LATEST UPDATES

Jo and Joy Banner, Co-Founders of The Descendants Project, are featured panelists at NYC Climate Week, where they will engage in panels, roundtables, and talks to discuss the detrimental impact of plastic on health and environment. Jo and Joy will join scientists, researchers, medical professionals, legal professionals and environmental justice advocations to explore strategies for the improvement of their community's health and happiness.

The Descendants Project & Blanchard House Institute Present Big Freedia Special Guest Ani DiFranco and Leyla McCalla!

Here in New Orleans and Louisiana's River Parishes, we know all about bouncing back. We’ve done it before, and we’re doing it again—building a future where our communities thrive. On September 27, while 5,000 women in building trades gather for NABTU's Trades Women Build Nations event, you can join the first-ever mass registration of women for clean economy jobs in Louisiana.
Come out for a FREE SHOW with Big Freedia, Special Guest Ani DiFranco, and Leyla McCalla.

Greenfield Louisiana announced on Tuesday, August 6, that it is canceling its nearly three-year-old plans to build a grain export terminal in a historically Black town in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Sisters Jo and Dr. Joy Banner live just miles from where their ancestors were enslaved more than 200 years ago in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Their tidy Creole cottage cafe in the small riverfront town of Wallace lies yards from property their great-grandparents bought more than a century ago.

Growing up in Louisiana, in the bayous of the Mississippi River, identical twins Jocyntia "Jo" Banner and Joyceia "Joy" Banner always heard stories from their grandmother Grace, who would tell them about their enslaved ancestors and their history of fighting back at the very plantation the two women now own.

Jo Banner is excited to show the newly acquired Woodland Plantation House near the banks of the Mississippi River.
“We have still a lot of work to do, but I think for the home to be from 1793, it looks rather good,” she beams.

The New York–based organization’s Humanities in Place program aims to support designers who are preserving and building more just communities.

NPR features The Descendants Project

The Descendants Project celebrate victory in the courts.

A Louisiana state court judge ruled a 1990 zoning ordinance null and void, granting a resounding victory to an organization that advocates for descendants of enslaved people. The Descendants Project filed a lawsuit to prevent construction of a massive grain elevator that threatened the health and heritage of Wallace, a historic Black community in the heart of Cancer Alley.

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We are taking our fight to save our community to the world. Please follow The Descendants Project's Facebook page to see updates on their visit to the United Nations in Geneva. 
The founders of The Descendants Project Jo Banner and Joy Banner testified before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. 
They demand a moratorium on toxic industry in their community which is nicknamed "Cancer Alley".

"Big Oil's Last Lifeline" is a three-part documentary series sounding the alarm on the petrochemical industry’s impact on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. There are environmental and climate injustices happening all over the planet, but particularly along the Gulf Coast of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River Valley. These injustices have strategically targeted low-income communities where the majority of black and brown U.S. citizens call home.
This series is produced by Hip Hop Caucus' Think 100% FILMS and Majestic 9 Productions.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation protects significant places representing our diverse cultural experience.

Read the full statement in the link.

President and Chief Executive Officer National Urban League, to Christopher James who wants to build the Greenfield Grain Terminal close to the Whitney Plantation.

Big Victory in our efforts to stop grain elevator!
Here's some thoughts on what happened at the Edgard Courthouse today from co-founder, Joy Banner, of The Descendants Project.

“We thank the Court for ruling that the Greenfield site in Wallace be returned to residential zoning, which will prevent the continued development of environmentally devastating projects like the proposed Greenfield Terminal. We are hopeful this ruling puts an end to the illegal 30-year-old rezoning ordinance that categorized the historic St. John the Baptist Parish in Louisiana as an industrial area. Judge Snowdy and the 40th District Court have soundly rejected the notion that the rich history of this region and the environment and health of our community should be disregarded in favor of corporate greed.

This area, recently recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places due to the proposed influx of toxic industry, is home to many descendants of enslaved people from the nearby Whitney and Evergreen Plantations. Its survival as an agrarian landscape for over 300 years stands as a testament to its significance and resilience.

But now, Greenfield Louisiana LLC, a company from Denver, wants to erase this vital history by building what would be one of the world’s largest grain elevators — the Greenfield Terminal — in the heart of this historic area. This towering structure, as tall as the Louisiana Superdome, would cause serious environmental harm, potentially disturb archaeological remains and burial grounds, and become a gateway for further industrialization by the oil and gas industry.
We are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny the permit for the Greenfield Terminal, and respect the rich history and culture of this region.

Your signature can make a difference. Stand with us to prevent this toxic industrial development, safeguard Louisiana’s shared heritage, and protect its future. Sign and share the petition today to show decision-makers that we won’t stand idly by and let industrial expansion steamroll our communities.