Sherri White-Williamson of Clinton, in Sampson County, co-founded EJCAN, which advocates for environmental justice in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color where pollution sources are clustered. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News Gaslighting: Fifth in a series about opposition to a wave of new natural gas pipelines, power plants and storage facilities on the drawing board in North Carolina. Listen to an audio version of this story below. CLINTON, N.C.—Sherri White-Williamson rode down Main Street here a week before Christmas, past the mom-and-pop bakery, an oldies AM radio station and a cozy coffee shop. From the car’s passenger seat, she glanced at an empty glass storefront in the heart of town where in the 1950s and ‘60s, she shopped for clothing. It was one of only two places where Black people could not only buy clothes but also try them on. Today there is a different Clinton, a different Sampson County than that of 60 years ago. It’s now integrated, but with landfills, industrialized hog farms and a wood pellet plant that belie it being an environmentally just place. White-Williamson is 72, with close-cropped hair and an intentional way of walking that says she is on her way somewhere to do something important for someone. She worked in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, graduated from Vermont Law School in 2018 and returned home to Clinton, where she co-founded the nonprofit Environmental Justice Community Action Network—EJCAN—almost five years ago. White-Williamson sits on the Governor’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council, established by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in a 2023 executive order. The council leadership recently reassured its members that it would continue under Gov.-elect Josh Stein, also a Democrat, until at least 2027. She feels relieved that for a while at […]
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