Vital Signs’ Champions of Change series features inspiring local activists working to create a better future for their communities.

Southwest of Memphis, formerly enslaved people built homes for themselves out of scrap from boxcars. They planted gardens, set up churches and built a tight-knit community that’s now known as Boxtown. It took a federal class action suit against the city of Memphis to secure running water and electricity for Boxtown residents — in the 1980s. By then, dozens of polluting facilities were operating in the neighborhood, including a refinery, a coal power plant and a pesticide manufacturer. 

In 2021, Boxtown residents succeeded in their efforts to stop a crude oil pipeline from being routed through their neighborhood — a path which developers described as “the point of least resistance.” 

KeShaun Pearson joined that fight. He now leads Memphis Communities Against Pollution, a group that helped build the case for the first federal limits on the use of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing chemical. In 2022, the EPA identified a potential cancer cluster near a facility in Memphis that used the chemical. When the agency proposed tighter emission controls and reporting requirements in early 2024, the facility shut down. 

Boxtown’s relief was short-lived. In June 2024, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced that Elon Musk’s new xAI supercomputing center, Colossus, would be opening in the area. Revealing few public details about its plans — AI centers are known to be massive consumers of energy and water — Colossus swiftly commenced operations, receiving approvals and waivers with a speed that surprised even city council members. Colossus is now running 15 polluting gas-combustion turbines while awaiting a new power substation and using at least 300,000 gallons of city water a day. Musk has announced that he plans to double the supercomputer’s capacity.  

Pearson took the time to speak with us about the challenges his community is facing.  

You’ve said this community is a sacrifice zone. What does that mean?  

It means the cancer rate is four times the national average — in some places, 15 times. What does that look like? That looks like constantly going to funerals. Having to take your aunt to dialysis after dropping off your other aunt for her cancer treatment. Kids missing school because of asthma. It’s the communities around these polluting facilities who are designated to suffer. Designated to die. People think we don’t deserve clean air and clean water because of where we live.  

How did you get involved in the environmental justice movement?  

My introduction to environmental injustice came first. It was literally my childhood. I am the first child of teenage parents; they were 15 and 16. We lived in a zip code that is highly concentrated with industrial pollution. 

I was born premature and grew up with horrible allergies, to the point where it affected my breathing. My earliest memory of my baby brother is seeing him on a machine. I didn’t know what it was, but they told me he needed it to breathe. 

He passed away last year. It’s still hurting. I don’t know when that’s going to stop.  

My introduction to justice? October 17, 2020. We’re at this pipeline meeting, and for the first time, the company is there. They say there’s nothing we can do about it but maybe soften the blow. 

At that moment my mom got up and spoke and she condemned them to no end. She said our lives, our history, our land, are just as important to us as everyone else. That’s when it started. A group of us met up in the parking lot determined to defend our families. 

We learned so much in that process about how vulnerable our community was, the lack of protection for our air and our aquifer, and that’s how we started MCAP.  

What risk does the new xAI facility pose to the community? 

It’s not a future threat. It's already happening. Those turbines are running 24-7, polluting the air. This county has the worst youth asthma rate in the country. But they got approval for the power they need. They’re getting white glove service while we’re being suffocated. We asked the EPA in November, they said they were trying to figure out guidance.  

[Editor’s note: Burning natural gas releases nitrogen oxides and other harmful air pollutants which can cause or worsen asthma and other illnesses. The “temporary” natural gas turbines at Colossus are currently operating without a permit. xAI has applied for county permits to continue operating them until 2030.] 

How will the EPA’s plans to weaken dozens of pollution safeguards affect you?  

It’s going to hit us first and worst. We know these factories are going to operate at unsafe levels because we’ve seen it before, with ethylene oxide. Until we got the EPA protection, that facility continued to pollute. 

What they’re doing now, rolling back environmental justice protections, eliminating that language, that’s intentional. It allows corporations to move in a way that’s more destructive. It just shows you what we’re up against.  

How can a small community stand up to powerful special interests?  

It takes solidarity. For folks to engage across the city with people who are different from them. Ultimately one community alone isn’t going to beat Elon Musk. You need a lot of people power.  

• Meet Lamont Taylor, champion of change, working to protect his community
• Meet Rosa Inguanzo, champion of change, working to bring clean water to her family and community

We’re mobilizing people to show up at city council meetings, at county commission meetings, utility meetings. Places you usually don’t see folks. There’s a Shelby County Commission meeting on March 31. We need real allyship from anyone who cares. Ultimately, this is about Memphis. A clean city is a better city. Everybody wins. 

What keeps you going?  

Honestly, this is a fight that I wish was not happening. But I thank God I can stand up and stand with my people. I’m ready. You've seen my track record. We don’t plan on stopping that.