URGENT CALL TO ACTION: PROTECT BLACK FARMERS AND INDIGENOUS LAND IN PEMBROKE TOWNSHIP

URGENT ACTION NEEDED

Shield Black Farmers and Indigenous Land in Pembroke Township 

Oppose HB 3404 to Cease the Nicor Gasoline Pipeline!

Pembroke farmers and residents want our collective assist for his or her struggle towards laws which seeks to deliver expensive and harmful fossil gasoline vitality by way of a Nicor pure gasoline pipeline into Pembroke. The invoice, HB 3404, threatens Pembroke’s world-renowned 3-biome ecosystem–dwelling to the Kankakee Sands and blacks oaks savanna.

Because of Potawatomi and Black stewardship rooted in good relationship with the land and natural farming practices, the world has thrived as a sanctuary for a lot of uncommon and endangered plant and animal species. Pembroke can be dwelling to a deep historical past and custom of Black freedom and self-determination. Based by Joseph “Pap” Tetter, spouse Mary Eliza, and their youngsters in 1862 after escaping from North Carolina previous to the Emancipation Proclamation, Pembroke Township served as a sanctuary for different runaway and freed enslaved individuals. The world was an necessary terminal for the Underground Railroad and skilled continued waves of Black migration by way of the Nice Melancholy and Nice Migration. Pembroke’s Black farmers proceed to steward the land and develop self-sufficiency and self-determination utilizing the data and practices handed down by way of generations.

“Pembroke persons are resilient. They’ve deep roots within the native soil. Residents have a lot to show the world about how you can reside as stewards of the land. Drawing on their wealthy tradition and pure surroundings, group members work to create sustainable livelihoods for future generations.”

– Subject Museum, Rooted

The group has been combating off pure gasoline for over forty years to guard the surroundings and transition in the direction of renewable vitality and a sustainable future. HB 3404 would violate Pembroke’s residents self-determination and permit the proposed fracked pure gasoline pipeline to hazard Pembroke’s uncommon ecosystem and hurt its historic Black farming group. Regardless of widespread opposition, minimal alternatives for group enter, and failure to conduct and current affect research, the laws handed by way of the Basic Meeting with bipartisan assist as a way of “financial improvement.” Pembroke residents have made it clear that fossil gasoline vitality reminiscent of this pipeline haven’t any place in Pembroke’s future. Quite the opposite, the Pembroke Township and Hopkins Park Sustainability Plan requires options reminiscent of renewable and environment friendly vitality, sustainable meals methods, and assist for farmers. 

 “Folks right here love the earth. This pure gasoline pipeline has nothing to do with the wellbeing of our group. We don’t must have it for our livelihood or financial improvement.”

 – Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter, Black Oaks Middle 

The invoice (HB 3404) now sits on the Governor’s desk. The way forward for Black farming in Illinois relies on your solidarity and motion. We solely have till August 29, 2021 to get calls and letters in opposition to Governor Pritzker. 

Under are 3 steps you may take. 

TAKE ACTION NOW 

1. Name the Governor’s workplace at 217-782-6830 to demand that Pritzker veto HB 3404 and guarantee affect research, public course of, group involvement, and NO eminent area
   1. Pattern script from IEC: 
      1. “As a involved resident of Illinois, I urge you to guard public security, protect pristine agricultural land, and forestall a utility price enhance by utilizing your veto powers on HB3404. This laws solely gives a false resolution to the very actual issues confronted by a group disinvested for many years. By giving a assured contract to Nicor Gasoline to construct unfettered into Pembroke township, the final remaining traditionally black farming group in Illinois, with out scrutiny of related businesses, essential public security protections, and solely meager public enter, Illinois residents will undergo. As a substitute of assessing options, this invoice would saddle Pembroke households and farmers with fracked gasoline infrastructure effectively previous your proposed finish date for gasoline in Illinois. As you recognize, it’s time to spend money on clear vitality, not double down on dangerous fossil fuels. Amending this invoice is a crucial step in defending Illinoisans from poor public well being outcomes, rising utility prices and the more and more perilous impacts of the local weather disaster.”
2. Ship e-mail letters by way of the next pages:
   1. Illinois Environmental Council: Stand with the Folks of Pembroke, Cease Fossil Gas Growth
   2. Illinois Stewardship Alliance: Inform Governor Pritzker to Veto HB3404, Protect Pembroke, and Cease the Nicor Pipeline
3. Uplift Pembroke’s efforts towards the Nicor pure gasoline pipeline by sharing these calls to motion amongst your networks and social media platforms!

To study extra:

1. WBEZ, Historic Black Farming Neighborhood In Pembroke Views Deliberate Gasoline Pipeline As Existential Risk
2. Chicago Solar-Instances, In Kankakee County’s Pembroke Township, race, poverty, farming, Nicor gasoline pipeline converge
3. Pure Sources Protection Council, Placing Pembroke’s Priorities Above a Gasoline Giveaway

Observe and assist the organizations on the frontlines: 

Black Oaks Middle

Blacks In Inexperienced

Illinois Environmental Council

Illinois Stewardship Alliance

Nature Conservancy 

Pembroke Farming Household Affiliation

Iyabo Farms