Looking Back at Black History Month: Honoring the Black Roots of the Environmental Justice Movement
As Black History Month comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to reflect on a truth that is too often overlooked: the modern environmental justice movement was sparked and shaped by Black communities.
Long before “climate resilience” and “equity” became policy buzzwords, Black organizers were demanding something simple and powerful — the right to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live free from toxic harm.
Today, as climate impacts intensify across San Diego and beyond, that legacy continues to guide the movement for climate justice.
The Beginning: Warren County, North Carolina (1982)
The modern environmental justice movement is widely traced back to Warren County, North Carolina in 1982.
The state chose a rural, predominantly Black, low-income community as the site for a landfill containing soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Residents organized mass protests in partnership with civil rights leaders from the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice. Over 500 people were arrested in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience over six weeks of demonstrations.
Among those arrested was the Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., then director of the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice — a figure who would go on to shape the entire movement. Chavis has said it was in the Warren County jail that he coined the phrase “environmental racism,” which he later defined as racial discrimination in environmental policymaking, in the enforcement of regulations and laws, and in the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal.
Although the landfill was ultimately built, the protests ignited national awareness and helped catalyze a new movement.
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Naming the Problem: "Environmental Racism"
Following the Warren County protests, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigated hazardous waste landfill locations across eight southeastern states. The 1983 report found that three of the four landfills studied were located in majority-Black communities, despite Black residents representing a smaller share of the overall regional population.
Just a few years later, the landmark 1987 report Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, led by Chavis and published by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, concluded that race was the most significant factor in predicting where hazardous waste facilities were located — more significant than income, property values, or home ownership.
These findings gave empirical backing to what civil rights leaders had already named: environmental racism.
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Formalizing the Movement: The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice
In 1991, more than 1,100 delegates gathered in Washington, D.C. for the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit — participants who came from all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, Chile, Mexico, and the Marshall Islands.
At this summit, participants adopted the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice, which expanded the definition of “environment” beyond wilderness and conservation to include where people live, work, and play. The principles addressed health, housing, transportation, labor, land use, and self-determination.
The Summit solidified environmental justice as both a civil rights issue and a public health issue — laying the groundwork for future climate justice advocacy.
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Hurricane Katrina: Climate Vulnerability Made Visible (2005)
For many Americans, the 2005 destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina was the moment when the racial dimensions of climate vulnerability became undeniable.
The storm and its aftermath took an estimated 2,000 lives, destroyed over 200,000 homes, and displaced more than a million people. Nearly 70 percent of the poor people most severely impacted were Black. Communities in New Orleans that had been redlined and disinvested for decades — left with less green space, older infrastructure, and fewer resources — were the least prepared and the slowest to recover.
Environmental justice advocates had warned of exactly this pattern. Years before Katrina, the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative had published a 2002 fact sheet noting that “New Orleans, which is 62 percent African-American and 2 feet below sea level, exemplifies the severe and disproportionate impacts of climate change in the U.S.” Katrina proved them right and forced the mainstream climate conversation to grapple with what EJ leaders had long argued: that climate disasters do not strike equally, and that who gets protected — and who does not — is a matter of race and power.
This shift in framing helped accelerate the evolution from “environmental justice” toward “climate justice” — a broader framework recognizing that climate change itself is a multiplier of existing racial and economic inequality.
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Black Leadership That Shaped the Climate Movement
Black organizers didn’t just start the environmental justice movement — they built the intellectual and organizing foundation that today’s climate movement stands on.
Dr. Robert D. Bullard
Often called the “father of environmental justice,” Dr. Bullard’s research in Houston demonstrated how waste sites were disproportionately placed in Black neighborhoods. His scholarship helped establish environmental justice as an academic and policy field, and his book Dumping in Dixie (1990) remains a defining text of the movement.
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Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.
Chavis is widely called the “Godfather of the Environmental Justice Movement.” Arrested at Warren County, he went on to direct the UCC Commission for Racial Justice and lead the landmark 1987 Toxic Wastes and Race report. He later served as executive director of the NAACP. His coining of the term “environmental racism” gave the movement a name and a framework that it has used ever since.
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Hazel M. Johnson
Known as the “mother of environmental justice,” Johnson organized in Chicago’s Altgeld Gardens public housing community, drawing national attention to the health impacts of industrial pollution in Black neighborhoods.
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Peggy Shepard and WE ACT for Environmental Justice
In 1988, on Martin Luther King Day, Peggy Shepard and six fellow organizers were arrested for stopping traffic in Harlem to protest the North River Sewage Treatment Plant — a facility originally rejected by wealthier, whiter communities and then sited in West Harlem. Later that year, Shepard co-founded WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which went on to win a landmark $55 million settlement to clean up the plant and has since become one of the country’s most influential urban environmental justice organizations. WE ACT has been a leading voice connecting environmental racism to climate policy, advocating for communities of color to be centered in decisions about clean energy, transportation, and green infrastructure.
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Majora Carter
A MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and founder of Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter pioneered the integration of environmental justice with economic development. Working in one of America’s most environmentally overburdened communities — where the South Bronx processed 40 percent of New York City’s commercial waste — Carter fought to stop new waste facilities, secured funding for the first new waterfront park in the South Bronx in 60 years, and launched the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training (BEST) program, one of the nation’s first urban green-collar job training systems. Her 2006 TED Talk, “Greening the Ghetto,” was among the first six videos ever published on TED.com and brought her vision to a global audience: that no community should be burdened with more environmental harms and fewer environmental benefits than any other.
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NAACP Environmental & Climate Justice Work
The NAACP has long framed environmental and climate justice as civil rights issues, and has produced some of the most rigorous research linking fossil fuel infrastructure to racial harm. Its 2012 report Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People documented how roughly 78 percent of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, and that the communities nearest the dirtiest plants were disproportionately Black, low-income, and receiving the fewest benefits while bearing the greatest health costs. Its 2017 report Fumes Across the Fence-Line, co-published with the Clean Air Task Force, found that over 6.7 million African Americans — 14 percent of the nationwide Black population — lived in counties with existing or planned oil and gas facilities, and documented the resulting elevated rates of asthma and cancer.
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The Just Transition: Building the New, Not Just Stopping the Bad
One of the most important contributions of Black and frontline community organizing to the modern climate movement is the framework of the “Just Transition” — the idea that moving away from fossil fuels must also create new, dignified economic opportunities for the workers and communities most harmed by the old economy.
Just Transition strategies were first forged by labor unions and environmental justice groups rooted in low-income communities of color, who recognized that phasing out polluting industries without a plan for workers and fence-line communities would simply replace one injustice with another. Today, the Just Transition framework is central to climate policy at every level — from federal legislation to California’s climate action plans — but its origins lie in the organizing and vision of Black, Indigenous, and frontline communities who refused to accept that economic survival and environmental health had to be in conflict.
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The Legacy in San Diego
Redlining and Its Environmental Legacy
Beginning in the 1930s, federal agencies used racially discriminatory mortgage lending maps — a practice known as redlining — to grade San Diego neighborhoods. Much of southeastern San Diego, including Logan Heights, Encanto, Valencia Park, and Paradise Hills, was marked as “hazardous” for lenders, concentrating Black, Latino, and other communities of color in these areas through systemic exclusion from wealthier neighborhoods. Those historical boundaries are strikingly similar to San Diego’s socioeconomic maps today.
The environmental consequences of redlining persist. Formerly redlined communities in the Chollas Creek watershed — including City Heights, Oak Park, Encanto, Chollas View, Mt. View, Mt. Hope, and Southcrest — have less tree canopy coverage, more impermeable surfaces, and higher rates of flooding. Research from the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative found that these previously redlined communities are on average about five degrees hotter than their wealthier, greener counterparts — a direct result of decades of disinvestment. These communities also face disproportionate air quality burdens, with fewer resources to adapt to rising temperatures.
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- San Diego Union-Tribune, Formerly redlined neighborhoods work to cool temps and restore nature in Chollas Creek watershed (2023)
- KPBS, Redlining’s Mark On San Diego Persists 50 Years After Housing Protections
- RAND Corporation, What Does Environmental Justice Look Like? Two Case Studies (including Chollas Creek watershed)
The Tijuana River Pollution Crisis
No discussion of environmental justice in San Diego is complete without addressing the ongoing crisis at the Tijuana River Valley — one of the most severe environmental justice emergencies in the United States.
Millions of gallons of raw sewage and industrial chemicals flow through the Tijuana River nearly every day, fouling the air, water, and beaches of South San Diego County communities including Imperial Beach, San Ysidro, and Chula Vista. The pollution is not occasional — it is chronic and worsening. During heat events, aerosolized contaminants from the river have triggered carbon monoxide detectors inside homes, forced research teams from UC San Diego and SDSU to abandon field monitoring over health concerns, and led schools to cancel outdoor activities.
The communities bearing the brunt of this crisis are predominantly low-income and communities of color — families who, in many cases, have lived in these neighborhoods for generations and have limited ability to simply leave. Their repeated calls for help have too often been met with insufficient action or outright dismissal. As Surfrider San Diego has documented, San Diego County has at times indicated there is “not enough data to indicate immediate risk” even as residents report escalating respiratory illness and contamination entering their homes.
This is environmental racism in real time. The same pattern identified in Warren County in 1982 — where the communities least able to fight back are made to absorb the greatest environmental harm — is playing out today along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Tijuana River crisis demands the same urgency, the same community-centered response, and the same political accountability that the environmental justice movement has always called for.
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Current Community and Policy Efforts
NAACP San Diego includes Environmental and Climate Justice as a core committee focus area, and local NAACP climate ambassadors have been active in highlighting inequitable air quality conditions across San Diego neighborhoods.
Source: https://www.nsdcnaacp.org/committees
The City of San Diego Environmental Justice Element, adopted July 1, 2024, was created to identify and reduce compounded health risks in communities that experience disproportionate environmental burdens — directly acknowledging that those communities are a legacy of historical discrimination including redlining.
Source: https://www.sandiego.gov/planning/environmental-justice-element
San Diego County’s Air Pollution Control District Office of Environmental Justice, established in 2022, works to improve air quality in communities heavily burdened by the impacts of poor land use, transportation planning, and industrial operations.
Source: https://www.sdapcd.org/content/sdapcd/community/office-of-environmental-justice.html
From extreme heat to air pollution to flooding impacts, the climate challenges facing our region do not affect all communities equally. The environmental justice framework — rooted in Black leadership — reminds us that climate action must be equitable, inclusive, and community-driven.
Why This Reflection Matters
As we look back at Black History Month, we recognize that the environmental justice movement did not emerge from traditional environmental institutions. It grew out of the Civil Rights Movement. It was led by Black communities demanding protection from toxic harm. It reframed what “environment” means — from abstract wilderness to the specific places where people live, breathe, work, and play.
And today, as climate change accelerates, that vision is more urgent than ever.
The lessons of Warren County, Harlem, the South Bronx, Chicago, and New Orleans are lessons for San Diego too. Who bears the burden of pollution? Who gets protected when disasters strike? Who has a seat at the table when climate solutions are designed? These are not abstract questions. They are playing out right now in Encanto, in the Chollas Creek watershed, in the communities nearest our port and our freeways.
If we want real climate resilience in San Diego, we must continue building on the foundation laid by Black leaders — centering frontline communities, expanding participation in decision-making, and ensuring that climate solutions protect those most impacted.
Black history is climate history. Environmental justice is civil rights. And the work continues.
Take Action: Continue the Legacy Here in San Diego
As we close out Black History Month, reflection is only the beginning. The environmental justice movement was never just about awareness — it has always been about action.
Here in San Diego, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to carry that legacy forward.
Extreme heat is rising. Air quality challenges persist. Sea level rise threatens our coastline. And too often, the communities facing the greatest climate risks are the same communities that have historically been left out of decision-making processes.
Environmental justice calls us to do better.
It calls on policymakers to center frontline communities. It calls on organizations to collaborate across sectors. It calls on businesses to lead responsibly. And it calls on each of us to stay informed, engaged, and involved.
San Diego Climate Week — recognized annually October 1st – 8th by City of San Diego proclamation — was created to bring our region together around exactly this kind of inclusive, community-powered climate action. From environmental justice advocates to students, entrepreneurs to public officials, neighborhood leaders to corporate partners — this week is about connection, collaboration, and solutions that work for everyone.
If the origins of the environmental justice movement teach us anything, it’s this: real change happens when communities organize, speak up, and work together.
Now is the time to:
- Attend events that center equity and climate resilience
- Support organizations doing frontline environmental justice work
- Volunteer your time and skills
- Host a conversation or submit an event
- Bring your voice into local climate policy discussions
Whether you’re new to this work or have been involved for years, there is a place for you in this movement.
Let’s honor the legacy of Black leaders who sparked the environmental justice movement by building a stronger, more equitable climate future right here in San Diego.
Sign up for San Diego Climate Week updates to stay informed, get involved, and be part of the movement.
Together, we can ensure that climate action in San Diego is not only bold — but just.
A special thank you to Clovis Honore for inspiring this article and reminding us of the work that has come before us.