Lifetime's new '50 Women' campaign features Baton Rouge's own Chauna Banks

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A familiar face on the local political scene is part of Lifetime’s new online campaign, "Her America: 50 Women, 50 States."

East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Councilwoman Chauna Banks is Louisiana's representative in the initiative aimed to give voices to women across America.

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In sharing these 50 women's stories, Lifetime says it hopes "to bring women closer together and amplify the voices that go unheard and unrecognized."

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“Race is not anything anybody wants to talk about in Baton Rouge,” says Chauna. But she believes it’s impossible to avoid. “African-Americans are told to pull themselves up by the boot strings. There are no strings in our boots.” In the late 1950s, Scotlandville began to decline as the city broke up the neighborhood with an interstate highway and demolished homes in middle-class subdivisions to build an airport and a water treatment plant. Poverty rose, as did crime. Property values sank. Stores closed. Many who could move did.

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Across the country, those who live, work, and play in America’s most contaminated areas are commonly poor people of color. Chauna sees it as a cycle. Businesses and banks don’t want to invest in an area notorious for contaminated land and dirty air. As property values decline and people become disenfranchised, those areas are targeted for more facilities with negative environmental impacts. “Significant sacrifices have been made by the people of this community on behalf of the entire city parish,” says Chauna. “And they got nothing back.”

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