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Chapter  The Courts: Seeking Justice and Fairness The Congress hereby declares that the general welfare and security of the Nation and the health and living standards of its people require . . . the realization as soon as feasible of the goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family. —National Housing Act of  Gladys Blair spent the s in the Parkside area of Camden, moved to the suburbs for a while, and, after separating from her husband, returned to Camden, where she bought a house on Fairview Street in the four-block square area of South Camden known as the Terraces. Located directly across from the site where New York Ship had been located, the area had once been a preferred home for shipworkers, many of them skilled, who saw the advantages of a comfortable row house within easy walking distance of work. Blair’s home had previously been occupied by two Polish shipworkers, who moved to predominantly white Gloucester City just beyond the Camden city line after the yard closed. At the time, she considered her purchase a good one. Despite the substitution of African American for white homeowners, the area was well kept and showed few signs of the larger malaise that had overcome much of the city. But the advantages of this residential area did not last long. The completion of I- linking Camden and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge crossing to Philadelphia with routes to southern New Jersey brought heavy traffic and increased air pollution to the area. The municipal waste plant built in  and the trash-to-steam incinerator that followed worsened air quality further . As environmental quality declined, so did the neighborhood. Residents abandoned homes. The city began to tear down parts of the Terraces, but ran out of money to complete the job. A few homes remained dotted among grown-over lots littered with trash. A few remaining shells attracted drug dealing, and periodically police swat teams would sweep the area,  Chapter  passing through high grasses with guns poised in a scene reminiscent of Vietnam.1 Like many of her neighbors, Blair suffered respiratory problems, coughing frequently as she spoke. A  state report told her what she already knew: water quality literally stank too. Blair faced a dilemma. She had returned to Camden, not the least to take advantage of its range of affordable housing opportunities, by one estimate nearly half the total stock available in the whole county.2 Now, as environmental conditions declined, she wanted to move, but her choices were severely limited. Demand for low-cost housing remained high in Camden, where so many people of limited income resided. The suburbs, despite the landmark Mount Laurel court decisions requiring every community to provide its fair share of regional affordable housing opportunities, offered even fewer options than Camden. Ironically, it appeared that the appearance of another polluter in Blair’s neighborhood would finally provide a solution. In order to counter objections to its  proposal to build a new plant in the area, the St. Lawrence Cement Company hired a local attorney, Morris Smith, to work with residents. A former Camden City Attorney and an African American who was well versed in community organizing, Smith did all the right things. He invited community participation in an advisory board, hired Villanova University to do an independent test of emissions effects from the new plant, and, most important, secured a promise from the company not only to hire and train Camden residents, but also to offer relocation assistance to those remaining in the Terraces.3 Blair said she trusted Smith and another St. Lawrence supporter, the Rev. Al Stewart, who ran the Camden Rescue Mission nearby in South Camden. She joined Stewart and other neighbors in supporting St. Lawrence in demonstrations called to counter protests organized by established environmental groups in South and North Camden.4 St. Lawrence got the permits it needed to build its plant. With that success, it offered the forty households remaining in the Terraces a total of $, to support their relocation. Appalled by the paltry sum that could scarcely give them a new start in life, Gladys Blair and her neighbors joined other Camden organizations in suing St. Lawrence. In doing so, she joined a time honored tradition recognized as early as the s by the astute French observer, Alexis de Tocqueville, when he described the courts as necessary checks on what he called the tyranny of the majority.5 In the twentieth century, the courts...

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