Celebrating Black Environmentalists

By Allyson Haskins

In many fields of life, and especially in the sphere of the outdoors, Black people are often underappreciated and overlooked. Nevertheless, the environmental movement has reached new peaks solely through the help of Black voices; Black voices that need to be amplified. This Black History Month, I have made sure to educate myself on Black history -- mostly within the spectrum of environmentalism. With the end of February approaching, I have found four of my favorite environmentalists to share with you.

To start, I read a lot about Rue Mapp, who is currently working to share opportunities to build a broader green community and promote leadership in conservation. Mapp has a huge role in addressing the ongoing need for greater diversity in the outdoors, and she has brought this issue to the eyes of people across the US. She is a Black woman whose environmental work has been recognized with numerous awards and distinctions, and she has also founded and is the CEO of a national not-for-profit organization called Outdoor Afro.

Outdoor Afro is a cutting-edge network that helps people nationwide connect with Black history found in natural areas while inspiring communities to protect vulnerable lands for everyone. The organization is based in the United States with offices in Oakland, CA and Washington, D.C. Mapp oversees a national volunteer leadership team that is highly-trained to share the organization’s goals with their respective communities. Outdoor Afro was first started as a blog in 2009, and with Mapp’s hard work through personal connections and community organizing, the small blog has blossomed into the amazing organization that it is today.

The next environmentalist I read about is George Washington Carver, who sadly passed away in 1943. Carver is regarded as one of America's greatest agricultural researchers and educators of all time at the moment. He was an intensely spiritual man who made innovations in the field of crop rotation that is considered wonderful breakthroughs in resource conservation. Carver was able to preserve soil and make farms more productive with this breakthrough, and it is only one of the many things he did for the environment.

He may have been one of the first scientists to look at natural systems through the lens of biomimicry, which is the design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes. Carver observed that nature produces absolutely no waste, meaning that what is consumed is then returned in another usable form. He believed that nothing exists in isolation, everything is inextricably connected, and that ignoring this fact can have disastrous effects. In whole, he changed many environmentalists' way of thinking and opened new doors (hint hint: intersectionality!).

My favorite environmentalist that I read about though would have to be John Francis. Francis was known as the “Planet Walker” and is the author of the book Planet Walker: 22 Years of Walking, 17 Years of Silence. His 22 years of walking began after he happened to witness a massive oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 1971, which prompted him to give up all motorized transportation.

He began to trek all over the United States purely on his feet and even traveled through most of South America, in hopes that he would inspire clothes to rethink the petroleum economy. On his travels, he found himself arguing with many about his decision to rid his life of motorized vehicles and decided that he wasn't doing enough listening. At first, Francis had just decided on a day of no talking but slowly and surely, the day led into 17 years of silence, during which he was still able to receive a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

His silence came to an end on Earth Day in 1990 in that he was struck by a car the day after. Using his words though, he was able to convince the ambulance crew to allow him to walk to the hospital -- sticking to his promise to not use a motorized vehicle. The year after, he was named a United Nations Environmental Program Goodwill ambassador and then ended 22 years of no motorized vehicles by boarding a bus in 1994.

Margie Eugene-Richard has a similar story to Francis in that one key moment sparked her activism in the environmental field. Eugene-Richard grew up in Norco, Louisiana -- specifically in a historically African-American neighborhood in the middle of “Cancer Alley.” Her defining moment was in 1973 when the chemical plant next door to her neighborhood, the Shell refinery, had a pipeline explode. The explosion tore one house off of its foundation and killed an elderly woman and teenage boy who was mowing the lawn.

Years later, Eugene-Richard held a long and hard-won battle with Shell refinery to ensure that the corporation was held accountable. She called on the skills from her master’s degree in political theater, and she installed a Web camera in her trailer home that broadcasted live feed of the refinery spewing petrochemical byproducts into the air. Margie Eugene-Richard was the first African American to win the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2004.

Today, towns that are primarily African-American similar to the one that Eugene-Richard grew up in are disproportionately harmed by pollution from businesses like Shell refinery, and without people like Eugene-Richard, they are not served justice. Oil spills similar to the one that John Francis witnessed are still occurring today, and many are completely overlooked. Even more, the outdoors still needs greater diversity, but thankfully groups like Outdoor Afro are advocating for it.

This Black History Month, and every single day after this, make sure to open your eyes to how climate change affects not only the collective planet, but also people of color who live in communities that are disproportionately affected by environmental issues. Look into Black environmentalists who are shown little appreciation and continue to fight for their voices and work to attain environmental justice.

Art Credits: New York Times