Every February Americans mark Black history in the US. We acknowledge the painful and celebrate the triumphant. Because 'history is written by the winners' (translation: the powerful) it has often omitted the stories of the oppressed, vanquished and silenced from their own perspective which is markedly different.
Often stories are lost, forgotten, overlooked, minimized or distorted to suit the narrative of those in power.
The Conservation Movement, for example, has been portrayed as overwhelmingly white from its beginning with the best seller Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Yet environmental justice has long been denied minorities even as the impacts have been felt more harshly than their white, economically empowered counterparts. Moving toward justice it is important to acknowledge leaders and supporters from minority communities over the years.
Communities of color in the US, especially Black communities have always been disproportionately affected by the effects of pollution, climate change and inequitable environmental policy. And still, Black leaders have always led the environmental movement. They have fought for their communities and centered the discussion of environmental Injustice on the humans affected.
There have been key moments in time and key figures where Black leaders advanced the fight to ensure that all communities have access to clean air, safe drinking water and a healthy living environment. Indeed, many of the core values and tactics for what would become the message environmental justice were born in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Remember it was the black communities that mobilized to protest on behalf of sanitation workers in Memphis, TN. Those sanitation workers were exposed to hazardous filth and pollution but were never given proper protective equipment or training in handling it. Their working conditions were hazardous, dangerous and egregiously unsafe. When two sanitation workers died on the job the plight of the workers' was exposed by Martin Luther King. Following a protracted battle and the death of MLK, the workers got higher pay and safer working conditions.
In 1982 it was Black communities that organized for social and climate justice . Following the rules of peaceful civil disobedience, they protested the dangerous PCB toxic waste landfill being constructed in Warren County, NC. Because of the spotlight they shone on the low income predominantly black and the determination of the county residents environmental racism was examined with national scrutiny. The practices of 'dumping' hazardous waste, building toxic factories and other dangerous policies targeting the poor and minorities' communities were looked at in a new way. A disturbing pattern was clearly evident and being exposed as racially motivated.
In 1991 minorities from African, Latino, Native and Asian origins convened the theFirst National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. Their intent: unite the movement and join forces to face the shared struggles and empower one another to solve the shared problems. Those 300 leaders identified 17 principles of environmental justice and defined role of environment in a framework of racial, social and economic justice.
Two decades later the struggle continues. Communities of color and low incomes still bear the brunt of climate crisis and the disproportionately harsh impacts of pollution and policy decisions. One needs only look at the fight waged by Native Americans against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline to understand how the powerful (Keystone Pipeline) continue to victimize or ignore the rights of those with less.
Still, leadership, courage and determination for justice prevails in the fight for environmental justice that began in the 1960's with the Civil Rights Movement.