Historic Black Farming Community In Pembroke Views Planned Gas Pipeline As Existential Threat

Pembroke
Black Oaks Center / Facebook
Pembroke
Black Oaks Center / Facebook

Historic Black Farming Community In Pembroke Views Planned Gas Pipeline As Existential Threat

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

At one time Pembroke Township in Kankakee County, Illinois was the largest Black farming community in the northern United States. Over environmental concerns and opposition by local Black farmers, a natural gas pipeline with large political backing is moving closer to reality. Farmers and political supporters claim the pipeline “threatens to replace [Pembroke] the last community of African American farmers in Illinois.”

Reset talk with a farmer married couple leading protests of Black farmers.

GUESTS: Dr. Jifunza Wright-Carter, physician, farmer, co-founder and president, Black Oaks Center

Fred Carter, farmer, co-founder and executive director, Black Oaks Center

Karen Weigert, executive vice president at Slipstream, a clean energy innovation non-profit; former chief sustainability officer at city of Chicago