In Washington, D.C., activists from the group Rise St. James held a funeral procession in memory of those who lost their lives to cancer and other illnesses that have been plaguing residents of St. James Parish, Louisiana, which has been dubbed “Cancer Alley.” The majority-Black area has been deemed a so-called sacrifice zone and counts some 200 petrochemical plants over an 80-mile stretch of the Mississippi River. This is activist and Goldman Prize winner Sharon Lavigne, speaking in front of the White House yesterday.

Sharon Lavigne: “Cancer is taking over our lives, in the river parishes, down Cancer Alley and throughout the whole Gulf South. So we’re asking President Biden to declare St. James Parish, Cancer Alley — to declare this an emergency. If he will not declare this as an emergency, we are going to die. We are already dying.”