Roishetta Ozane and her daughter Kamea, residents of the industrial corridor in Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley,” are taking their fight for environmental justice directly to the boardrooms of America’s most powerful banks and fossil fuel companies.
Stretching along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, “Cancer Alley” is home to more than 150 petrochemical plants and refineries.
For decades, residents, predominantly from Black and low-income communities, have reported alarming rates of cancer, respiratory illnesses, skin disorders, and other chronic health conditions linked to toxic emissions.
Speaking to Democracy Now! during their national tour, Kamea described the environmental hazards they face daily.
“As soon as you walk outside of my house, you can see the industries. You can see the bulging fires and smell this really toxic air,” she said. “It’s not good for the kids to go outside and play… The air is making them sick with conditions like cancer, asthma, eczema. My brother even has epilepsy from these plants harming him and his health.”
Her mother, Roishetta, said the family’s experiences are part of a larger pattern of environmental racism.
“My seven-year-old son goes outside to play and comes back saying it smells like rotten eggs. We are real people, not small people from small towns that are sacrifice zones. We’re fighting for our right to breathe clean air and drink clean water,” she said.
Ozane is calling on financial institutions and corporations to stop funding fossil fuel expansion and redirect investments toward renewable energy, community development, small businesses, education, and green spaces.
Their advocacy aligns with growing demands from environmental and human rights groups for a just transition away from fossil fuels, particularly in communities disproportionately burdened by pollution.
The tour seeks to put human faces, and lived experiences, at the center of the conversation about climate policy, corporate accountability, and environmental justice.
