Sharon Lavigne holds pictures of neighborhood activists who died in her area. She and others cite studies saying pollution is contributing to health problems between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but industry groups dispute those findings. She was photographed on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
Father Vincent Dufresne, pastor of the Catholic Church in East St. James Parish, blesses with holy water an unmarked cemetery from the former Buena Vista Plantation near the Welcome community on Friday, June 19, 2020, as Rise St. James founder Sharon Lavigne, third from right, looks on with other members. Lavigne recently sued over Gramercy parade ordinance on First Amendment grounds. Dufresne and activists opposed to a Formosa Plastics plant planned for the area had won a court fight to hold the ceremony. They believe the graves contain the remains of slaves who lived on the antebellum plantation.
FILE – In this March 11, 2020, file photo, Sharon Lavigne, founder of environmental justice group Rise St. James, is second from the left as she and members Myrtle Felton, Gail LeBoeuf and Rita Cooper, speak against plans for a $9.4 billion chemical complex near Donaldsonville, La. Lavigne will receive what the University of Notre Dame describes as the oldest and most prestigious honor for American Catholics at the school’s commencement ceremonies May 15, 2022, in South Bend, Indiana.. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Sharon Lavigne, a retired teacher turned community organizer, joins St. John the Baptist Parish residents in protesting a proposed grain terminal on May 15, 2021. Lavigne was just named the North American recipient of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize. (Photo by Halle Parker, Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate)
Sharon Lavigne, founder of Rise St. James, speaks against a wastewater discharge permit for the YCI Methanol complex Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, during a state public hearing. Lavigne’s face is shown, far left, on one of two large video screens as she spoke inside an outdoor, air-conditioned tent where the hearing was held. Two other tents were set up with similar equipment for comments but weren’t used.
Sharon Lavigne holds pictures of neighborhood activists who died in her area. She and others cite studies saying pollution is contributing to health problems between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but industry groups dispute those findings. She was photographed on Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
Father Vincent Dufresne, pastor of the Catholic Church in East St. James Parish, blesses with holy water an unmarked cemetery from the former Buena Vista Plantation near the Welcome community on Friday, June 19, 2020, as Rise St. James founder Sharon Lavigne, third from right, looks on with other members. Lavigne recently sued over Gramercy parade ordinance on First Amendment grounds. Dufresne and activists opposed to a Formosa Plastics plant planned for the area had won a court fight to hold the ceremony. They believe the graves contain the remains of slaves who lived on the antebellum plantation.
FILE – In this March 11, 2020, file photo, Sharon Lavigne, founder of environmental justice group Rise St. James, is second from the left as she and members Myrtle Felton, Gail LeBoeuf and Rita Cooper, speak against plans for a $9.4 billion chemical complex near Donaldsonville, La. Lavigne will receive what the University of Notre Dame describes as the oldest and most prestigious honor for American Catholics at the school’s commencement ceremonies May 15, 2022, in South Bend, Indiana.. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Sharon Lavigne, a retired teacher turned community organizer, joins St. John the Baptist Parish residents in protesting a proposed grain terminal on May 15, 2021. Lavigne was just named the North American recipient of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize. (Photo by Halle Parker, Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate)
Sharon Lavigne, founder of Rise St. James, speaks against a wastewater discharge permit for the YCI Methanol complex Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020, during a state public hearing. Lavigne’s face is shown, far left, on one of two large video screens as she spoke inside an outdoor, air-conditioned tent where the hearing was held. Two other tents were set up with similar equipment for comments but weren’t used.
St. James Parish environmental activist Sharon Lavigne has been added to Time magazine’s list of the 100 “most influential people” worldwide for 2024 and is expected to be feted next week in New York City along with other honorees.
Over the past several years, Lavigne, a former public school teacher from western St. James, has helped lead the resurgence in activism and opposition to new polluting industrial projects in her parish and others in the Mississippi River corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Leaning on her Roman Catholic faith and a calling she says she has for this activism, she founded Rise St. James in 2018.
The group has aligned with other environmental groups locally and nationally to oppose projects in the political and regulatory arenas and in the courts on the grounds they would disproportionally affect Black communities already dealing with high levels of pollution.
Lavigne said on Thursday that she was “deeply humbled to receive this honor.”
“Our small but dedicated team and partners strive daily to empower our historically disadvantaged communities and envision a future greater than we currently witness,” Lavigne said in a statement. “My vision from God helps me continue to fight for communities that are overburdened by pollution. We must prioritize listening to the voices of Cancer Alley until we can drink clean water and breathe clean air to ensure our lives are extended and leave the world better than we found it.”
The TIME100 listing honors people across a variety of categories from the arts and sports to politics and culture, and, in its 2024 listing, the magazine includes short explanations about the winners from the persons who nominated them.
Other honorees include singer-songwriter Dua Lipa, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, novelist James McBride and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Lavigne is most know for her work fighting a $9.4 billion chemical complex that Formosa Plastics has been trying to build for several years in a rural part of western St. James populated primarily by Black residents, where cancer risk from air pollution is already among worst in the nation.
The TIME100 honor is only the latest for Lavigne. She was given the prestigious Goldman Prize in 2021 for her activism in opposing the Formosa complex, which has been stalled through lawsuits and other actions pursued by Rise St. James and other groups.
In 2022, the University of Notre Dame gave her the Laetare Medal, which the university calls the oldest and most prestigious honor for American Catholics, over her work on Formosa and environmental justice.
Lavigne was nominated for the TIME100 honor by the Rev. William Barber II, a pastor and anti-poverty and civil rights activist who says he met Lavigne when she invited him to stand with her during the fight against Formosa several years ago.
“She has taught us that we must listen to the people of Cancer Alley, and she continues fighting for them every day. I thank God for her,” wrote Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.
The venerable news magazine, started in 1923, plans to celebrate the TIME100 honorees at a summit on April 24 and a gala the next day in New York City.
The gala will air as a prime-time television special on May 12 on ABC, according to a statement from Time.
David J. Mitchell can be reached at dmitchell@theadvocate.com or followed on Twitter, @newsiedave.
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