The Land I Trust

Jorden Revels is a 19-year-old activist and member of the Lumbee Nation in North Carolina. He talks about how the river could be disrupted by the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

Steve Benjamin is the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina. Here, he talks about the connection between climate change and his effort to make his city reliant on 100% renewable energy—and what that means for his family and his future.

Lifelong North Carolina resident Johnny Gurley's drinking water is contaminated by coal ash—a coal power byproduct, stored in pits, that can easily leak into the groundwater. Here, he talks about what that means for him and his health, and what it means to be from North Carolina.

Southerners pass down traditions, stories and -- hopefully -- a better world to their children. The family stories in this episode come from people trying to do just that. Steve Benjamin, the first African American mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, is working for 100 percent clean energy -- and making progress. Tom & Sandra Clark, grandparents from North Carolina, are trying to preserve their home for their grandchildren. And Amy Mercado and Vic Torres, a father-daughter team from Florida, are fighting to be sure America take care of its people.

Ruby and John Laury live in Buckingham County, Virginia, in Union Hill—a predominantly African-American community where Dominion Energy plans to build a compressor station as part of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Here, Ruby & John talk about why they think their community was chosen for this station, and what that means to them.

Blair Campbell’s land in Randolph County, West Virginia, has been in her family for generations. But the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline could cut right through her family’s 480-acre farm. Here, she and her daughter, Penelope, age 9, visit their property.

Imagine one day you get a letter in the mail. This letter, from a huge corporation, demands your land -- land that's been in your family for generations. This is what happened to Marvin Winstead, Blair Campbell, John and Ruby Laury and many others, starting back in 2013. Behind it all? Duke Energy and Dominion Resources, two giant energy companies looking to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The pipeline would pumped fracked gas through the heart of the Southeast, threatening a river of deep cultural significance to the Lumbee Tribe, a historic African American neighborhood in Virginia, and family farms from West Virginia to North Carolina. But from the mountains of West Virginia to Robeson County, North Carolina, people in communities are uniting to fight back, in a defining struggle for environmental justice.

Welcome to The Land I Trust, a brand new audio storytelling project brought to you by the Sierra Club. In this series, we travel through the American South to talk with folks about the dirty energy projects that threaten their homes and the work they’re doing to build a clean energy economy that allows all of our communities to thrive. Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Beyond Coal Campaign at Sierra Club, introduces this Prologue episode of the series, which consists of 10 personal stories and four full-length episodes.