by Brian Tokar

About the author: Brian Tokar is the author of Earth for Sale (South End Press, 1997) and The Green Alternative (New Society Publishers, 1992). He teaches at the Institute for Social Equality and Goddard College, both in Plainfield, Vermont.

In even the briefest visits, it is clear that Louisiana is a land of extremes. It is a shorter trip than many people realize from the uninhibited multicultural melting pot of downtown New Orleans to the run-down suburbs where the Ku Klux Klan has only recently shed its white robes for business suits. From there, all along the Mississippi River some 85 miles upstream to the state capital of Baton Rouge, is a place known to locals as Cancer Alley. At one time the meandering bayous of song and legend were all that interrupted the lush cypress and...