Earth month dialogues: Momentum builds to save Shiloh
Basic science has taught us that rainwater runs downhill.
A project to widen and elevate a controversial highway through Elba, Alabama, has pointed all drainpipes away from the road’s impervious surface and toward the historic Shiloh community.
Now a sacred place where land has been passed down since the Reconstruction era faces intense flooding with even the slightest amount of rain – in stark contrast to the lush flatlands that once produced crops for the whole historically Black community.
As living in Shiloh becomes more unsafe, insurance agencies trusted to help in times of crisis are dropping coverage and advising residents to move.
I couldn’t believe it.
Pastor Timothy Williams, Shiloh Community
Shiloh pastor and fourth-generation homeowner Timothy Williams is joining forces with Dr. Robert Bullard, known as the Father of Environmental Justice, to ensure the racism unfolding in this small Alabama community is revealed for all to see. But for Bullard, who is Elba born-and-raised, this time his fight is personal.
The duo is praying for good weather this July when a family reunion will draw crowds home to historic Shiloh. We got a chance to ask Pastor Williams and Dr. Bullard about their special place at stake, plus their refusal to stand by as it gets waterboarded by the cumulative impacts of climate change and environmental injustice.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length.
Shiloh, Alabama, is a historic place where few families have lived or owned property. Why is that so important?
Pastor Williams: The land has been passed down in our family from generation to generation since Reconstruction. I’m the fourth-generation owner and I count it as a blessing and an honor. Talking with some of the older heads, they told me Shiloh was a place where a lot of people came to buy their eggs and chickens. For years before my house was built, my family had a farm and sold produce like peanuts and other products to the Coffee County community at large, including people from Elba and New Brockton.
In the 1970s, one of the cousins decided she would parcel it out and start building homes. We were taught that generational wealth is supposed to be passed down, but a lot of people don’t have land like the people in Shiloh, where we have 600-some acres.
Dr. Bullard: I was born in Elba. That’s my hometown and my family, too.
Like Pastor Williams’ family, 10 years out of slavery, my great-grandmother and grandfather were able to acquire 240 acres of timberland outside of the city. That land has been in our family since 1875, so we are very attached to owning it and making sure it stays in the family for new generations.
In the 1910s and 20s, Black folks owned 16 million acres of land, now it’s down to about 1 million. Any threat to disrupt our ownership – like a highway or any other way that land has been lost by Black families – is something that’s worth fighting.
Is there an example of how land ownership has benefitted your family?
Dr. Bullard: The sale of trees off of the timberland my great-grandmother and grandfather acquired was able to send my aunts and uncles and my brothers and sisters to college.
There were no Pell Grants. There were no student loans. We were able to go to college without the burden of large loans.
When you talk about the land, you’re not just talking about property, you’re talking about an attachment to something that can be passed on, so the next generation doesn’t have to start with zero.
How is that being threatened in the Shiloh community?
Pastor Williams: Our inheritance is washing away. Water comes through the Shiloh community in four ways. When I get out of church, if we’ve had a big rain, my basement is full of water by the time I get back home. It has started rotting out the walls.
When we talk about generational wealth, I tell people all the time that ownership is power. That’s why it’s very important to hold on to and take care of your property and that’s why we’re fighting like this. We ain’t going nowhere.
Dr. Bullard: It’s time to get resolution for this particular injustice and it needs to happen soon because this house that Pastor Williams and his family lives in may potentially collapse. This problem that was created by the Alabama Department of Transportation is having cascading negative impacts on families in the neighborhood.
It’s not just the flooding, but it’s also the fact that flooding has contributed to a leaky roof and sinking house. When water gets into your attic, you get mold. Mold can kill you. When you turn on your air conditioning or your heat, the mold spores are blown into the house, and it causes Pastor Williams’ family to get sick.
It’s an environmental problem, health problem, and a flooding problem.
Pastor Williams: That’s right. We are talking about fighting off mold, fighting off flooding, fighting to get the insurance company to cover us, and fighting to get ALDOT to pay for the damage. It’s been seven years. There are a lot of moving parts, but everything points to the fact that this is an injustice that needs to be corrected now.
How exactly is the highway harming Shiloh?
Dr. Bullard: The two-lane highway, U.S. 84, was elevated and widened in the stretch that runs through a part of the community that used to be flat. It made the road higher than the rooftops.
Pastor Williams: Then they turned the drains onto Shiloh’s side of the highway, allowing the water to rush in and pretty much push us out.
We’ve gotten different treatment. A white woman on the other side of the highway, who owns a daycare down the road, didn’t have to go seven years without help like we did. When she spoke up, help came almost immediately.
Dr. Bullard: If you look at the [Reed Award-winning] ABC News report on Shiloh and the differential between how much was paid for the white family’s property and how much was paid for the Black family’s property, it’s like night and day. It’s the same highway. There’s one Alabama Department of Transportation. There shouldn’t be any difference.
Remind us how much compensation the white family received?
Pastor Williams: $160,000.
About $5,000 was offered to the Black families of Shiloh. ALDOT worked with a lawyer to draw up restrictive covenants, and we were misled when making these agreements about our properties.
Our property is flooded — our homes are being damaged inside, outside, and the land is sinking — and then a restricted covenant is added to our property deeds that basically says we can’t sue them if our properties flood.
Dr. Bullard: Like Pastor Williams said, the blatant difference between how those three Black families were paid versus the white family is enough to create outrage, but there’s also a discrepancy in the speed of solving the problem. It’s resolved in a timely manner for one family, but on the other side of the highway, we’ve been waiting for almost seven years now. That’s like pushing us into a corner and saying, “If you are drowning, you just have to drown.”
This is a highway robbery and it has been happening right in front of our eyes.
Dr. Robert Bullard
ALDOT is using the settlement agreement to insulate themselves from future lawsuits. If nothing happens, and Pastor Williams wants to pass his land down to his children, the restrictive covenant will prevent his children from ever suing over the flooding and damage. That means generation after generation will be stuck with flooded property, and at some point, it will have zero value. Now that is land theft. That is land loss.
I wrote a book titled Highway Robbery. This is a highway robbery and it has been happening right in front of our eyes.
That’s such a powerful message. What other messages do you want people to take away from our conversation?
Pastor Williams: We’re going to be in Shiloh for the long haul. Like I said, we ain’t going nowhere. We’re going to keep fighting and justice will come, I do believe that justice is going to come.
Robert Bullard: We’ve been able to take an issue that was invisible for too long from a footnote to a headline. With Jared, Steve, and Maya with ABC News lifting it up, plus the Southern Environmental Law Center doing a yeoman’s job in terms of securing important documentation, it’s important we give recognitions.
We’re going to get just compensation for Shiloh. We’re going to make sure the land is restored to where it won’t flood and we’re going to attract young people back to the community. We want to make sure this is not another case where people lose their land, so we won’t stand by while it gets destroyed. As Pastor Williams said, we’re not going anywhere. That’s my hometown.
If this can happen in the Father of Environmental Justice’s hometown, I think it should be clear to everyone that it can happen anywhere.
Robert Bullard: That’s my point. Do you think you’re going to bury this community in blood and we are not going to fight? Oh yeah, we are going to fight.