9 Black Environmentalists to Follow

Black environmentalism focuses on the intersection of race and the environment. In a world where environmental burdens and benefits as well as the impacts of climate change are not borne equally across communities, black environmentalism necessitates that we incorporate anti-racism and systemic change into our climate action.

 

As we close out this Black History Month, we’ve compiled a small selection of the many Black Environmentalists who are helping us to grapple with the inclusivity, or lack thereof, of mainstream pushes towards sustainability and to apply an intersectional lens to sustainability problems and solutions.

 

Often called the Father of Environmental Justice, Dr. Robert D. Bullard has published over 18 books and won dozens of awards, including the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) 2020 Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award. Bullard’s career as an environmental justice advocate began in 1979 when he acted as an expert witness in the Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management, Inc civil lawsuit, wherein an African American family formed a coalition to contest the introduction of a landfill to their neighborhood. Bullard conducted a sociological study that illuminated how Black neighborhoods in Houston were disproportionally chosen for sites of garbage dumps, incinerators, and landfills. These findings launched Bullard into studying environmental racism in the entire American South. Most recently, Bullard has actively engaged in conversations about how Black communities, more exposed to air pollution due to their proximity to power plants, are more vulnerable to COVID-19. More information on his work can be found here. 

 

Leah Thomas is an intersectional environmental activist. She came into the spotlight in May 2020 after the death of George Floyd when her Instagram post calling on environmentalists to stand with the Black Lives Matter movement went viral. Since then, Thomas has continued to advocate for the amplification of diverse voices in the environmentalism movement. She founded the platform ‘Intersectional Environmentalist’ which shines light on how environmentalism intersects with not only Black lives, but also the Latinx, South Asian, East Asian, US Indigenous, South East Asian, and LGBTQ communities. Thomas can also be found on Instagram at @greengirlleah, @intersectionalenvironmentalist, and @thegreensgirlco. 

 

Majora Carter is an urban revitalization strategist who founded and led the environmental justice solutions non-profit Sustainable South Bronx. An expert in urban planning and economic development and winner of the 2005 Macarthur ‘genius’ grant, Carter established a planning and consulting firm to work with cities around the country to spur green job creation and sustainable economic growth. While not currently active in the public sector, Carter played a pivotal role in bringing environmental justice to national attention when her Ted Talk was one of the first 6 to launch on the Ted.com website. In her talk, Carter speaks about urban renewal through a lens of environmental equality and the importance of ‘greening the ghetto.’ 

 

 

LaDonna Sanders-Redmond is a leading advocate of food justice within Black communities. The west Chicago native was inspired to make a change after her young son developed a plethora of imposing food allergies, and organic food was not available in her neighborhood. Since launching her grassroots movement, LaDonna has successfully lobbied Chicago Public Schools to re-evaluate junk foods, launched the Campaign for Food Justice Now, and currently advocates within her Minneapolis, Minnesota community through her work at Seward Community Co-op. A champion of public engagement, Sanders-Redmond also hosts a talk show segment “It’s Your Health” on KMOJ-FM 89.9, directs curated theater performances called SOUL (Sustainable, Organic, Urban, and Local) Food Monologues, and has a popular Ted x talk – Food + Justice = Democracy. Most recently, Sanders-Redmond has brought awareness to food injustice in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can hear her story in her own words here.

 

Youth health activist Haile Thomas has been inspiring young people to take their health and wellness into their own hands since 2010 when her family successfully reversed her father’s type-2 diabetes through their diet. At age 12, Thomas founded HAPPY (Healthy, Active, Positive, Purposeful, Youth) to empower youth to view wellness holistically and advocate for access to plant-forward nutrition in disadvantaged communities. She has also authored an award-winning vegan cookbook called Living Lively, and engages audiences around the world through speaking engagements. Thomas can be found at her website and on Instagram at @hailethomas.

 

Bryant Terry is a James Beard Award-Winning chef who advocates around the country for a healthy and sustainable food system. He is currently the Chef-in-Residence at the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora where he tailors programming at the intersection of food, health, and activism. Terry is the author of numerous vegan and African-American cuisine cookbooks, including Afro-Vegan, which was nominated for a NAACP Award in Outstanding Literary Work. In his gripping TedMed Talk, Terry speaks about his personal food journey and how it inspired him to take food justice within poor Black communities into his own hands. 

 

 

Marjorie Richard is an award-winning community environmental justice activist who founded Concerned Citizens of Narco in 1989 after growing up sandwiched between a Shell plant and Motiva oil refinery. Rates of cancer, bacterial infection, and birth defects were far above average in her Oil Diamond, Narco, Lousiana neighborhood, and Richard was personally galvanized after witnessing the explosion of a Shell pipeline. Following 13 years of Richard’s grassroots organizing, community research, and legal action, in 2000, Shell ultimately agreed to reduce emissions by 30% and pay the relocation costs of families residing near the plant, the first relocation effort in the Deep South’s history. Following this success, Richard was invited to speak at the United Nations, and continued consulting with communities around the world, empowering them to stand up against environmental injustices. 

 

Corina Newsome is a graduate student at Georgia Southern University who made waves last summer after launching the #BlackBirderWeek movement on Twitter in response to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed near her field site, and the racial harassment of Black birder Christian Cooper in Central Park. Newsome’s interest in wildlife started after shadowing a Black woman zookeeper—the last Black woman zookeeper Newsome has known—at the Philadelphia Zoo during her senior year of high school. Now, Newsome is an inspiration. She has been featured on the New Yorker, PBS, and the Audubon Society. She continues to activate on Twitter at @hood_naturalist, a nod to her Philadelphia upbringing, and @BlackAFinSTEM, an organization she started to unite the Black STEM community. 

 

Tyrone Hayes is a biologist at UC Berkeley specializing on amphibians. After finding that atrazine was causing various mutilations in the frog species that he studied, Hayes decided to examine the ways the pesticide was affecting the minority farmers in Southern LA. In his Tedx Talk, Hayes explains the intersection of environmental health and personal health, and why, unlike the EPA, we should all pay attention when genetically male frogs start producing eggs.