Linda King Interview

Linda King started her activism in Nitro, West Virginia, because of serious health issues she and her children experienced and she believed were caused by environmental pollution. Starting at a grassroots level taught her vital lessons about empowering people, lessons she realized she could share with the people of Louisiana when she moved here in the 1980s. She organized the first citizen’s conference held in New Orleans on health issues related to the environment. In 1989, she founded the Environmental Health Network (EHN), to assist communities, injured workers, and individuals with exposures to toxins. She is a certified mediator for EHN, helping groups learn negotiation and conflict resolution skills. She is the author of Chemical Injuries in the Courts: A Litigation Guide for Clients and Their Attorneys, helped publish a report to Congress called “Inconclusive by Design: Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in Federal Health Research.” Today, after getting a Masters in International Law and Human Rights, and teaching for eight years she is currently doing large family education projects throughout the United States. Audio interview with Linda King for Women Pioneers of the Louisiana Environmental Movement by Peggy Frankland, conducted by Jennifer A. Cramer, Director of the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History. Copyright: Louisiana State University Special Collections.