Beverly Wright to Give EquiKnox Lecture on Environmental Justice

Beverly Wright, founding director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, will give the annual Spring EquiKnox Lecture at 7 p.m., Monday, April 13, in Kresge Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. The lecture is free and open to the public. Following the lecture, Wright will sign copies of her books.

Wright is a professor of sociology and the founding director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) at Dillard University in New Orleans. For nearly two decades, she has been a leading scholar and advocate in environmental justice. DSCEJ is one of the few community/university partnerships that addresses environmental and health inequities in the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor, the area commonly referred to as Cancer Alley.

Since Hurricane Katrina, much of the work at the DSCEJ has focused on research, policy, and community outreach, assistance, and education of displaced African-American residents of New Orleans. The center has been a resource to the community providing education, training, and job placement. Wright has been an advocate of the safe return of residents, addressing the critical issues of health and environmental restoration and monitoring fairness of the clean-up process.

Wright has conducted groundbreaking research in the area of environmental justice and developed an elementary school curriculum that has been used by the New Orleans Public Schools. She also manages hazardous waste training programs for people living near or employed at hazardous waste sites.