In a place that was once the center of the voting rights movement, another struggle faces Lowndes County, Alabama–basic sanitation. Catherine Coleman Flowers examines the class, racial, and geographic conditions that lead to many people not having an affordable way of disposing of sewage. –paraphrased from publisher’s summary
Title: Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret
Author: Catherine Coleman Flowers
Genre: Memoir; Nonfiction
Read Great Things 2023 Categories: A book about an experience different than your own; A book recommended by a Durham Tech Library staff member or on the blog
This book was read by Julie Humphrey, Durham Tech Library Director.
Why did you choose to read this book?
Durham Tech’s Leadership Council has been reading this book and having monthly discussions about education, poverty, racism, and environmental justice. [Blog insider tip: Stay tuned for possible opportunities for reading circles and books clubs around Durham Tech!]
What did you like about it?
This is such an important book about how poverty and racism can result in awful sanitation problems and horrible living conditions in Alabama, Appalachia, California, Native American reservations, and other rural areas of the United States.
I also enjoyed learning about her experiences during the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and her years as a public school teacher in NC and DC.
Did it remind you of any other book?
It would pair well with All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. [Available at the Main and Orange County Campus (QC 903.2 .U6 A45 2020) and as an audiobook through Dogwood Digital Library]
Was there anything noteworthy about the book?
I never knew that septic systems failed depending on soil type. I also didn’t know that people could be arrested for not installing their own septic systems or for living with failing septic systems.
I also thought Hookworm* had been fully eradicated in the United States. Hookworm, a disease that impacts people in impoverished regions with poor sanitation and warm climates, still exists in rural Alabama to this day, in addition to many tropical and developing nations.
*Click on the link to go to Credo Reference, an excellent database that provides reference information about a variety of topics–like Wikipedia, but you can use it for academic papers and purposes.
What feeling did the book leave you with?
Inspiration! Catherine Coleman Flowers is a civil rights and environmental justice advocate, and I’m inspired by her story and activism.
But also–Frustration! How can raw sewage and human waste be openly flowing into backyards of so many American homes in 2023? This is a human rights and environmental tragedy that is dangerous and disturbing.
Who would you recommend the book to?
Students who want to learn about and work for environmental and social justice, and anyone wanting to learn about rural poverty, structural racism, and Civil Rights history.
More from the Durham Tech Library, including some excellent selections from our Phail Wynn Collection—
(GE 230 .Z56 2015)
(GE 230 .J65 2020)
(GE 230 .T38 2014)
Dogwood Digital Library
(RA 591 .C53 2018)