Cushing, Oklahoma looks like a lovely little town with an affluent past. It is, some would say, one of the key oil centers of the United States. The people of Cushing have thrived for generations due to the wealth brought in by oil. But have all of the people of Cushing thrived, or just the Caucasian ones?
If you go to Cushing to see President Obama Thursday morning, be sure to ride through the old Black community and see how it looks. It is a symbol of what Cushing did to the Blacks who lived there. Many of the Black folks have died of cancer and the ones still living there seem to be plagued with mysterious illnesses.
The Caucasians forced all the Blacks to live in the Northwest area next the refinery. They released the chemicals through the creek that ran right down the middle of the Black community. The chemicals turned the houses brown. Eventually, all the houses were torn down and the land was taken, piece by piece. Somebody seems to have worked diligently to hide the evidence of the crime against humanity that happened in Cushing.
There are two superfund sites in the town of 8,000.
When you come into Cushing, look to your North. You will see an empty field. That is where the refinery was located and the Black communty was right next to it. They have all those piplelines there. I wonder how many Blacks you will find working at the refineries…
They have taken the land from most of the Blacks. If someone dies, they watch the house. If the grass doesn’t get cut, the city cuts it, puts a lien on the land, goes in and tears the house down and charges the family $8,000 and $10,000 for tearing it down. If the family doesn’t pay, they take the land. Then they turn around and sell it to Caucasians for little or nothing.
The Black folks in Cushing have called the White House and asked for an investigation. No reponse, to date. They wonder if their story will ever be told. Or maybe it has been told. Have you seen “The Lorax”?
hummmm now thats very interesting.
Fannie,
Can you post more details about this situation? Since some people will be there to greet Obama, it would be helpful. Gee, I’ve got an idea, why don’t you invite Obama to tour the old site? Is it the area north of E. North and east of N. Little? ( I Googled) Is anyone doing outreach there to try to get some of those folks to the demonstration?
I went to the EPA website and did see something about a Shell Oil crude pipeline, but I don’t know how to read that report. What are the two sites? Is anything happening with them? This could be a nice topic for some BIG signs, because there will be TV coverage and that won’t look so good if he is approving more pipelines when the last one’s haven’t yet been cleaned up. TV crews might jump on that, and even want to do some interviews.
Good reporting, keep it up. I’m in Portland OR, but I’ve been following the KXL for over a year as the first actions started in MT and ID, where I’m from, when they started hauling huge loads of refining equipment through narrow, scenic mountain roads. Activists in MT and ID sat down in front of the trucks, as they did on the reservation in SD. The trucks are having big trouble in MT and ID, yet, because of lawsuits, protests and some state protections. Check out AllAgainstthehaul (MT) and fightinggoliath(ID)for more info. TSA has had some posts on their activities, also.
Good luck, bless you, and let me know if I can be of any help.
Claudette Ross
I do not know whether the President knows about Cushing’s racist past.
Fannie, that’s very interesting! The media hasn’t all heard, evidently. I wonder why he cancelled!
Great article-keep it up.
I don’t believe Obama knows about the historic racism in Cushing. It just happened that the site they chose had a Stillwater address. It is half way between Stillwater and Cushing.
Found one site listed here:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/nar1555.htm
The Hudson Refinery site is located in Cushing, Payne County, Oklahoma. Surrounding the site are residential properties to the east and west, and residential and agricultural land to the north. Commercial properties are located to the south. Highway 33 (Main Street) separates the site into a “north” and “south” refinery.
Historical aerial photographs indicate that the site operated as a refinery beginning as early as the mid-1930s. Little is known about the operations or waste management practices of the facility prior to 1977, although the aerial photographs show process areas and tank farms. Refining operations ended in 1982 and the site was abandoned. The majority of the tanks have been removed from the tank farm areas. Some tanks, however, have been partially salvaged, compromising tank integrity, and many of the remaining tanks contain residual materials.
All US Super Funds sites listed here:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/query/queryhtm/nplfin.htm#OK
I lived to the south from the refinery when they determined that the Hydrochloric acid was leaking. They evacuated a 2 mile radius (and yes that included the colored side of town but also many other places as well) http://www.fluoridealert.org/Pollution/Oil-Refineries/Hidden-Dangers-at-Hudson-Oil.aspx
They now have plans to put a new dairy (Land O’ Lakes) where the refinery once stood and they have been removing top soil from there for over a year now to prepare for that. It was not just the colored side of town that was effected. I was 20 with gallstone problems and someone at the Cushing Hospital told me that there were many people with similar health problems and they believed it had something to do with the leak.
I now live outside of town just down the road from where the President will speak tomorrow and the site is bustling with workers getting ready for the President to be here at 10 am in the morning. News crews are already at the local High School where they will be bussed onto the site at 5 am tomorrow. So he is still coming.
The word superfund was removed from our lexicon. If we don’t have the word how can we have a superfund site? The football size chat piles north of Miami (the little towns are no more), the story of Karen Silkwood and the thousands of mines throughout Oklahoma are all part of a story told and buried, told and buried.
It’s the 21st century and some how we delude ourselves into believing we as a species are changing, evolving even. I wish we were brave enough to be a tad more curious, for you can’t change that which you don’t even know you possess. And change is what we absolutely must do.
I am extremely concerned that they are building a dairy on such a polluted site.
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