By Janet Mcconnaughey
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Descendants of people enslaved in Louisiana are seeking to keep a $400 million grain terminal out of their community by suing to abolish the land’s 1990 “corrupt rezoning” as industrial.
That ordinance was pushed through as part of a Formosa Plastics Corp. deal that collapsed and later sent a former parish president to prison, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in state court.
Greenfield Louisiana LLC, which plans to build a grain elevator, loading terminal and 54 silos, said the project would be clean, safe and provide more than 100 jobs.
Some residents doubt this. They are led by twins whose great-great grandmother was born into slavery and whose parents opposed use of the same land for a Formosa Plastics Corp. rayon plant 30 years ago.