Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980

by Andrew Hurley

By examining environmental change through the lens of conflicting social agendas, Andrew Hurley uncovers the historical roots of environmental inequality in contemporary urban America. Hurley's study focuses on the steel mill community of Gary, Indiana, a city that was sacrificed, like a thousand other American places, to industrial priorities in the decades following World War II. Although this period witnessed the emergence of a powerful environmental crusade and a resilient quest for equality and social justice among blue-collar workers and African Americans, such efforts often conflicted with the needs of industry. To secure their own interests, manufacturers and affluent white suburbanites exploited divisions of race and class, and the poor frequently found themselves trapped in deteriorating neighborhoods and exposed to dangerous levels of industrial pollution. In telling the story of Gary, Hurley reveals liberal capitalism's difficulties in reconciling concerns about social justice and quality of life with the imperatives of economic growth. He also shows that the power to mold the urban landscape was intertwined with the ability to govern social relations.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Environment, School

266 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 1995

About the author

Andrew Hurley, Ph.D., is with the Department of History at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He is interested in urban history, environmental history, 20th century United States, and public history.

For the translator, see Andrew Hurley.

Reviews

[celestine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Hurley has himself here a book that should be studied by anyone trying to push the American labor class to the left, or just everyone, really. It focuses on a specific situation in Gary, Indiana, where US Steel took advantage of the people and the land for a century-- but it could stand for any number of industrial Midwestern cities, as Hurley mentions briefly in his epilogue.

More specifically, Hurley focuses in each chapter on particular environmentalist coalitions that fought against US Steel's pollution-happy control from the postwar 40s to the 80s. What the coalitions pushed for differed in each situation, but ultimately we see that the lower classes and minority groups are those that routinely get shafted by US Steel the most, and typically feel the repercussions of more elitist environmentalism.

It is an impressively researched book, and easy to understand. If I was being honest, it would really get four stars, because it is written in an incredibly dry and academic way (being an academic book) and can thus be hard to read at times just because it is not particularly engaging (beyond the great research and subject matter). But still, if this was rewritten by, like, Naomi Klein, everyone would love it, probably.

[Theus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Hurley’s Environmental Inequalities deals with the effects of environmental change brought about by industrial capitalism in postwar society and the impact this had upon different social groups in Gary, Indiana. Highlighting the uneven distribution of these impacts across lines of race and class, Hurley’s book provides a nuanced examination of the failure of the liberal reform agenda in combating these inequalities..
Hurley starts by situating race and class more broadly within the urban landscape during the postwar years. He then goes on to examine the birth of U.S. Steel in Gary and the impact on both the development of the city and the effects pollution was having for all residents, no matter their race or class. He continues by looking at the specific ways that middle-class whites, working-class whites, and African-Americans experienced this pollution, while also exploring the different ways these groups thought about and dealt with environmental issues. Towards the end he shows that for a short period, these social groups were able to form a more united coalition, focused on crippling industry’s power. But, with the economic downturn of the 70’s, these coalitions dwindled as economic well being took precedence over environmental issues, especially by those most affected by these larger economic impacts. He ends by showing how the geography of waste sites and pollution were drawn along these lines of race and class. Key to his argument is the power of industry in shaping both the distribution of these effects and the outcome of reforms focused on their abatement.
The methodology utilized in this book is a large mixture of sources from federal, state, and local reports and proceedings, i.e., Gary planning commission reports, board meeting minutes, public hearing transcripts, environmental action plans, public health reports, and census data. As well as newspapers, personal interviews, and previous historical works on industrial capitalism, environmentalism, suburbanization, labor, race, etc. The data he uses for his arguments of infant mortality and air pollution, the distribution of air pollution, and race and location comes from the census reports available for those specific time periods.
Hurley’s writing style is straightforward and analytical, populated sparsely by the use of narrative stories. It’s well crafted, clear, and engaging—e.g., “...the environmental contests of the early 1970s demonstrated in blatant fashion the extent to which industrial capital would use its power over people to preserve its control over nature” (138).
I was surprised by how well Hurley detailed the origins of what has become known as NIMBY syndrome. This being a product of suburbanization and the “environmental amenities” that white middle-class residents came to expect. The reforms that were made during this period were focused on securing these amenities for this particular group. Hurley makes clear that, “The primary legacy of the environmental movement and its resulting regulations was not so much an overall reduction of industrial waste, but a transfer of waste from water and air to the land” (162). Thus, the impact of NIMBYism was the proliferation of waste sites dotted across the neighborhoods occupied by African-Americans and poor working-class whites.
Gary, Indiana is a place that often gets forgotten, discredited, or shamed for being undesirable. Understanding the history of this place is key to understanding why it receives such treatment. This book is a key piece in that understanding.

[Jonny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very interesting. Environmental history and social justice are two things that I am interested in. In Gary, three opposing forces: the middle-class, blue-collar laborers, and Blacks teamed up to fight for their rights with environmental movement as their avenue. This book exposes the fact that the state usually uses environmental movements to deflect class conflict and when that does not work and the oppressed unite, the state is very interested in dismantling this unity. The case of Gary is the exception; it's not the rule.

However, the environmental history in the text gives nature little agency and therefore the book is flawed in many ways.

I'm waiting for a book like this to be written about Camden or East St. Louis.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent investigation of how pollution and corporate power has been perceived and challenged in Gary. Hurley shows the evolution of communities segregated by race and class and examines the ways in which industrial practices impacted the environmental conditions experienced by each community. The book details successes and failures and links them to a broader context of labor and community organizing as well as privileged access to information and changes in both political and economic structures.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, especially if you want to know about Gary Indiana and the history of US Steel...