She utilized her background as an organizer and as a lawyer to talk about how the laws need to be changed in order to help Black people achieve liberation and power and using legal strategies to achieve racial justice. She was one of the leading women of the Black Panther Party who was pushing them to also think about how the issues they cared about impact women and pushed them to be more intersectional in their work. Kathleen Cleaver is one of those individuals doing that work. What Black History Month means to The 19th staff Here’s what they chose.įor Rissi Palmer, country music is a form of Black resistance We asked lovers of Black literature to curate a Black resistance reading list. There were ways in which they were thinking outside of the box and creatively, and when I think about environmental justice work, that is one of the most important tenets that is needed. ![]() The Black Panther Party has inspired me to do the work using a civil rights lens that centers Black communities. (Art Frisch/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images) Even just by saying that there is an existence of toxic doughnut communities that gave language for environmental justice researchers to then go research and have proof.Ībre’ Conner, director of Environmental and Climate Justice for the NAACP, on Kathleen Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver So I feel like what really stands out about her work is just how courageous and curious she was, how she coined the term toxic doughnut to explain a phenomenon that’s been happening in so many Black communities, and I just think that there’s so much power in language that helps people feel seen and validated. She coined this term called “toxic doughnut.” She was one of the first people that was able to almost unofficially say, look, our cities are surrounded in toxic waste, air pollution, why are there so many landfills right down the street? There’s so much power in data and being able to say no, there are more landfills in our neighborhood than the White neighborhood down the highway. Johnson because she, to me, is like the mother of environmental justice, and before it was even a field of study, was out in Chicago looking at the placement of toxic waste sites and pollution and highways, and how it impacted Black communities and how that correlated to cancer outcomes, etc. (Courtesy of People For Community Recovery) Leah Thomas, author and activist, on Hazel M. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Race is one of the strongest predictors of the location of hazardous waste sites, which are consistently located near Black and low-income neighborhoods, according to a study by the United Church of Christ.įor Black History Month, The 19th spoke with current leaders in the environmental and climate justice movements, including Thomas, about the trailblazing Black women in their own lives who have inspired and shaped their work. ![]() ![]() The communities exposed to human-made environmental hazards were and still are largely Black. From in-depth Q&As to staff reflections and our inaugural 19th Celebrates event, we’re focused on telling stories along the twin themes of Black joy and Black resistance. ![]() Pichon Battle is also a practicing attorney, and manages GCCLP's legal services for immigration and disaster law.This story is part of our Black History Month coverage. Civilian Medal of Honor from the state of Louisiana in 2008. She also works with local communities, national funders, and elected officials in the post-Katrina/post-BP disaster recovery, work for which she received the U.S. A version of this segment was originally heard in the episode Our Relationship With Water.Ĭolette Pichon Battle is the founder and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, a non-profit, public interest law firm and justice center with a mission to advance structural shifts toward climate justice and ecological equity in communities of color.Īt GCCLP, Pichon Battle develops programming focused on equitable disaster recovery, climate migration, community economic development, and climate justice. She describes how we can avert the worst when disaster strikes. Sea level rise will displace millions by 2100 - and the Louisiana bayous, where Colette Pichon Battle lives, may disappear entirely. Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Black History.
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