“Environmental Justice: From the Grassroots to the White House” Report from a Virtual Event Hosted by the American Public Health Association and United Church of Christ October 28,2021 to Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit,Washington,DC

Every fall, the American Public Health Association (APHA) convenes an annual meeting. For the past several years, the Environmental Justice (EJ) Committee of the Environment Section of APHA has hosted an event focused on EJ that is run in conjunction with the annual meeting. When the event has been in person, the committee has focused on centering communities who live in the location of the annual meeting as part of the event. Unlike most other Sections and Committees within the APHA structure, the EJ Committee of the Environment Section is open to the public, and you do not have to be a dues-paying member to participate in meetings. As meaningful involvement is a core tenet of EJ, this is a key principle for the committee in its work to provide opportunities for authentic engagement and participation.

As the EJ Committee began to plan an EJ-focused event around the 2021 APHA annual meeting, members realized two unique opportunities: (1) The meeting was scheduled for October 24–27, which coincided exactly with the 30th anniversary of the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (the Summit), and (2) The hybrid format of the annual meeting (with in-person and virtual attendance) provided the opportunity to host a free virtual event that could possibly reach a larger audience than prior in-person only events.

Through a collaborative months-long planning process, the EJ Committee members worked with the cohosts of the event, APHA, the United Church of Christ and the Environment and Occupational Health & Safety Sections of APHA, to plan an event that was ultimately titled, “Environmental Justice: From the Grassroots to the White House.” The goals and priorities of the event were to

foster open discourse about how things have changed and what things today are reminiscent of the time 30 years ago when the Summit was convened,

show original clips from the Summit for panelist and audience reflection,

feature grassroots leadership as the origin of the movement, leading to federal leadership today,

expand on the theme of the APHA Annual Meeting: “Strengthening social connectedness,”

discuss EJ goals for the future, and

honor those who have fought for EJ, who are no longer with us.

The agenda for the event was as follows:

Welcome and Opening Remarks from the APHA and the United Church of Christ

Opening Keynote Address: White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair, Brenda Mallory

Panel Discussion with clips from the 1991 Summit featuring several of the panelists and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, moderated by Dr. Crystal Upperman and featuring panelists:

○ Mr. Charles Lee, Senior Policy Advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of EJ

○ Mrs. Vernice Miller-Travis, Executive Vice President at the Metropolitan Group

○ Dr. Linda Rae Murray, Past President of the APHA

○ Ms. Leslie Fields, National Director, Policy Advocacy and Legal at the Sierra Club.

In remembrance of EJ champions we have lost, led by Mr. and Mrs. Omega and Brenda Wilson, cofounders, West End Revitalization Association in Mebane, NC

Closing keynote from Black Millennials for Flint Founder CEO and President LaTricea Adams.

The event opened with remarks from Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of APHA. Through his remarks, Dr. Benjamin acknowledged the role of EJ in public health, “Our mission is to improve the health of the public and achieve equity in health status. In order to achieve health equity, we must address the environmental injustices caused by environmental racism.” Reverend Brooks Berndt spoke on behalf of the United Church of Christ, who published the groundbreaking 1987 article Toxic Waste and Race and was the original sponsor of the Summit. He used the analogy of a river to explain how movement can rush forward at times and at others be blocked with obstacles.

He acknowledged how the Summit did indeed build a movement, a movement that is still moving us forward today. In a way, the Summit represented the culmination of 10 years of focused movement-building work since the EJ Movement was defined through community actions in Warren County, North Carolina and also laid important groundwork for the movement to grow. The community-driven protests and actions in Warren County, NC represent how other communities of the country have responded to environmental threats in their own communities, ebbing and flowing to catalyze change.

Brenda Mallory, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, served as the keynote speaker and emphasized how the Summit impacted governmental policy on EJ. There was no Executive Order 12898, “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations” at the time of the Summit. That would come almost 3 years later, but, 30 years later, Chair Mallory described EJ as a priority in the Biden Administration. In her remarks, Chair Mallory got to the heart of this event: from the grassroots to the White House.

She paid homage to those who built the movement on the streets and through community organizing, to acknowledge their role in the pathway to where she sits today in the White House as part of an administration centering health and equity in environmental and climate actions. It is a critical shift in the emphasis of the EJ movement to have this level of visibility and resources at the highest level of federal government, and while it shifts the role of the grassroots movement, grassroots activists are no less important to continuing momentum. Today, there is a new focus on holding the government accountable for the actions they are setting forth.

The organizers of this anniversary event defined success through the achievement of goals and priorities (aforementioned) and high registration and attendance. In those terms, the evening was a success, with insights provided from the perspective of the federal government, wisdom from panelists who planned and attended the Summit, reflections from those in the movement but were not “in the room” in 1991, a moving remembrance of those we have lost, and a rousing call to action through the closing keynote. There were 627 people who registered for the event and 227 attendees. In addition, the recording on YouTube has been viewed 800 times so far. The emotions were palpable through the screen and attendees learned history to set the course for a just future.

Event planners summarized and synthesized major takeaways from the panel discussion, including comparisons between the work of 1991 and the work toward EJ today, the obstacles and successes of the movement, and a variety of largely timeless themes of the movement. These takeaways included the following:

The EJ movement has come a long way, and we are still on a journey to achieve equity and meet the goals set forth in the 17 Principles.

○ Dr. Murray posited: We should ask ourselves not, “Are we better off than we were yesterday—it's good that we are—but are we doing what needs to be done to solve the problems?” She was encouraging participants to address the deep seeded roots of systemic racism and injustice that permeates our cultural and policy landscapes.

The Summit seeded much of what the EJ movement looks like today.

○ Charles Lee recalled what he wrote in the proceedings of the Summit as the introduction, “On October 24–27, 1991 in Washington DC, the environmental movement in the United States changed forever.”

○ The goals of the Summit were to (1) codify a set of EJ principles and (2) establish a call to action to organize in communities.

■ October 1991 provided a moment not just to have a meeting, but a moment to bring everyone (communities of color) together to make a statement about the fact that communities of color had been working on environmental issues maybe not for decades but for centuries, and that bringing people together created a new momentum of its own.

○ The Summit helped reframe the discussions about the environment and to center people, which you can see in the way we talk about the climate crisis today as one example.

The EJ movement is intersectional.

○ The Summit brought to light divisions between the predominantly White environmental movement and the EJ movement led by people of color. White people in the environmental movement thought that people of color did not understand the environment and were led to believe that arenas of struggle faced by people of color (diesel in NYC, toxics in Love Canal, or not having the right to vote in Mississippi) were somehow separate and different from the arenas of struggle for conservation.

■ We are suffering from the same cause; even if some of us feel it in our arm while others feel it in our foot. It's still the same body, the same Earth, the same peoples. (Dr. Murray)

■ The Summit created space for people of color from across the country to raise their voices and state how pollution in the environment or hazardous chemicals at work disproportionately hurts Black, Brown, tribal, and low-income communities. Our journey today is to build broad recognition and effort to address environmental injustices and racism to achieve true health equity for communities of color.

■ The struggles of worrying about toxins in the environment or the right to vote or a treaty violation should not be treated separately. These issues unite us and we demand that those in power pay attention to how to better serve the needs of communities that have been left out of the decision-making process.

○ Communities of color have different relationships and connections with the environment than majority groups. Lived experiences shape prioritization of needs and definitions of what environmental liberation looks like.

○ This Summit married the core of the traditional civil rights movement with the traditional/mainstream environmental movement, addressing rifts in the movements that had been present since the early 1970s. Results of these efforts are seen today in the way the “big green” environmental groups are centering environmental and climate justice in their work and more intentionally supporting community-based EJ efforts.

We are not by ourselves.

○ Being at the Summit was an extraordinarily affirming activity and coming OUT of the Summit with the principles and the charge to organize and to still be standing is a gratifying experience.

○ Progress continues to advance every day as more people join the EJ movement.

○ There is no singular pursuit in EJ; it is always a collective pursuit.

It was a long hard journey to get here.

○ On the journey, we have lost a lot of warriors, a lot of people who died before their time. Although it is amazing to be where we are today, do not think for one moment that payment has not been made in blood and tears and vibrancy and wholeness.

○ The experiences, wisdom, and advancement made by those before us lay the foundation for the movement to continue and exponentially advance in their honor.

There is value in allyship, solidarity, and people speaking for themselves.

○ Everyone needs to be in the room contributing to decisions. We cannot make decisions without people in the room and at the table whose lives the decisions affect. And, if you find yourself in the room when others are not, it is your responsibility to stop the conversation until everyone is at the table.

○ This was a large part of why this event organization leadership thought it would be most appropriate to have attendees of the original Summit lead the narrative of this event.

We must teach history to understand and to break cycles of injustice.

○ The first thing we have to do is remove the fundamental racism out of decision-making processes. Acknowledge and extricate the racism from the processes so we do not repeat harm and reinforce injustice.

○ We cannot do what we used to do because that was killing us.

When asked for final thoughts on this momentous occasion and advice for the next generation, the panelists offered the following:

Mr. Lee

We have come a long way, but we have a lot more work to do. The challenges are even greater today than they were before. We need to learn from the experiences, voices, and wisdom at the Summit and participants and go to work.

Mrs. Fields

This has been a calling for me, and it has taken me all over the world where I have met the best people, many of whom I am with tonight. If you are protecting your environment, you are also protecting your cultural environment. And if you're protecting your culture, it is joyous. It's very important that you take care of yourself in this work and that you keep celebrating.

Mrs. Miller-Travis

This work is serious, but it should not be so serious that we forget how far we have come, that we are still standing, that there is good music, written word, spoken word; there is just good culture. Culture has to be a part of this movement. It is not just drudgery. It is a celebration of life, and a celebration of the planet, and a celebration of all the incredible gifts we have been given. So when we get together it can't just be about meetings. It should be about sharing meals together and bringing youth into the movement. Every night at the Summit, we had a cultural celebration. Cultural uplift is also a part of movement building.

Dr. Murray

We are peoples that some have tried to crush and destroy, but we're still here and we're still fighting because our ancestors were really seeds of who we are today and the EJ Summit of 30 years ago for what the movement has become and what it will become. So there is no reason to despair. We know where we come from and we know where we are going. As long as we do it together, we will make progress.

After the panel discussion, the event made space for participants to reflect on those we have lost in the movement, led by Mr. and Mrs. Omega and Brenda Wilson, the 2021 Damu Smith Award Recipients from the APHA Environment Section. To introduce the In Remembrance piece of the agenda. A clip of Dana Alston's speech at the Summit was played, which said:

We have come here to define for ourselves the issues of ecology and the environment. To speak these truths that we know from our lives to those participants and observers we have invited here to join us. We have come for you to hear from our mouths directly, our understanding so there will be no confusion and no misunderstanding. For us, the issues of the environment do not stand alone by themselves. They are not narrowly defined. Our vision of the environment is woven into an overall framework of social, racial, and economic justice. Deeply rooted in our cultures and our spirituality, it is based in a long tradition and understanding and respect for the natural world.

The environment for us is where we live, where we work, and where we play. The environment affords us the platform to address the critical issues of our time: questions of militarism and defense policies, religious freedom, cultural survival, energy, sustainable development, the future of our cities, transportation, housing, land and sovereignty rights, self determination, employment, and we can go on and on. What we seek is a relationship based on equity, mutual respect, mutual interests, and justice. We refuse narrow definitions. It's not just ancient forests, that's important. It's just not saving the whales, that's important, and saving other endangered species, that's important. We understand the life cycle and the connectedness of life. But our communities and our people are endangered species, too. We refuse a paternalistic relationship. We are not interested in a parent/child relationship. Your organizations may be or may not be older than ours, your organizations definitely have more money than ours, but if…you are to form a partnership with us it will be as equals and nothing else but equals.

To end the event, LaTricea Adams offered a closing keynote address and said in part:

My journey to environmental justice activism is not an unusual one if you understand the culture that is eminent throughout the African Diaspora. What has brought us from grassroots to the white house is best defined with the Swahili word “ujima” meaning collective work and responsibility. Unlike the westernized thought of individualism and “every man for himself” rhetoric, the original stewards of the land, Black, Latinx, and Indigenous folks have an unshakable devotion to unity. While white America is reckoning with climate change as we saw the topic live in center during the presidential debates of 2020, Black and Brown folks have been screaming from the mountaintops “STOP KILLING US” for centuries.

From human chattel, kidnapped from the Western shores of the continent of Africa, to the false discovery of the “Americas”; masked in imperialism with the stench of manifest destiny, to the horrific reality of Europeans distributing smallpox infected blankets to the very people who taught them how to cultivate terrain unbeknownst to them…to the 15,000 uranium mines on Tribal Land, to the Sanitation workers strike in my hometown Memphis, TN, to life threatening hookworms and other parasites in rural areas of Alabama with poor sewage and sanitation due to fecal contamination, to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico, the Flint Water Crisis, the Baltimore Lead Paint Crisis, the Lead Crisis in Benton Harbor Michigan, Lead in school drinking water in our nation's capital Washington, DC, to say it's been a long time coming is an understatement.

The over 30+ year fight of Peggy Shepard in Harlem, the unbossed and unapologetic fight of Dr. Beverly Wright, the hope and promise of Mari Copeny who we lovingly known as “Little Miss Flint,” to me, the first and youngest Black Woman appointed to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council by President Joseph Biden.

Similar to Chair Mallory to open this event, LaTricea painted a beautiful picture of those who started the movement at the grassroots level to help forge her path to contributing to the White House's efforts on EJ.

As stated within the 17 Principles of EJ, the purpose of the Summit was “to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities.” The journey toward these principles is ongoing. In the 30 years since the Summit, community groups around the country have continued to fight for their rights to clean air and water, free of toxics, and against systems of oppression that reinforce inequitable policies. Today, the results of these efforts can be seen in the federal narrative around these issues and hopefully soon in policymaking and allocation of resources to in part correct past injustices, through the Biden Administration's Justice 40 Initiative, for example.

Similar to the Summit itself, this event brought people together and sent people home with a charge. The environmental movement can no longer be siloed from the EJ movement; they are one. The EJ movement continues to grow, and it is our responsibility to turn rhetoric into results and build that future where everyone has a right to a healthful environment where they live, work, pray, and play. In a blog reflecting on this event, Omega and Brenda Wilson and Brandon Hunter wrote:

The EJ movement today needs both the “then” and “now” generations to continue investing in each other, co-learning and co-developing effective strategies together, building up each other's capacity to affect change, and healing each other. The movement cannot afford to lose the fundamental knowledge, wisdom, and expertise that have been developed over the years and must also further adapt to the novelties of the modern world we live in today.

The hope is that this anniversary event moved people to do even greater action in this important work including building organizational capacity.

Watch the recording of “Environmental Justice: From the Grassroots to the White House” on the APHA YouTube channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj9O0iB_v6E&t=3644s

Watch the video recording of the 1991 Summit on the United Church of Christ 30th anniversary webpage here:

https://www.ucc.org/30th-anniversary-the-first-national-people-of-color-environmental-leadership-summit/

Read the 17 Principles of EJ, promulgated at the Summit, here:

https://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.pdf