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The backlash against data centers has inspired newcomers to get involved in civic activism, like one woman in Prince George's County, Maryland, who got more involved despite facing a lot of challenges in her own life. Jenny Abamu of member station WAMU in Washington, D.C., reports.
JENNY ABAMU, BYLINE: The overgrown grass and weeds seem to stretch into the horizon, nearly 90 acres of empty land in Landover, Maryland, in a predominantly Black community. It had been Landover Mall, which closed in 2002. Then, in 2024, the same developer that built the mall won approval from county planners for a $5 billion data center campus. Taylor Frazier McCollum, who lived less than a mile away, described the moment she learned about the development.
TAYLOR FRAZIER MCCOLLUM: I was like, oh, hell, no. Why would you want to bring water-polluting, diesel-generating, like, data centers right down the street from where people live, work, play? Like, it just - it didn't make sense to me.
ABAMU: Frazier McCollum isn't the typical land use protester, the not in my backyard homeowner. She doesn't own a home. In fact, in 2024, as a single mother, her and her young daughter were evicted from their rental. She worked at a waxing center that reduced its wages, and she fell behind on her rent. Since then, they've moved around.
FRAZIER MCCOLLUM: It was difficult. It was just hard for me because I created this ideal life, paying for us to live in this apartment and have our own space. And then to have it taken away, it felt like something that wasn't ever going to end.
ABAMU: They lived in her grandfather's home when she learned about the proposed project. She created a petition, gaining over 25,000 signatures, leading to widely attended protests and culminating with moratoriums on data centers throughout the county, blocking the $5 billion project. She went to county meetings, testified at the state capitol and endorsed political candidates. Along the way, she found herself an unusual coalition, socialists, environmentalists, neighbors angry about their electricity bills. Staci Hartwell, a long-term environmental activist, said she struggled to get traction on the data centers until Frazier McCollum came along.
STACI HARTWELL: This is something that was happening in her neighborhood. And it was really like her awakening.
ABAMU: But this all comes as Prince George's County needs revenue. It lost several major economic anchors. The NFL Washington Commanders are moving back to D.C. A Six Flags closed. Federal workers have lost their jobs. There's a county budget deficit. For local officials, data centers were supposed to help stem the hemorrhaging. When Frazier McCollum went to a county council meeting in September to ask for a public fund to help residents repair their roofs, something her grandfather needs, council member Wanika Fisher reminded her that the data center pause didn't help.
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WANIKA FISHER: I don't see where the money's coming from. I think we have to have a real conversation. And I'm not saying that a data center is the answer, but I'm saying it's worth the hard discussion.
ABAMU: But Frazier McCollum has put the data center fight before everything. She's lost jobs to show up at county hearings or knock on doors. She's become the face of data center activism, featured in local media. Activists like Hartwell helped her find grants to travel to other Black communities, fighting data center growth in Atlanta, Memphis and even across the globe in Zambia.
FRAZIER MCCOLLUM: I feel like so many people are depending on this fight to be successful, not just for myself, but even, like, across the country to, like, set precedence for other people that are fighting against hyperscale data centers.
ABAMU: Her father, Lacy McCollum Jr., sees the data center fight rooted in civil rights.
LACY MCCOLLUM JR: While I'm afraid for her, we need those people. We needed the Medgar Evers. We needed the Martin Luther King. We needed the Malcolm X, people like Taylor. And they jump out there. Then people behind them get to make progress.
ABAMU: She's been encouraged to run for office. She says she wants to pay off debt and traffic tickets first.
FRAZIER MCCOLLUM: Like, I didn't want to have to focus on housing and the campaign and doing everything else. Now is not maybe the moment for it, but I do have aspirations to run for something.
ABAMU: In the meantime, she's pitching to turn the old Landover site into a sports complex, affordable housing or a heritage tourism site. But she acknowledges that wouldn't be as lucrative as a data center campus.
For NPR News, I'm Jenny Abamu in Landover, Maryland.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRAKE SONG, "STORIES ABOUT MY BROTHER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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