EJRC@CAU ACTIVITY REPORT 2007

ACTIVITY REPORT 2007
MILESTONES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RESOURCE CENTER
CLARK ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

The following milestones and accomplishments were extracted from our larger “Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) at Clark Atlanta University (Robert D. Bullard) Milestones and Accomplishments 1978-2007” report to illustrate the breadth and depth of the Center’s work in 2007. While it was next to impossible to do justice to the enormous work of the Center in a few pages, we have attempted to summarize the 2007 highlights below:

On August 11, 2007, the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Sociological Practice honored Robert D. Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, with the William Foote Whyte Distinguished Career Award for his enormous contributions he has made to the founding, developing, and growing the environmental justice movement. The award was presented by Kristine J. Ajrouch, chair of the Sociological Practice Section, at the annual ASA meeting in New York City, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/RDB_WFWAward.htm.

Robert D. Bullard, “Dumping on Houston’s Black neighborhoods,” Pp. 207-223 in Martin V. Melosi and Joseph A. Pratt, eds., Energy Metropolis: An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, July 2007, http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=35855.

Robert D. Bullard, “Equity, Unnatural Disasters, and Race: Why Environmental Justice Matters,” Research in Social Problems and Public Policy (RSPPP) Special Issue on Equity and the Environment, 15 (Winter 2007).

Beverly Wright and Robert D. Bullard, “Government Response to New Orleans’ Environmental Problems in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina,” in The State of Black New Orleans. New Orleans: New Orleans Urban League (forthcoming March 2008).

Robert D. Bullard, “The African Diaspora in a Changing Metropolitan Region: The Case of Atlanta, Georgia,” in J.W. Frazier, J.T. Darden, and N.F. Henry, The African Diaspora in the United States and Canada at the Dawn of the 21st Century. Binghamton, NY: Global Academic Publishing at Binghamton University (forthcoming Winter 2008)

Robert D. Bullard, “Transportation, Race and Regional Equity,” in M. Paloma Pavel, Building Sustainable Metropolitan Communities: Breakthrough Stories. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (forthcoming Spring 2008).

Robert D. Bullard, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha, and Beverly Wright, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007. Cleveland, OH: United Church of Christ, March 2007. Although the report was released less than a year ago, it has already been covered by more than three dozen media outlets. It findings and conclusion have also been cited by a half-dozen bills moving through the U.S. Congress. This report is expected to have a lasting and enduring impact on the field—just as its predecessor Toxic Wastes and Race had two decades ago, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/TWART-light.pdf.

Angela Glover Blackwell, Robert D. Bullard, Deeohn Ferris, and john a. powell, Regionalism: Growing Together to Expand Opportunity to All. Cleveland, OH: The Presidents’ Council of Cleveland, June 2007. This is the most comprehensive report on race and regional equity in the nation, http://www.policylink.org/Communities/Cleveland/documents/CleveReportMay2007.pdf.

Articles

Robert D. Bullard, “Differential Vulnerabilities: Environmental and Economic Inequality and Government Response to Unnatural Disasters,” Social Research: An International Quarterly of the Social Sciences, Vo. 75, No. 3 (forthcoming Spring 2008).

Robert D. Bullard, “NBEJN Joins HBCUs to Expose Environmental Racism in Tennessee,” EJRC News, December 3, 2007. http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/ToxTourTEN.htm.

Robert D. Bullard, “Take Back Black Health Tour Planned for Tennessee Town: National Campaign to Spotlight Deadly Impact of Environmental Racism,” Dissident Voice, November 28, 2007, http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/11/take-back-black-health-toxics-tour-planned-for-tennessee-town/.

Robert D. Bullard, “Toxics Tour Planned to Highlight Toxic Racism: National Campaign to Spotlight the Deadly Mix of Toxic Racism and TCE Contamination on an African American Family,” OpEd News, (November 24, 2007, http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_robert_b_071123_toxics_tour_planned_.htm.

Robert D. Bullard, “Dying for Clean Air: Why Black Mayors Should Support Tougher Ozone Standards,” Dissident Voice, September 19, 2007, http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/09/dying-for-clean-air/.

Robert D. Bullard, “Black Mayors’ Judgment Clouded by Smog: The Air is Tough to Breath.” Black Agenda Report, September 19, 2007, http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=371&Itemid=33.

Robert D. Bullard. “EPA Urged to Strengthen Ozone Standards to Protect the Most Vulnerable.” OpEdNews, September 4, 2007,
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_robert_d_070904_epa_urged_to_strengt.htm.

Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, and Angel O. Torres, “Dismantling Transportation Apartheid in the United States Before and After Disasters Strike,” American Bar Association Human Rights Magazine Vol. 34, No. 3 (Summer 2007), http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/summer07/home.html.

Robert D. Bullard. “Dismantling Toxic Racism,” in the NAACP Special Environmental Justice Report of The Crisis Magazine, 114, (July/August 2007), http://online.qmags.com/TCR0707/.

Robert D. Bullard. 25th Anniversary of Warren County PCB Landfill Protests: Communities of Color Still on Frontline of Toxic Assaults, Dissident Voice, May 29, 2007. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/05/25th-anniversary-of-the-warren-county-pcb-landfill-protests/.

Bullard, R.D. “Americans on the ‘Fenceline’ Have No Defense: People of Color More Concentrated Near Hazardous Waste Facilities Than Twenty Years Ago” Dissident Voice (April 9, 2007). http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr07/Bullard09.htm.

Robert D. Bullard, “Wasted People: Environmental Racism, a 20-Year Saga,” Black Agenda Report (April 4, 2007). http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=33.

Robert D. Bullard, “Transportation Apartheid: Left Behind by Transportation Apartheid Before and After Disasters Strike” Focus Magazine Vol. 35, No. 2 (April 1, 2007). http://www.jointcenter.org/index.php/publications_recent_publications/focus_magazine/2007/march_april_2007/
left_behind_by_transportation_apartheid_before_and_after_disasters_strike.

Robert D. Bullard, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha, and Beverly Wright, Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007 Executive Summary (United Church of Christ) released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), San Francisco, CA, February 17, 2007. http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/TWARTFinal.htm.

Robert D. Bullard, Wrong Complexion for Protection, The Next American City Magazine, Winter, 2006/2007, http://americancity.org/article.php?id_article=206.

Robert D. Bullard delivered a letter to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health Oversight of the EPA’s Environmental Justice Programs Hearing, chaired by Senator Clinton. The letter (dated July 25, 2007), was signed by more than one hundred environmental justice networks, civil rights and human rights, faith based, and health allies, representing millions of Americans from New York to Alaska, endorsing the 2007 United Church of Christ Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty Report. http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=e435eef8-802a-23ad-4ee0-916274d94170.

Robert D. Bullard and Angel O. Torres testified at the U.S. EPA “Public Hearing on National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Ozone,'' hearing held at EPA Region IV, Atlanta, GA, September 6, 2007. In addition to Atlanta, EPA held hearings in four additional cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Houston. See Bullard testimony at http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/RDBOzoneTest2007.htm. See Torres testimony at http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/AOTOzoneTest2007.htm.

The EJRC in collaboration with the Race Relations Institute at Fisk University held the Charles S. Johnson Think Tank Conference in Nashville, Tennessee on November 29-30, 2007. The Think Tank Conference consisted of three parts: (1) “Take Back Black Health Toxics Tour” in Dickson, Tennessee, (2) Roundtable/Town Hall Meeting, and (3) Expert Panels. EJRC staff participated in all three events. The Roundtable/Town Hall Meeting was led by Robert D. Bullard (Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University), Beverly Wright (Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University), and Theodore Shaw (NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.) and moderated by Shirley Rainey (Fisk University).

Robert D. Bullard served as the keynote speaker at National Bucket Brigade Conference (http://www.gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=595) at Emory University Law School. “Environmental Brigade Takes ‘Toxic Tour’: Newtown Shows Off City’s Southside,” September 8, 2007.

Robert D. Bullard organized Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007 Workshop (https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/1589) and the EJ Networks Press Briefing (https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/16780) at the United States Social Forum (USSF), Atlanta, GA, June 28-29, 2007. The Center also coordinated a national press briefing of the six EJ Networks at the USSF around the Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty report.

June 21, 2007, The African American Forum on Race and Regionalism completed a report for the Presidents’ Council of Cleveland and presented findings and policy recommendation at public forum in Cleveland. Angela Glover Blackwell, Robert D. Bullard, Deeohn Ferris, and john a. powell, Regionalism: Growing Together to Expand Opportunity to All (http://www.thepresidentscouncil.com/www/docs/CleveReportMay2007.pdf). Cleveland, OH: The Presidents’ Council of Cleveland, June 2007.

November 29, 2007, Channel 5 reporter interviews Robert D. Bullard for Tour Spotlights Effect Of Water Contamination On Dickson Family, NewsChannel5.com - Nashville, TN. http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=7430002.

July 17, 2007, “Bullard: Green Issue is Black and White,” CNN People You Should Know, an interview and video conducted with Robert D. Bullard. The EJRC arranged for CNN reporters to cover the “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty Session” at the USSF and the Environmental Justice Press Briefing and “toxic tour” of Detroit during the NAACP National Convention to highlight the plight of vulnerable populations. Both Detroit events were organized by Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ), National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN), Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University (DSCEJ), and the Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC), http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/17/pysk.bullard/index.html.

March 26, 2007, Robert D. Bullard (director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University) and Paul Mohai (professor of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Michigan) speak on Report Sees Rise in Environmental Racism, NPR News & Notes, hosted by Cheryl Corley, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9135023.

March 2007, Conversation: “Dr. Robert Bullard, Father of Environmental Justice Movement, Discusses a Toxic Form of Racism,” interviewed by Melissa Maynard, Atlanta Magazine, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/Bullard.pdf.

December 2, 2007, Dwight Lewis covers the “Take Back Black Health Toxics Tour,” Family Turns Disaster into Call for Justice, The Tennessean, Nashville, TN. http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=7430002.

Robert D. Bullard interviewed by Luz Claudio. “Standing on Principle: The Global Push for Environmental Justice,” Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 115, No. 10, October 10, 2007, http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/115-10/spheres.html.

Tracy Fernandez Rysavy interviews Robert D. Bullard for “Environmental Justice for All,” Co-op America Quarterly, No. 73 (Fall 2007), October 10, 2007, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/CoopAmericaArticle.pdf.

Robert D. Bullard delivers testimony at the Congressional Black Caucus Conference. “The Environmental Justice Braintrust: A Dispatch from the Congressional Black Conference,” October 3, 2007, http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/10/2/133513/553

Robert D. Bullard quoted in Daniel Cusick. “EPA Smog Proposal Sparks Debate Over Environmental Justice.” Earth News, September 6, 2007, http://www.earthportal.org/news/?p=450