Cancer Alley: A Case Study of Environmental Injustice and Solutions for Change

Cancer Alley is an eighty-five mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the River Parishes of Louisiana. 13 The River Parishes, akin to counties in other states, span both banks of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Along the River Parishes is the most well-known segment of the Great River Road that follows the course of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, alongside of which are strewn many antebellum plantation houses that have existed since the eighteenth century. The River Road is part of Louisiana’s dark history, a land once referred to as the German Coast of Louisiana.