Margie Richard’s David took on the Goliath, Shell Oil Company, and won!
She’s the first African-American woman to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize.
The Goldman Environmental Prize honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world, inspiring all of us to take action to protect our planet.
Margie Richard may not have a lot in common with the Biblical warrior-poet-king David.
But the one thing they do is huge.
Margie took on the Goliath of the Shell Chemical plant that was literally killing her southern Louisiana neighborhood of Old Diamond and won!
The plant sits on land that once was the Diamond Plantation. That’s where the neighborhood got its name. As is common in the South, families have lived there for generations, often working at the chemical plant or the New Orleans Refining Company. Their initials comprise the name of their town — Norco.
Norco itself is part of a stretch of the Mississippi River north of New Orleans, home to over 100 industrial plants employing 27,000 workers, known as the Chemical Corridor.
Environmental and community activists call it Cancer Alley.
