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Oral Histories

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the Rogers Road neighborhood (clip)

Darius Scott (DS): What brought you guys from Merritt Mill to Rogers Road when you were in the third grade? David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): Oh! Like most of the people out here, we had the opportunity to buy a home. DS: Um-hmm. DC: There was only about thirteen houses out here when we moved out here, and…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the initial promises about the landfill (clip)

Darius Scott (DS): Okay. And you mentioned the landfill a bit a moment ago. Could you describe the moments leading up to the landfill coming to Rogers Road? David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): Oh, gosh! We had, basically, it was, like I said, we were a little country neighborhood. They came into my father s…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the landfill's environmental impact (clip)

David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): This was a dirt road, red, dusty, clay. All of this was cornfields, like I said, and a few houses, things, mostly a farming community. And when they did it, the road was so bad that it was tearing up the city s trucks, so they had to pave it sooner than they wanted to. So,…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On activism (clip)

David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): We brought up the fact that they were not keeping the promises that were made. We would go to meetings to voice our protest and, I mean, we were met with disgust and disdain and, “Why are you guys back here again?” [Sound of train passing, whistle blowing] We were bringing…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On RENA (clip)

David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): Right now I m the project director and the community organizer. And what I do is special projects that come up, I pretty much organize and get them going and get the community organized into participating. We do a Backpack Back-to-School Bash, where we give our goal is…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On race as a factor in environmental justice (clip)

Darius Scott (DS): By thinking about the environmental issues that have been faced by Rogers Road, how do you think race factors into those? David Caldwell, Jr.: Well, [laughs] you are in the South! I mean, that’s… that is the South. That’s what, to me, what the South was based on, was race. That’s…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the history of the Rogers Road community (clip)

David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): For Rogers Road we were looking at a mitigation committee that we are working with. One thing they did agree is that, yeah, we’ve got sidewalks and streetlights, but its twenty years down the road. So do you really feel like you’ve done what you were supposed to do, even in…

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On methane and the landfill (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On Greene Tract Development (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On landfill employees (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On growing up on Rogers Road (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On Youth Involvement in the Rogers-Eubanks Landfill Removal (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On Rogers Road's Roots and History (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the landfill problems (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On successful strategies sourcing local support to solve community issues (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the fifty-year landfill struggle (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On growing up in the Rogers community (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the book on the Rogers-Eubanks Landfill (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On who suffers because of landfills (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On the Fight for Clean Water (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On Recruiting Experts' Help to Prove the Existence of the Landfill Problems (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - Advice to the current generation (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On visitors from China touring the Rogers-Eubanks community (clip)

 David Caldwell, Jr. - On Caldwell historical items (clip)