Faith leaders and activists will march on May 17 in Richmond to oppose Dominion Energy’s fracked gas pipelines and fight environmental racism

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Faith leaders and activists will march on May 17 in Richmond to oppose Dominion Energy’s fracked gas pipelines and fight environmental racism

On Fri., May 17, activists and faith leaders from across the state are marching in Richmond to oppose a dangerous fracked-gas pipeline and compressor station Dominion Energy plans to build in Union Hill, a historic African American community. This rural area in Buckingham County was founded by descendants of freed slaves. Residents fear the compressor station would bring life-threatening air and water pollution and they see Dominion’s disregard for their community as part of an established history of environmental racism in Virginia.

Watch video of Union Hill residents. Sponsored by Appalachian Voices, Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and environmental organizations across the state.

“End Environmental Racism Now: March with Union Hill”
When: Friday, May 17, 11am-2pm, Richmond

Schedule:

11:00 a.m. – Canoe Run Park, 600 W 22nd Street
12:00 p.m. – March across the Robert E. Lee Bridge

1:00 p.m. – Speakers, faith leaders, musicians at Oregon Hill Overlook, 2nd and Pine Streets

SPEAKERS: William Barber III, Co-chair of N. Carolina Poor People’s Campaign Ecological Justice Committee and an associate with the Climate Reality Project
Karenna Gore, Director of the Center for Earth Ethics

Pastor Paul Wilson, Union Grove Baptist Church in Buckingham, VA
Note: the march route across Lee Ridge is the same route where 51 years ago, civil rights activists marched during Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic Poor People’s Campaign for Economic Justice.

Contacts:
Chad Oba, chado108@icloud.com, 434-806-6332
Cat McCue, cat@appvoices.org, 434-293-6373

This event is part of a weekend-long effort, Virginians for Justice: Progress Not Pipelines! On May 17 in Richmond and May 18 in Leesburg. See event link.

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The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy advocates economic, social, and environmental justice
in Virginia’s policies and practices through education, prayer, and action.
VICPP is a non-partisan coalition of more than 700 faith communities working for a more just society.