A historically Black town stood in the way of a pipeline – so developers claimed it was mostly white

When residents in Union Hill, Virginia, decried the pipeline as a form of environmental racism, the energy company insisted it wasn't

As fracked gas fields in West Virginia boomed over the past decade, energy companies jumped at the chance to build massive new pipelines to move the fuel to neighboring east coast markets. The 600-mile Atlantic Coast pipeline would have been the crown jewel.

But Union Hill, Virginia - a community settled by formerly enslaved people after the civil war on farm land they had once tilled - stood in the way. Residents fought against a planned compressor station meant to help the gas move through the pipeline, arguing that because Union Hill is a historic Black community, the resulting air pollution would be an environmental injustice.