than 12,000 gallons along 200 miles of rural North Carolina roads. Warren County was hit hardest.

When discolored soil raised suspicion, investigators uncovered PCBs that had been dumped in dozens of locations. Cleanup required removing over 400,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, costing millions in federal and state funds. North Carolina, seeking a disposal site, bypassed scientific siting guidelines and selected a farm near Afton in Warren County despite its unsuitable hydrology and proximity to groundwater.

“Environmental Racism” Finds Its Name

The landfill announcement ignited outrage. Warren County Citizens concerned about PCBs formed almost immediately—farmers, teachers, church elders, and families united by the belief that their home should not be a dumping ground for toxins others refused to keep.

Beginning in 1982, for six straight weeks, residents placed their bodies on the road in front of each arriving truck carrying PCB-laden soil. Over 500 arrests followed. This was one of the largest mass civil disobedience in the South since Dr. King’s marches in Alabama. Protesters knelt in ditches. They sang hymns. They locked arms beneath the weight of police batons and national attention.

Their fight eventually led to the coining of a new national vocabulary. Environmental Racism.

Dr. Robert Bullard, Father of Environmental Justice, defines environmental racism as “any policy, practice or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (were intended or unintended) individuals, groups or communities based on race.”

In the years that followed, the protests spurred the nation’s first major study correlating race and toxic waste siting—Toxic Waste and Race—which confirmed what Warren County already knew: race, more than income, home value, or land ownership, predicted where environmental hazards were placed.

A Long Fight Toward Decontamination

Toxic Waste and Race .

Though the landfill was built, the community never stopped fighting. By the mid-1990s, reports indicated the landfill was leaking thousands of gallons, entering and exiting the site each year. Residents demanded state accountability. Governor Jim Hunt pledged detoxification when technology became available. It took decades.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Warren County residents negotiated, organized, reviewed contracts, and demanded independent scientific oversight. Cleanup finally began in 2001. In 2003, more than 81,000 tons of soil were treated using new destruction technology. By 2004, the long-promised detoxification was complete.

Learning from a Landmark of Justice

Today, Warren County’s legacy reaches far beyond its borders. Scholars cite the protests as the catalyst for federal environmental equity frameworks, environmental justice index mapping, and the national environmental justice movement that continues today. Afton’s roads still wind past farm fields and longleaf pine stands, but now they also carry the memory of one of the most defining community-led movements in modern environmental history.

The struggle continues—monitoring the landfill, advocating for reparations, and pushing for state and federal accountability. But Warren County remains what its people made it: a place of courage, solidarity, and unshakable commitment to justice.

Diego Tovar — Director of Campus and Civic Engagement

Diego Tovar, Director of Campus and Civic Engagement, holds his master’s in Global Environmental Policy from American University and an undergraduate degree as a Udall Scholar in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability with a minor in Political Communication from Colorado State University. Diego has worked for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Navajo Nation Washington Office focusing on climate justice and climate adaptation.