Two Miles Down The Road

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NPR

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Deborah and Ken Ferruccio saw the toxic chemical spill while they were driving home late one summer night in 1978: a big smelly swath of brown oil on the side of the road. Reverend Willie T. Ramey saw it too. He was a pastor at two local churches and a respected community leader. And not long after that highway spill, he agreed to meet the Ferruccios just after midnight in a barn in Warren County, North Carolina. The Ferruccios told Reverend Ramey they needed his help. Someone was dumping toxic waste in their county, and they needed to organize. Today on the show: how a group of local citizens in a poor, rural, majority Black community came together to fight an iconic battle for environmental justice – and how their work laid a path that leads right up to today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR is doing something new. We're dedicating an entire week to stories and conversations
0:06.6	about the search for climate solutions. Today on ThruLine, the story of how everyday
0:12.2	people started a national movement, one that's shaping environmentalism and climate action
0:18.2	to this day.
0:21.8	In 1977, Deborah and Ken Faruchio made a big decision. They decided to leave Ohio and
0:38.0	move to a small town in Warren County, North Carolina.
0:42.8	I moved here because I was looking for a rural community and a beautiful environment.
0:49.0	I kind of take along. Here I am.
0:54.3	Deborah was in her 20s, Ken in his 30s. They were both English teachers, trying to connect
1:00.5	with another version of America, a quieter, more natural one.
1:06.0	We moved here knowing it was far different from anything we'd experienced. I grew up in
1:10.7	the suburbs outside of Columbus, Ohio and Ken grew up in a small town, Hopkins in Massachusetts.
1:16.3	Both of us were looking for a place that would give us a feeling to live an integrated
1:21.5	life in nature, not in the city.
1:25.2	Warren County is in the northern part of North Carolina, right on the border with Virginia.
1:30.5	It was lush and green in the warm months, the classic image of the rural south.
1:36.4	We came because of the warmth of the people.
1:39.4	But it didn't take them long to recognize it was also a classic southern county in other
1:44.1	ways too. Warren County was majority black and one of the poorest in the state. It was
1:50.3	also struggling to overcome a history of segregation.
1:55.4	The segregation was not like we had heard about from the cities of North. The people had
2:02.5	learned to live with each other and next to each other and depend on each other.
	...

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