Carrie Barefoot Dickerson

Carrie Barefoot Dickerson (May 24, 1917 – November 17, 2006) was an American activist who led citizen efforts to stop construction of the proposed Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant in Oklahoma.

Life

Dickerson was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, in 1917 to a pioneering family. She attended the Rocky Hill and Nuyaka Mission schools. At Oklahoma State University she studied home economics education and nutrition, earning BS and MS degrees. She married Cherokee dairy farmer (and fellow OSU graduate) Charles Robert Dickerson in 1938. They established a farm east of Claremore, Oklahoma. The couple had four children.

In 1943, Dickerson began teaching at the German-speaking Mennonite Pleasant View community school near Inola, Oklahoma. She later taught in several area schools before retiring in 1957. She then opened a home-based bakery. In 1964 she and her husband opened Aunt Carrie's Nursing Home (later called Wood Manor) in Claremore.

After her husband died in early 1981, Dickerson operated a health food store in Claremore. She closed the store in 2002.

Carrie Dickerson died at Claremore in 2006.^[1]

Opposition to nuclear power plant

In 1973 the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) announced plans to build the Black Fox nuclear power plant near Inola. When Dickerson read the news, she began researching the health and environmental risks that could be posed by the power plant. Her findings were largely based on environmental damage caused by effluent from the World War II-era Manhattan Project. She and another activist, Ilene Younghein, of nearby Oklahoma City, formed CASE (Citizens' Action for Safe Energy), to educate the public about the potential dangers.

Following Dickerson's lead, other anti-nuclear organizations were formed in the area, and citizens from all walks of life and ethnic groups joined in the battle. Finally, on February 16, 1982, PSO announced the cancellation of the proposed project.^[2]^[3]

Legacy

The Carrie Dickerson Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Oklahoma Sustainability Network, is named in her honor.^[4]^[5]

She wrote the autobiography "Aunt Carrie's War Against the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant", which was published in 1995.^[6]

References

^ Legacy (Carrie Dickerson Foundation)
^ Hattaway, Rebecca (18 November 2006). "Anti-nuclear activist dies". The Claremore Daily Progress. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
^ Energy officials say nuclear power comeback not likely to happen
^ Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Award Presentation Archived 20 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Archived 9 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ Dickerson, Carrie Barefoot; Lemon, Patricia (1995). Aunt Carrie's War Against Black Fox Nuclear Nower Plant. Council Oak Pub. ISBN 978-1-57178-009-6.

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People	Daniel Berrigan William J. Bichsel Bruce G. Blair Larry Bogart Helen Caldicott Barry Commoner Norman Cousins Frances Crowe Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Paul M. Doty Bernard T. Feld Randall Forsberg John Gofman Paul Gunter John Hall Jackie Hudson Sam Lovejoy Amory Lovins Bernard Lown Arjun Makhijani Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Ralph Nader Graham Nash Linus Pauling Eugene Rabinowitch Phil Radford Bonnie Raitt Carl Sagan Martin Sheen Karen Silkwood Thomas Louis Vitale Harvey Wasserman Victor Weisskopf
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Books	Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–1978 The Cult of the Atom The Doomsday Machine (book) Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy Killing Our Own Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System Nuclear Politics in America We Almost Lost Detroit
Films	Atomic Ed and the Black Hole The China Syndrome Countdown to Zero Dark Circle Nuclear Tipping Point Silkwood

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Carrie Barefoot Dickerson

Life

Opposition to nuclear power plant

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading