Doris T. Davis, Assistant Director. Concerned Citizens of Tillery
The Concerned Citizens of Tillery (CCT), a non-profit social change organization celebrating 45 years of positive social change is one of the original founding groups of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network — creating the Hog Roundtable, a group of environmental collaborators formed to confront environmental racism, political disenfranchisement, and economic injustice. The NCEJN office was located within the CCT office in Tillery, NC, where Naeema Muhammad served as community organizer. Tillery is an aging, farming and rural community, led by CCT, that fought for racial, economic, social, political and environmental justice for years. Many issues were exposed, addressed, and awakened the power of community residents.
One of the issues confronted by the CCT was the need to bring awareness to elders, adults and youth all over the country. A collaboration between Gary R. Grant and Dr. Renee Lyons is bringing youth into the STEM courses being taught all over the country.
According to Dr. Lyons, Director of Science Outreach for Clemson University’s College of Science, in a guest blogpost, “Clemson University Science Outreach Center develops graphic novel to inspire youth-led STEM Justice initiatives,” published on June 30, 2023:
“The project is to showcase the systemic change young people can make in their communities when their after school programs support them to layer action onto their STEM learning.
Clemson University’s ScienceOutreach Center has partnered with Urban League of the Upstate and the Concerned Citizens of Tillery to develop a graphic novel and after-school STEM curriculum called My STEM My Story. The goal of My STEM My Story, which will become developed with African American middle school youth, is to build young people’s capacity to use STEM for the good of their communities. The project’s graphic novel, When Spiderwebs Unite, tells the true story of Gary Grant and his community’s decades long battle for environmental justice in rural North Carolina. When hog waste from industrial hog farms began to pollute their community in the 1990s, the community of Tillery partnered with UNC epidemiologist, Steve Wing, collecting scientific data to prove their health was being harmed. The efforts of the Tillery community halted the expansion of industrial hog farms, which were being disproportionately placed in communities of color across NorthCarolina and resulted in regulations requiring industrial hog farms to find cleaner alternatives for hog waste.
When Spiderwebs Unite documents how Steve Wing, a white university epidemiologist, earned Tillery’s trust and how Tillery community members reclaimed hope by focusing on their ability to use science to advocate for a healthier environment. When Spiderwebs Unite gives voice to a community story and exemplifies how members of a community can collaboratively use STEM to address inequities that impact their lives.
The My STEM My Story after-school curriculum utilizes the community of Tillery’s experience as a sign of hope and a model for African American middle school youth to observe how STEM can be used as a tool for social justice in their community.”
