Branching Out
The rise of multi-issue, multi-community environmental justice activism during the 1980s and 1990s influenced the EPA’s decision to form an Office of Environmental Equity in 1992. Environmental justice legislation continues today, and would not have been possible had it not been for the tireless work of environmental justice activists.
Just like environmental racism and injustice, environmental justice activism does not manifest in one way. On a national level, the environmental justice movement is the result of networks of communities of color, civil rights activists, anti-toxics activists, labor movements, and more. We see this wide-spread activism in spaces like the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991 and the creation of groups like the Indigenous Environmental Network in 1990.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, larger networks of environmental justice grew out of grassroots community activism. For example, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), officially formed in 1990, connected Indigenous activists across the nation to address the specific needs of Indigenous communities facing environmental racism and to protect sacred sites and nature.
The IEN is one example of the growth of the environmental justice movement at the end of the twentieth century: the expansion from smaller grassroots organizations to larger networks of communication. Larger environmental justice networks, “webs,” are hubs for educating communities on the dangers of environmental hazards and the ways in which policy and regulation must be put into place to protect communities. They teach people how to navigate the law and the policies of big corporations, which systematically exploit communities of color.
Pollution Images, 1970. Joseph D. Tydings papers, UMD Special Collections and University Archives.
National Case Studies
Navajo Nation
Environmental injustice occurred through the creation and use of nuclear weapons. In the United States and abroad, we see the ecological devastation of radioactivity and its severe human impact.
In the Navajo Nation, uranium was mined for decades with little information distributed to the miners and the community about the negative affects the radioactive element would have on their health. The poisoning of water supplies by the United Nuclear Corporation resulted in several unexplained illnesses among those living on the Navajo Reservation and eventually resulted in multi-million dollar lawsuits and eventual Superfund sites.
From Testing (Book Three): Navajo Uranium Miners by Fred Hagstrom, 2023. Rare Books, UMD Special Collections and University Archives.
The Gallup Independent Co. article: "Navajo ask $12.5 million in UNC suits," by Suzie Saltzstein, 1980. Children's Television Workshop Records, UMD Special Collections and University Archives. Click to enlarge.
Delano Grape Strike
The 20th century also saw extensive labor reforms and a greater understanding of the impact of hazardous materials and unsafe working conditions. During the 1970s, the banning of pesticides like dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and the passing of Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) were major steps in the right direction for accountability and safety. But these new reforms were by no means cure-alls for the continues harm workers faced every day, resulting in chronic and acute illnesses and impacting quality of life. OSHA notably did not initially protect farm workers in the United States.
The Delano Grape Strike of the 1960s saw largely Latinx and Filipino farm workers band together for the right to collective bargaining as they advocated for better working conditions and pay. The success of the strike and the nationwide boycott allowed the farm workers to negotiate the restriction of harmful pesticides and for ecologically and environmentally sound farm work.
Farm Workers strike, Pilgrimage to Washington, DC, 1970. AFL-CIO Information Department, Photographic Prints Collection, UMD Special Collections and University Archives.
Cropped image from United Farm Workers newsletter, El Malcriado, 1970. United Farm Workers Publications, UMD Special Collections and University Archives. Click to enlarge.