The Environmental Justice movement was primarily started by people of color, the Indigenous and African Americans who knew about the environmental dangers found in our communities. Often this knowledge came through health challenges, cancer, and asthma that seemed to flourish in our neighborhoods. Some may think it was by pernicious design through redlining. I remember getting goosebumps when reading about Hinkley, CA in the early nineties when PG&E poisoned blonde hair and blue-eyed children. If they did that to their own, my people would be doomed. Today we’re speaking with Jewell Harperand Kim Jones Snipes, both attorneys who are experts on the environment.
I asked how they came to work in the environmental justice space. Jones Snipes mentions the work her father did in Chicago around the environment. Communities of color came together to confirm that the EPA was not using its authority to protect the property where African Americans, Latinos, or Indigenous people lived and worked. Both ladies speak with reverence about Hazel Johnson known as the mother of the Environmental Justice movement.
I asked how we can educate our communities about the challenges a polluted environment brings to our doorsteps. Harper speaks about this being a complex issue. She shares that Environmental Justice is the “civil rights” issue of the 21st Century.
The rehabilitation of cleaning up neighborhoods is left up to a vast grassroots network across the country. If a medical issue turns up in a neighborhood the first step might be with a primary care physician who notices a “pocket” of disease in one community. Neighbors need to hold elected officials accountable and make sure they have an understanding of the challenge. After your physician, local government includes the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
Both attorneys speak about the Biden Administration Initiative- the Federal government has made it a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. They speak to grants being made available to clean up our communities
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More information on the Biden Administration Initiative