Meet the Major Players in the Environmental Justice Movement

One of the most important movements in the US right now is the environmental justice movement, believed to have first started along the I5 in California’s Central Valley in the 1980s. Led primarily by African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders, the campaign focuses on one stark fact: that those who live and work in America’s most polluted neighborhoods are low-income individuals of color.

In 1992, then-president Bill Clinton appointed two environmental justice leaders. Since then, the movement has ballooned, and multiple grassroots environmental justice organizations have formed. Here’s just some you should know about.

May 10, 2021

By: Lucy Sherriff

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Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice partners with communities harmed by racially disproportionate pollution burdens and climate vulnerabilities. The center builds the ability of communities to respond to environmental threats and hazards through workshops that train members to monitor environmental hazards, know their rights and understand the risks of toxic exposures, among others.

Indigenous Environmental Network

Its members aim is to protect the “sacredness of Earth Mother from contamination and exploitation” by strengthening Indigenous teachings. Campaigns include ‘Keep it in the Ground’, fighting against oil drilling, and ‘Just Transition’, campaigning for jobs for an equitable society. The network is also developing mechanisms to protect sacred sites and land, water and air resources.

Indigenous Environmental Network executive director Tom Goldtooth (R), Native American Sioux and Indigenous Amazonians attends the "The vision of indigenous peoples to climate change" event.

Black Millennials 4 Flint

The group began as a programming initiative in a professional network, and then in 2016 expanded into an organization that aims to bring together like-minded movements to take actions against lead exposure in African American and Latino communities. Their first project was supporting an effort to deliver 170 water donations to individuals in Flint.

WE ACT

Formerly the West Harlem Environmental Action, created in 1998 to fight the North River Sewage Treatment Plant, the group has proceeded to wage battles against other environmental issues in New York City and the wider New York state.

Co-founder of WE ACT, Peggy Shepard, attends New Yorkers For Clean Power Campaign Launch.

Asian Pacific Environmental Network

APEN’s work focuses on Asian immigrant and refugee communities. Founded in 1993, the network is building community-owned renewable energy resources to power local neighborhood and building a local economy of community-owned and run co-ops.

California Environmental Justice Alliance

CEJA is a statewide coalition of grassroots environmental justice organizations that are building resistance among low-income areas and communities of color. It works with groups such as the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, based in LA County, and Environmental Health Coalition, based in San Diego.

Alicia Rivera, Maya Herrera, and Carmen Garcia, left to right, chant as they join the groups, Communities for a Better Environment and California Environmental Justice Alliance to rally in front of Exide technologies located in Vernon, CA.

OPAL Environmental Justice

The acronym stands for Organizing People, Activating Leaders, and was founded in 2006 by and for people of color and low income residents of Portland. OPAL is a grassroots-driven hub fighting for environmental justice by elevating BIPOC leaders and galvanizing youths to be the next generation of leaders.

MN350

MN350, based in Minnesota, unites locals against pollution and to build a better future for the younger generations. They’re focusing on stopping new crude oil pipelines in the state, as well as fighting capitalism, racism, gender oppression and the dispossession of indigenous people, coupled with working to transition Minnesota to a clean-energy economy.

Nearly 600 activists and water protectors took part in a protest against the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline on Friday evening in St. Paul, Minnesota. The event was organized by over a dozen groups, including Sunrise Movement MN, Honor the Earth, International Indigenous Youth Council, Environment MN, MN350, and others.