Environmental consortium addressing inequality convenes in Houston on Saturday Pleasantville gaining expertise of Texas Southern and black college collaborative

Pleasantville neighbors were evacuated during the 1995 fire at Houston Distribution Inc. Pleasantville neighbors were evacuated during the 1995 fire at Houston Distribution Inc. Photo: Carlos Antonio Rios, HC Staff Photo: Carlos Antonio Rios, HC Staff Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Environmental consortium addressing inequality convenes in Houston on Saturday 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

Like four other communities along the Gulf Coast, the Pleasantville neighborhood on Houston's east side is receiving some expert support to help residents address longstanding environmental justice issues.

The planned 1940s development that placed black war veterans into home ownership faced flooding from Port of Houston dredging in the 1950s, a massive hazardous materials fire in the 1990s, and ongoing pollution concerns from plant emissions to this day.

Under a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the Kellogg Foundation, a historically black college environmental consortium including Texas Southern University will invest resources and expertise in port cities in five states.

In addition to Pleasantville and the 9th Ward in New Orleans, the project will help communities in Gulfport, Miss., Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. fight health and environmental inequities.

The three-hour meeting begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13 at the Judson Robinson Sr. park and community center, 1422 Ledwicke, 77029.

"The idea of participating with the consortium aligned very well with our vision and mission statement," said Bridgette Murray, founder of the collaborating Pleasantville community organization and the area's super neighborhood president. "This is truly about grassroots activities where residents identify what their issues are and work collectively to try to resolve or mitigate those issues."

Murray founded Achieving Community Tasks Successfully– known as ACTS – in 2013 to increase community engagement and address environmental burdens.

Pleasantville, which is one mile from the Port of Houston, has about 1,100 residences and a home ownership rate exceeding 70 percent, the retired nurse said. There also are specific issues surrounding access to resources and encroaching potential hazards.

"We have railroad tracks at two of the four entrances to our community," Murray said. "We are a food desert. We are about 5 miles from the closest grocer."

The consortium initiative has two co-principal investigators: Robert Bullard, a TSU distinguished professor and sociologist who is known as the father of environmental justice, and Beverly Wright, a Dillard University professor and founder of the New Orleans-based Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.

The project focuses on addressing social inequality, health equity and the well-being of children and families by harnessing the expertise of black college experts in public health, urban planning, law, nursing, environmental science and other disciplines.

"There is no other initiative like this. The community could request a health survey or mapping of pollution – or identifying food deserts, pollution hot spots, flood maps and insurance rates," Bullard said. "Our goal is also to get additional funding to support the organizations in a more robust way so that the organizations can hire one staff person because these organizations do not have any staff."

Initial meetings like the one Saturday in Pleasantville help communities determine their major needs and set goals.

"These are exciting times because with funding streams from the federal government shrinking, it makes it even more important that our community-based organizations and our black colleges step in to begin to address some of these legacy issues," Bullard said. "It's about training a new generation of leaders to work on these issues that have been very hard to solve."