One of the interesting things here about Institute, when you look broadly at environmental

justice communities around the country, and one of the questions that always comes up

is, well, which came first?

Did people move in around this polluting facility or the other way around?

And the interesting part of Institute's story is that this historically black community

in mostly white West Virginia was really there first.

And it was there first because of Jim Crow laws and the educational policies that forced

the state to start a second school in Institute for black students.

And so then when the federal government became concerned going into World War II about

a shortage of rubber because the Japanese were taking over parts of the world where rubber

came from, the federal government came in and built a plant with Union Carbide to make

synthetic rubber there.

So the origins of there being a heavily polluted facility in this community came directly

from federal government policies, making sure that we had what we needed to win the war.

It is a small town in West Virginia and one of two majority black communities in a state

that is 94% white.

It gets its name from West Virginia State University, a historically black college, originally

called the West Virginia Colored Institute.

Nestled near Institute is the Union Carbide Chemical Manufacturing Plant owned by Dow Chemical.

And while the plant has supplied the area with jobs, many Institute residents associated

with leaks, fires, and toxic air pollution.

This year a report from the West Virginia State Health Department found that the towns

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