We Can Win Against Environmental Racism. Here Are 10 Times Communities Of Color Fought & Won.

October 12, 2017 / Maya Lewis

Two hands holding against a green background.

Contributing Comic Artist: Christine Deneweth

Our current administration has dealt some tough losses to The Environmental Justice movement recently.

At the start of the year, the Dakota Access Pipeline, after months of protests, was given the go-ahead by President Trump despite the harm it will cause to the Standing Rock Tribes native lands and water source.

This summer we learned that the administration’s proposed 2018 budget would cut the Office of Environmental Justice, tasked with developing solutions to environmental issues.

We still can’t forget about the lead-poisoned water of the residents in Flint Michigan and the continued pollution and poisoning along the Mississippi River’s Cancer Alley.

In the last weeks, following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the U.S. government, led by Trump, failed to give adequate aid to thousands of people — many of whom are still reeling from the devastation.

Much of the island remains without electricity or drinking water, and the death toll has continued to rise.

In spite of these terrible and scary losses, activists and community residents continue to fight environmental racism in their communities every day. We know that it requires a mountain of work to take down the systems of oppression we face — but I have hope.

There’s inspiration to be had and lessons to be learned in those environmental battles of our past.

Even before the Environmental Justice movement officially began in the 1980’s, there have been several times low-income and communities of color have fought for their environmental rights and won!

For a moment, let’s look back at these wins. After all, in times like these, we need good stories. We need to be reminded that — in what often feels like an unwinnable battle against a stacked deck — our communities are smart, resourceful and creative.

When we organize against an issue, we CAN win.

We made this neat comic that shares 10 instances that show just that: communities of color fighting against environmental racism and WINNING.

Click for the Transcript

1. California — Central Valley

In 1965, in farm fields of California’s Central Valley, Filipino and Latinx farm workers lead by Larry Itliong and Cesar Chavez, organized a boycott of grape growers in the state. They fought for union representation to better guarantee workplace rights and safe working conditions like protection from harmful pesticides.

After 5 years of peaceful protests, marches, and strikes, in the spring of 1970 grape growers were forced to sign labor contracts. Their victory not only brought national attention to the plight of farmworkers but built the United Farm Workers Movement and inspired migrant workers all around the country and world to fight for their rights.

2. Tennessee — Memphis

In 1968, in a highly segregated Memphis, TN over 1,000 black sanitation workers went on strike for better working conditions, equal pay and union recognition. Their strike and protests, spurred by the death of two garbage men crushed in the back of a garbage truck, were aided by Martin Luther King, Jr. shortly before his death.

Often remembered for King’s involvement and the memorable “I AM A MAN” slogan, the strike only lasted about three months. But the Memphis sanitation workers got all of their demands and theirs became a huge victory for the civil rights movement.

3. Texas — Houston

In 1971, the residents of the predominantly black Trinity Gardens neighborhood of Houston, Texas organized protests and marches against the Kirkpatrick landfill. After six months of intense demonstrations the landfill, which was only officially operational for a short time, was closed.

4. Kentucky — Harlan County

In 1973, protesting Brookside Mine and Prep Plant for the right to form a union, 180 coal miners went on strike in Harlan County, Kentucky. The poor and working class white community protested the terrible working conditions, low wages and labor practice for over a year. Their demonstrations lead to extensive negotiations with Eastover Coal Company which owned the mine, and a subsequent deal was struck in 1974.

The story of the strike and negotiations was captured in the critically acclaimed documentary Harlan County, USA.

5. Arizona — Fort McDowell Yavapai

In 1981, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation of Arizona won a decade-long struggle to keep the Orme Dam in Central Arizona from being built. Their protests and organizing stopped the dam which would have flooded a substantial part of their reservation, relocating residents, taking away farmland and what remains of their ancestral homeland.

To celebrate, each year, the Yavapai Nation holds the Orme Dam Victory Days in November.

6. North Carolina — Warren County

In the fall of 1982, the residents of Warren County, North Carolina took to the streets–– placing their bodies in the middle of them, in some cases –– to protest the disposal of over 6,000 truckloads of contaminated PCB laden soil in their community landfill. Though they lost that fight, their protest is often cited as the birth of the environmental justice movement.

Their continued efforts to hold their government accountable led to the completion of decontamination and cleanup of the landfill in 2004.

7. Boston — Chinatown

In 1993, the residents of Boston’s Chinatown protested the selling of a plot of land in the neighborhood known at “Parcel C” to a large medical institution nearby. The Coalition to Protect Parcel C organized petitions, community meetings, and rallies to stop the sell and raise awareness about the environmental impacts of the proposed building. After a year mobilizing and protests, the proposal was withdrawn and city forbade Parcel C being used for institutional purposes.

8. New York — West Harlem

Over 71% of Manhattan’s bus depots are located in the predominately Black and Latinx northern part of the borough. In 1997, the West Harlem Environmental Action or We ACT, launched the “Dirty Diesel Campaign” to raise public awareness, push the city to invest in clean energy buses and better evaluate the environmental consequences of bus depot sites.

Their campaign is seen as a major catalyst to the city’s switch to hybrid buses in the early 2000s.

9. California — East Los Angeles

For decades Exide Technologies, a battery recycling plant in East Los Angeles had been polluting the air and contaminating the land with lead. Extensive protests and demonstrations from the community pushed the local government to take action and in 2015 the plant was closed and set to be demolished. Exide Technologies was also tasked with aiding in the clean-up.

10. Florida — Wedgewood

n 2017, after years of protesting air pollutants from 13 landfills and borrow pits, the black community of Wedgewood, Florida was awarded “part of a $3.4 million grant aimed at improving health, well-being, and safety in communities harmed by “environmental racism”,” according to the Pensacola News Journal.

The community enlisted environmental sociologist, Robert Bullard, often known as the “Father of Environmental Justice” and Beverly Wright, known for her extensive work on behalf of citizens in “Cancer Alley,” to help find the best possible uses for the funds.

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Maya Lewis is an Everyday Feminism Reporting Fellow. Maya is a 20-something Brooklynite, by way of Maryland. She spends her time writing about things she believes are interesting and finding ways to trick people into reading them.

Christine Deneweth is a Contributing Comic Artist for Everyday Feminism. A queer cartoonist and artist, Christine lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She is a cartoonist for Eastern Michigan University’s newspaper, The Eastern Echo. She writes children’s books about mental disability and has a comic strip that has been published for five years. Comics can be found on her Facebook page, and art can be found on her Instagram @crassaster. Check out her comics here.