Black Environmentalists You Should Know
Last summer, I wrote Why We Need Intersectional Environmentalism. In that piece, I explained the racist history of the environmental movement. However, I did not mention the incredible Black environmentalists who have shaped and are continuing to shape the movement's trajectory. In this post, I fill that gap by highlighting some Black environmental leaders of the past and present.
George Washington Carver (1864 - 1943)
Image Credit: Smithsonian Magazine
George Washington Carver was a remarkable person who was instrumental in educating former slaves about agriculture. He was born into slavery in Missouri and freed shortly after the Civil War. While enslaved, he helped neighboring farmers as a self-taught botanist. After being freed, he was the first Black student to attend Iowa State Agricultural School (now Iowa State University). He used his education to help Black farmers run more biologically productive farms, invent new uses for crops, and teach botany at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and other universities across the country.
Recommended Reading: George Washington Carver, The Black History Monthiest Of Them All, How to Grow the Tomato: and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table (USDA Bulletin No. 36)
Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)
Langston Hughes was a multi-award-winning poet and writer and one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. Although he is not commonly associated with environmentalism, many of his poems touch on environmental issues of space, place and justice. His poems have an amazing ability to communicate hope and joy alongside the endless frustration of being Black in traditionally White spaces.
Recommended Reading: Dream Variations, Daybreak in Alabama, The Negro Dreams of Rivers
Dr. Robert Bullard
Image Credit: DrRobertBullard.com
Many consider Dr. Robert Bullard the Father of Environmental Justice. He is perhaps best known for writing one of the first in-depth works on environmental injustice, Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality. Since publishing Dumping in Dixie in 1990, he has led an incredible career in environmental justice, including writing many more books, earning the Sierra Club's 2013 John Muir Award, and becoming a distinguished professor at Texas Southern Univerisity.
Recommended Reading: The Wrong Complexion for Protection, Dumping in Dixie
Dr. Dorceta Taylor
Image Credit: Yale School of the Environment
Dr. Dorceta Taylor is a writer, professor and food justice advocate. she is best known for writing the environmental justice standard text Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility and one of the first books outlining the history of environmental injustices in the U.S., The Environment and the People in American Cities, the 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality and Social Change. She has also extensively researched food injustice in the Detroit area. She is currently a professor at the Yale School for the Environment, where she continues to research and advocate for environmental and food justice.
Recommended Reading: Toxic Communities, The Environment and the People in American Cities
Lisa Jackson
From 2009 to 2013, under President Obama, Lisa Jackson served as the first Black Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator. While in office, Jackson led efforts to create the first national standard to limit mercury emissions from power plants, increase fuel efficiency in vehicles, and keep our water and air clean.
Recommended Reading: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Leaves a Legacy of Cleaner Air, Safer Water, and More Stable Climate
Michael Twitty
Image Credit: Afroculinaria
Michael Twitty is a culinary historian, writer and activist. He's worn many hats in the culinary and justice fields, including founding the culinary history blog Afroculinaria, working with D. Landreth Seed Company to compile an African American heritage collection of seeds, and publishing The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History, a book on the impact of racism on southern cuisine.
Recommended Reading: The Cooking Gene
Dr. Carolyn Finney
I've talked about Dr. Carolyn Finney before on my Instagram. She's a fantastic author and activist. Her book Black Faces, White Spaces was one of the first books I read about the Black environmental experience and it was truly eye-opening. In addition to writing, Finney has helped numerous media companies to more inclusively portray Blackness, taught about race and environmental studies at several universities, and served on the U.S. National Parks Advisory Board.
Recommended Reading: Black Faces, White Spaces
Rue Mapp
Image Credit: Outdoor Afro
Rue Mapp is the founder of Outdoor Afro, a blog-turned-nonprofit dedicated to increasing Black representation in outdoor spaces. Outdoor Afro currently operates in 30 states, with almost 100 volunteers working to improve the Black outdoor experience. The nonprofit organizes hiking, swimming, camping and other outdoor recreation trips for Black children and adults.
Recommended Reading: Outdoor Afro: Busting Stereotypes That Black People Don't Hike Or Camp
Peggy Shephard
Image Credit: WE ACT for EJ
Peggy Shephard is the co-founder and current executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. WE ACT is a New York-based nonprofit empowering minorities to be more involved in local environmental justice efforts. Peggy was also the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the EPA, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network.
Recommended Reading: WE ACT's Current Campaigns