Crossroads of Protest: Historical Connections Between Racial Justice and Other Justice Movements
There are both historical and ongoing connections between the movement for racial justice and other social movements. This guide highlights the historical connection between the racial justice movement and the fight for a broad range of human rights.
Environmental Issues and Racial Justice
Protestors block the delivery of toxic PCB waste to a landfill in Afton, North Carolina, 1982. Photo credit: Ricky Stilley
Print Books about Environmental Issues and Racial Justice
Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grass Roots by Publication Date: 1999-07-01
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and its Assault on the American Mind by Publication Date: 2019-07-23
Environmental Justice in Postwar America: A Documentary Reader by Publication Date: 2018-07-01
Race and Resistance: African Americans in the 21st Century by Publication Date: 2002-07-01
Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality by Publication Date: 2000-03-24
eBooks about Environmental Issues and Racial Justice
Power Politics by Publication Date: 2009Power Politics is a study of a grassroots campaign where longtime labor and environmental allies found themselves on opposite sides of a conflict pitting good jobs against good air.
City in a Garden by Publication Date: 2017By demonstrating how the city's midcentury modernisation sustained racial oppression, restriction, and uneven development, Busch reveals the darker ramifications of Austin's green growth.
Toxic Communities by Publication Date: 2014Taylor provides a comprehensive overview of the debate over whether or not there is a link between environmental transgressions and discrimination, drawing a clear picture of the state of the environmental justice field today and where it is going.
Racial Ecologies by Publication Date: 2018Racial Ecologies explores activist strategies and creative responses to the many environmental threats and degradation that disproportionately affect communities of color, with often dire consequences for people’s lives and health.
To Love the Wind and the Rain: African Americans and Environmental History by Publication Date: 2005-12-30
Videos about Environmental Issues and Racial Justice
Websites about Environmental Issues and Racial Justice
- What Is Environmental Justice?Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
- We Birthed the MovementA detailed digital exhibit about the history of the actions and protests in Afton, North Carolina against the plans to build a toxic landfill near their 60% African-American community. The plan was to store 60,000 tons of soil laced with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that had been dumped illegally on 240 miles of North Carolina roadways earlier that summer.
- NRDC: The Environmental Justice Movement"Championed primarily by African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, the environmental justice movement addresses a statistical fact: people who live, work and play in America's most polluted environments are commonly people of color and the poor." This overview has been created by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
- The Environmental Justice Movement Is Rooted In Black History"The modern Environmental Justice Movement would not be what it is today if it were not for the African Americans who helped to shape it. "