Environmental Justice
A MOVEMENT BEGINS
In 1979, members of a suburban, middle-class Black community in Houston, Texas filed the first environmental discrimination case. Citing anti-discrimination laws won previously by the civil rights movement, but never before used to challenge environmental racism, the lawsuit opposed the siting of a dump near a neighborhood school.
Newly minted sociologist Robert Bullard was asked to conduct research: Was the provocative dump siting an isolated incident, or part of a pattern? Dr. Bullard discovered that while the city’s population was only 25% Black, 14 of its 17 garbage dumps and incinerators were located in Black neighborhoods. He has since dedicated his scholarship to sacrifice zones and the struggles opposing them, and is recognized as the father of environmental justice.
Three years later, a peaceful sit-in against a dump for toxic PCBs in largely Black and low-income Warren County, NC, resulted in 500 arrests and attracted national attention.
Within a decade, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit convened in Washington, DC, adopting 17 foundational principles of environmental justice, including the right of affected communities to participate fully in environmental decision-making.
These local struggles initiated an environmental and climate justice movement that now encompasses many hundreds of communities and organizations around the world, with key pioneers in NYC.
The Houston and the Warren County campaigns failed to block the toxic facilities they targeted. But they created a new space in the law, social science, and the civil rights movement, giving rise to a worldwide struggle. Short-term defeats can lay groundwork for long-term victory.
“ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE DEMANDS THAT PUBLIC POLICY BE BASED ON MUTUAL RESPECT AND JUSTICE FOR ALL PEOPLES, FREE FROM ANY FORM OF DISCRIMINATION OR BIAS.”
–THE FIRST NATIONAL PEOPLE OF COLOR ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT, 1991
IN 1982, PROTESTERS LIE ON THE STREET IN WARREN COUNTY, NC TO BLOCK TRUCKS SCHEDULED TO DELIVER ACUTELY TOXIC PCB-CONTAMINATED SOIL TO A DUMP IN THEIR COMMUNITY.
REVEREND DR. BENJAMIN CHAVIS, LONGTIME CIVIL RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST, SPEAKING AT THE 1982 WARREN COUNTY PROTEST—THE OCCASION OF HIS FIRST ARREST. HE COINED THE TERM “ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM” IN HIS JAIL CELL.
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Earth in Color: Fighting for Warrenton: The Birth of the Environmental Justice Movement with Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis
US EPA: Environmental Justice Timeline
Race, Poverty, and the Environment - National Journal of Social and Environmental Justice: A Pioneer in Environmental Justice Lawyering: A Conversation with Linda McKeever Bullard
University of Kentucky Research Communications: 'Father of Environmental Justice' and Local High School Students Headline CCTS Conference
The Revelator: Dr. Robert Bullard: Lessons From 40 Years of Documenting Environmental Racism
Natural Resources Defense Council: The Environmental Justice Movement
Grist: The event that changed the environmental justice movement forever
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