Environmental Justice and the RENA Community

"This land has always been probably some of the prettiest land in the county."
- Judy Nunn Snipes

Image

By Kiara Sanders
Installed 2021

Located at the bus shelter on Rogers Road

ARTIST STATEMENT

The four figures on the left are Sam Rogers and his grandsons, who were part of the establishing of Rogers Road and the family who lived there. There is also a woman and child in the middle frame, they were unnamed but part of the Walker family who also had connection to Rogers Road. Then there is Robert Campbell who is on the right and a young girl holding a protest sign regarding environmental justice with the landfill. The background is the Faith Tabernacle church. I intended to superimpose a map of Rogers Rd and lower the opacity in the background.

The idea is the unification of the ancestors to the present day, and the connection of memories to history. Also, an acknowledgement of how a historic Black neighborhood dealt with trauma from the poisoned groundwater.

Mother and daughter Judy Nunn Snipes and Gertrude Nunn are life-long residents of the Rogers Road - Eubanks Road Neighborhood (RENA). For over 40 years, they lived with a landfill in their backyard. Learn more about this story of environmental justice in Chapel Hill by visiting the resources linked below.

RESOURCES

  • Full interview with Gertrude Nunn and Judy Nunn Snipes. Conducted by Darius Scott for the Southern Oral History Program in 2014. Click here.
  • Interviews with David Caldwell Jr., the Project Director and Community Organizer for RENA. Conducted by Darius Scott for the Southern Oral History Program in 2014. Click here.
  • Rogers Road: Mapping our Community’s Future. A community planning effort between the Jackson Center and RENA to "create a shared vision for Rogers Road development for the next 10 years & beyond." Click here.
  • A history of the Orange and Guilford County landfills by Rebekah Cowell of Indy Week. Click here.
  • Rogers Road by Emily Eidenier Pearce. A history of the Rogers Road neighborhood of Orange County, N.C., and discussion of the effects of a landfill built near the neighborhood. Available to check out at Chapel Hill Public Library. Click here.