Founding members of the Newtown Floritst Club gather in a park
near one of the industries that surround the nieghborhood.

The story of Newtown, a neighborhood in Gainesville, Georgia, is the story of the Newtown Florist Club. The community was built upon a landfill following a tornado that ripped through Gainesville in 1936. Subsequent industrial development sprouted in close proximity to the neighborhood. Formed in the 1950's, the Florist Club started by buying flowers for community funerals. Through the turbulent 60's and 70's, the Florist Club members became vocal leaders for civil rights and community improvement. In early 1990, members of the club realized that many in the community had been dying from the same kinds of cancer. Suspicious, they began canvasing the neighborhood, taking family histories and piecing together a puzzle that remains unsolved. Now the members of the club find themselves in the roles of environmental activists as they lobby state and local governments and organize the community to uncover the source of their health concerns.

(left) Mozetta Whelchel holds a photograph of her daughter Moselee, who died from Lupus. (right) A hearse waits at the corner of DeSota street in the Newtown neighborhood, waiting for the funeral of another resident..