Tag Archives: racism

The health of the community is way more important than the job —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton, president of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP, says the local and state NAACP are opposed to the biomass plant because the community that is most affected is the minority community. She referred to her previous presentation of a letter from Dr. Robert D. Bullard.

She also brought up an incident with Brad Lofton and recommended that VLCIA hire an executive director who wouldn’t act like that.

And she said she deals with VSEB all the time:

I’ve taken men through there, I’ve signed them up.
She referred to me when she said that, so what I said before is appended after the video.

Here’s the video:


The health of the community is way more important than the job —Leigh Touchton
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

What I actually recommended regarding VSEB, in response to a specific request from Leigh Touchton for recommendations, was maybe schedule a meeting with Roy Copeland to talk about VSEB and solar job opportunities: Continue reading →

NAACP asks EPA for review of biomass plant permit

More from the NAACP about Wiregrass Power LLC’s proposed biomass plant. -jsq
From: Leigh Touchton
Subject: NAACP Georgia State Conference asks EPA for review of Wiregrass permit
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:39:26 -0500
To: [numerous parties]

Apparently some people have incorrect information about the Georgia State NAACP Conference position. Please see attached.

Attached was a PDF file. Here’s an excerpt. Continue reading →

Valdosta NAACP Claims Environmental Racism

Brad Lofton says “all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.” I guess he hasn’t looked at the local NAACP’s front page on the web.

Valdosta NAACP Claims Environmental Racism

The Valdosta-Lowndes branch of the NAACP unanimously passed a resolution of Environmental Racism concerning the siting of Sterling Planet’s Wiregrass Power, LLC, Biomass Incinerator, slated for construction in Valdosta, Georgia, next to the Mud Creek wastewater treatment plant. This incinerator is sited in a predominantly black community: within 2 miles of the incinerator are 2 predominantly black elementary schools, J.L. Lomax with 607 students and Southeast with 304 students, and one predominantly white elementary school, Moulton-Branch with over 500 students. The “Little Blue School” Head Start program serves over 165 children ages 3-5. There are 7 large black churches including Valdosta’s largest African-American church, New Life Ministries, pastored by Dr. Angela Manning, who has organized one Town Hall against the Biomass incinerator. Other churches include the Church at Pine Hill, Morning Star Baptist, Evangel Temple, Church of God of Prophecy, and others, with congregations numbering hundreds. In the area is Sands-Horizon assisted living facility which serves over 60 families, 2 large apartment complexes, Brittany Woods and Park Chase, as well as Valdosta’s largest and most affuent black residential community.

Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, Brad Lofton, rejects the claim of environmental racism, and at the September 27, 2010, Valdosta Board of Education meeting called Valdosta NAACP President Touchton “irresponsible” for making the public claim. He says there are seven times more white people who live around the proposed plant. He did not address the fact that school children and church members do not show up on census forms.

The incinerator will emit 87-89 tons per year of tiny particulate

Continue reading →

“some opposition that has crept up” –Brad Lofton

On 6 Jan 2011, Brad Lofton made a joke out of “some opposition that has crept up” that he claims called him an “environmental racist”. He says “we just provided the facts” and “all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.”

Lofton has been misquoting like this since September. Back then he was willing to name the chairman of the local NAACP. He doesn’t mention that Leigh Touchton responded to him back then:

I did not call the Industrial Authority an environmental racist. What I stated quite clearly was that the siting of the Biomass Incinerator in a predominantly black neighborhood constitutes environmental racism.
In her response, she went on to rebut Lofton’s alleged facts. He has never to my knowledge responded to the points Touchton raised in her rebuttal. Instead, he goes around making a joke out of the NAACP.

-jsq