Jo Banner

Jo’s love for Louisiana was partly instilled by her grandparents, who passed down 10 generations of Louisiana folktales and history highlighting her Afro-Creole Heritage. The West African fables of Compere Lapin and Bouki, her grandparents' favorites, helped Jo develop a deep connection to tradition and a recognition of liberation through nature. Sparked by this connection, Jo utilizes both a Bachelor’s and Master's degree in Communications to protect Louisiana’s people and its environment fiercely. Jo founded The Descendants Project, where she now channels her affection and knowledge into challenging systems, primarily legal systems that have exploited the descendants, such as herself, of those enslaved to plantations. She is now working to gain recognition of the burial grounds of the enslaved as sacred sites and aims to protect such sites and their communities from degradation, especially degradation caused by heavy industry. As a resident of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, Jo champions environmental justice causes and is actively developing strategies to transform land slated for use by pollutant-causing industries into green spaces where communities like hers can thrive. She has spoken before the United Nations and participated in the first Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution Jo hosted the chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, Rep. Raul Grijalva, and his team on a tour of Cancer Alley and assisted his recent work on the Environmental Justice for All Act.