Black activists, scholars, and advocates have made significant contributions to fostering greater environmental awareness, advocating environmental justice, promoting green jobs creation, and highlighting the connection between the green movement and other movements for social justice, specifically, civil rights and human rights. Nonetheless, they are not often heralded for these substantial efforts. At chocolate granola, we thought we would be remiss for ending black history month without taking a moment to salute five laudatory African-American pioneers in environmental justice and the green movement.
Robert D. Bullard – is the Edmund Asa Ware Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. Once termed the "father of environmental justice," Dr. Bullard has authored over a dozen books addressing sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, and climate justice. His latest book, co-authored with Beverly Wright, is Race, Place, and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuild, and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
.
Beverly Wright - leads the New Orleans-based Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University in New Orleans. She won the Heinz award in 2009 for her work on behalf of local communities, especially those in Louisiana's notorious "Cancer Alley." After Hurricane Katrina devastated her own neighborhood, she co-authored In the Wake of the Storm: Environment, Disaster, and Race After Katrina, published in 2006. Dr. Wright also created a neighboorhood clean-up project with the U.S. Steelworkers called A Safe Way Back Home, that trained small businesses and contractors in hazardous waste removal, mold remediation and safety methods as well as trained volunteers to assist residents with neighborhood restoration efforts.
Van Jones - author of The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
a New York Times bestseller, is a passionate green jobs advocate. He created three non-profit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change and Green For All, a national NGO dedicated to building an inclusive green economy by focusing on reducing urban poverty and environmental solutions. Since leaving his appointment as green jobs czar with the Obama administration, he won the NAACP Image Award and will be a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton University and rejoin the Center for American Progress.
Majora Carter - founded the Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 after winning a federal grant to design the South Bronx Greenway with bicycle and pedestrian paths connecting the neighborhoods to their surrounding rivers. In addition, she implemented the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program— an innovative green-collar job training and placement system. She has received numerous awards for her efforts including a MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2005 and a Rachel Carson Award from the National Audubon Society in 2007. In 2008, she started the Majora Carter Group, LLC, a green consulting company.
Peggy Shepard - is the executive director and co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. A former journal, has been a pioneer for advancing the cause of environmental equality in urban neighborhoods. Among her accolades, she was a winner of the 2003 Heinz Award for the Environment and the 2008 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Achievement. WE ACT has been engaged in several successful campaigns, including winning a lawsuit against New York City over a municipal sewage plant. The organization partners with leading physicians, sponsors educational programs for youth, and is in the process of transforming a Harlem brownstone into a LEED certified green building.
Monday, September 26, 2011 at 03:25PM 
