section_path: Legal career/Minority and poor communities
section_name: Minority and poor communities
paragraph_text: Minority and poor communities
  
  In his first case as an environmental attorney, Kennedy represented the NAACP in a lawsuit against a proposal to build a garbage transfer station in a minority neighborhood in Ossining, New York. In 1987, he successfully sued Westchester County to reopen the Croton Point Park, which was primarily used by poor and minority communities from the Bronx. He then forced the reopening of the Pelham Bay Park, which New York City had closed to the public and converted to a police firing range.
  
  In his first case as an environmental attorney, Kennedy represented the NAACP in a lawsuit against a proposal to build a garbage transfer station in a minority neighborhood in Ossining, New York. In 1987, he successfully sued Westchester County to reopen the Croton Point Park, which was primarily used by poor and minority communities from the Bronx. He then forced the reopening of the Pelham Bay Park, which New York City had closed to the public and converted to a police firing range.