Our Road: Then -- E14: Rev. Willie T. Ramey Electrifies the Room: A Warren County Delegation to Governor Hunt--Part 1

Our Road to Walk: Then and Now

On January 18, 1979, we recorded and later transcribed our meeting with Governor Hunt. This episode is based on the transcript of that recording.

In this episode, Warren County Citizens send representatives to fill the nine chairs the Governor finally agreed to have. Leading the delegation, Deborah presents the 4,500 signatures of citizens who signed petitions against the landfill.

She stresses the lack of criteria the state is using to base its decision that the Afton PCB landfill will not pose an “unreasonable risk” and asks what specific investigations and studies have been made by the state into all the potential impacts of the PCB landfill.

J.T. Fleming reminds the Governor that Warren County is 99th in per capita income and that a toxic waste landfill would destroy the chance to attract positive, healthy businesses.
Mr. Lucius Hawkins presents Governor Hunt with a resolution against the PCB landfill passed by the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Government that the Governor tells him he will read later.
Understandably, Governor Hunt doesn’t want the resolution to be read for the delegates or the public to hear because it says that the “State of North Carolina has confirmed that no area within the Piedmont Region of North Carolina will comply with all of EPA’s site requirements for the disposal of PCBs;" that “any waiver would make an unacceptable site useable without providing maximum protection;” that "the State of North Carolina has requested waivers for three of the five main technical requirements for a chemical waste PCB landfill;” that a “PCB disposal landfill may pose a threat to the environment and to the health, safety, and welfare of Warren County and Region K citizens.”
Mr. Hawkins argues that the current tax surplus which North Carolinians want spent on effective services justifies the one-time cost of hauling the PCBs to a commercial EPA-approved hazardous waste landfill in Alabama.
And then comes the dramatic end of the first half of the meeting, culminating with the fiery eloquence of Reverend Willie T. Ramey, who electrifies the room with his comments and questions to Governor Hunt as he prophesizes a nonviolent, multiracial, multi-ecumenical, and overall unified response to the trucking of the PCBs to the Warren County landfill site, while cautioning in vivid imagery, violence that could happen but that didn’t:
“Has the state considered the retaliatory steps that it will take when citizens — black, white and Indian; young, old, and middle-aged; male and female; Jews, Catholics, and Protestants stand side-by-side and hand-in-hand to peacefully and non-violently protest bodily at the storage site? . . . .”
“What is the state going to do when this problem magnifies itself to the point of civil disobedience? Will we be tear-gassed? Jailed? Fire-hosed? Shot with electric cattle prods? Attacked by vicious dogs? Shot or killed? Just what form of tyranny will be used in what we consider an unjust and immoral provocation by the state?”