A. By 1960, Port Arthur had gained a substantial Black population, but they remained concentrated in just a few neigborhoods.

Perusing this set of maps, find and describe briefly where these were located within the city.

1. How did these locations compare to those of industrial land uses in Port Arthur by 1960?
2. Compare Port Arthur’s racial and industrial geography in 1960 to the Home Owners Loan Corporation map for the city from 1938 and Port Arthur’s zoning of land uses in 1941. Can you draw any conclusions about the impacts of these planning efforts on where Black Port Arthurians lived by 1960?

B. Jim Crow’s imprint on Port Arthur

What do the following reading and documents suggest about how Jim Crow worked in Port Arthur?

1. Via local real-estate brokers
2. Via federal government programs
3. Via local government actions

C. Consequences: where was refinery pollution worst by the 1960s? What effects might it have had, and especially on whom?

1. Looking at this mapping of the first published estimates of air pollution across the Golden Triangle, appearing in 1968, identify the census tracts where it was worst, and who lived there.
2. Comparing earlier maps identifying the location of Port Arthur’s biggest oil refineries with these pollution maps, how responsible do these plants appear to have for the heaviest tolls of air pollutants measured? Explain your conclusion.
3. While “air pollution” is often talked about more generally, by the late 1960s, experts had identified several measurable kinds of air pollutants they considered especially harmful to human health. Identify three of these air pollutants concentrating especially in Port Arthur, and summarize the potential effects of each, by exploring the links about them.
4. What do these maps suggest about the distribution and toll of air pollution prior to 1968? What do you think the longer term consequence might have been for those who were most heavily exposed?