The workers came home each shift covered in black.

Pastor Marlon Mack Sr. has called Gary home since he was two, and has led Sweethome Missionary Baptist Church for eighteen years. His stepfather and grandfather both worked the mill. This income let his family eat and live well, something he didn't fully appreciate until he grew up. He remembers the sight of men coming home each shift "covered in black... like a black coating that was over them."

He believes a cleaner, modernized mill could change that going forward, with workers and the community spared "many of the issues that they suffer from now." That's part of what it means, to him, to be a "good corporate neighbor."

Photos: Matthew Kaplan