Free the Beaches

The story of activist Ned Coll and his campaign to open New England’s shoreline to African Americans, as northern white families fought to preserve their segregated beaches.

Evacuations in advance of hurricanes are part of life in coastal areas. But what happens to those who stay behind to ride out the storm and why do they stay?

As Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans in 2005, Merry Byrd debated whether she should really once again load her pets and belongings into her car and head north. She lost everything in the storm and is now editor of the online literary journal “Nola Diaspora” which publishes each year on the anniversary of Katrina, August 29.

There’s a scene in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing where a dance instructor lifts his young student in a beautiful lake at sunset. Today, that lake is disappearing.

Virginia’s shoreline is expecting a sea level rise of as much as three feet or more by 2060. A comprehensive local response to the flooding will be used as a model for the rest of the nation.

The earliest environmentalists weren’t tree-huggers; they were hunters and colonialists. Historian Stephen Macekura traces how African conservation has been closely tied with colonialism and development.