My name is April Mosley. I am a junior at Clark Atlanta University, majoring in sociology. I am taking an interesting course called Seminar in Community Service. This course examines the impact of institutional factors that impact environmental and health policies, industrial practices, government regulations, and rule making, enforcement, and overall quality of life in people of color communities. The course also examines the nexus between environmental protection and civil rights; the impact of the environmental justice movement on the dominant environment paradigm and on national environmental groups. This interview was conducted with Professor Robert D. Bullard (Ware Professor of Sociology) in November 1999.

Q. Can you tell me a little about the history of the environmental justice (EJ) movement and how it started?

Bullard. No one really knows the exact time when the environmental justice movement took shape. We have always had isolated community struggles against some type of environmental and health threat. However, the national EJ movement was galvanized in 1982 in Warren County, NC protests against the siting of a hazardous waste landfill. The events that transpired in this rural, mostly black, and poor county brought attention on environmental racism and the impact of public policy decisions sighting unwanted facilities.

Although there were numerous isolated struggles going on across the country, Houston, Dallas, Memphis, and other places, the Warren county case brought home the "in-your-face" politics of waste facility siting in the nation. The people said "No." But more important, over 500 people went to jail trying to keep this dump out of the black community. Young school children, old people, and people from all walks of life put their bodies in front of dump trucks to protect their community. That was such a powerful picture, it was easy to select that image for the cover of my book "Dumping in Dixie."

Q. When and why did you get involved?

Bullard. I got involved years ago (before you were born) in Houston, Texas. It was 1978 and I was asked to conduct a study of the history and pattern of waste facility siting in Houston that was part of a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit, Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management, Inc., was filed by black residents of a northeast Houston suburban neighborhood who were trying to block a sanitary landfill (garbage dump) from being located in their community.

Two decades ago, there was very little research, article, monographs, and books around that addressed environmental issues in black and other people of color communities. As it turns out, the work were doing in Houston in 1979 was groundbreaking. More importantly, the environmental justice research and policy work offered great promise for doing sociology that mattered.

Q. What would you say are some of the defining moments in the EJ movement?

Bullard. If I had to pick some really watershed years and events, I'd say first 1983 in Warren County. Next, I would the 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in Washington, D. C. The organizer of this summit were people of color. We organized the summit for us. It was four days long. The first two days it was just people of color. People of color, African Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders, took the first two days to get to know each other. We needed time to talk among and learn a little bit more about each other. We need some time together to unwrap the "baggage" we all carry as a result of institutional racism. The second two days we brought everybody in, whites and big environmental groups, and governmental agencies, etc.

Out of this Summit came 17 principles of environmental justice that laid the framework for how we would work together among ourselves, with grassroots groups, networks, and how we would relate to the national environmental groups

I would say getting the U.S. Environmental Protection in 1991 (under William Reilly and the Bush Administration) to undertake environmental justice as an issue and framework. A work group was established, an Office of Environmental Equity was created, and the Environmental Equity: Reducing Risks for All Communities report was produced.

The Clinton administration moved environmental justice to another level by expanding EPA's Office of Environmental Justice; appointed the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council or NEJAC. This group was basically set up of 25 members to advise EPA administrator Carol Browner on matters related to environmental justice.

In February 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898 on environmental justice. During the same month, the "Health and Research Needs to Ensure Environmental Justice Symposium was held in Washington. This meeting brought together seven federal agencies and over 1,000 scientists, researchers, educators, and grassroots leaders to look at research strategies to support community needs. And out of that grew a number of grant initiatives by the EPA, the National Institute for Environment Health Sciences, the Department of Transportation, and other agencies to start focusing on transportation, health, housing and enforcement and facility siting.

A lot has changed in twenty years. We have strong regional and ethnic-based environmental justice networks and grassroots groups. We have an array of environmental justice courses being taught at colleges and universities all across the country. Several law schools have legal clinics that work on EJ issues. We even have four university-based environmental justice centers. We have made a lot of progress. But we still have a lot of work to do.

Q. What are historically black colleges and universities doing to address environmental justice issues?

Bullard. Environmental justice principles, concepts, and practices have not been universally adopted at all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The same is true at white institutions. A few HBCUs have taken on this challenge. We need to do more. HBCUs have a special mission and they need to step up to the plate when it comes to the health, safety, and well being of black people. It is not a coincidence that the four environmental justice centers in the country are all located in the South and are found at historically black colleges and universities or HBCUs: Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta), Xavier University (New Orleans), Florida A&M University (Tallahassee), and Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University (Houston).

Environmental justice initiatives and programs are still evolving at many HBCUs. Environmental justice is now infused in many of the programs offered at the United Negro College Fund member institutions. Some funding (though limited) has allowed faculty and students to conduct research, training, outreach, and technical assistance to impacted communities.

Q. What are black leaders doing to bring environmental and economic justice issues home to the black community?

Bullard. As you might guess, we are a long way from declaring victory against institutional racism and other artificial barriers that impede the progress of black people. Clearly, we need a new strategies and a new vision for addressing the pressing issues of the day. That is why the meeting ("Emergency Gathering of Black Community Advocates for Environmental and Economic Justice") in New Orleans on December 9-12, 1999 is so important. We are calling this meeting because black people and black communities are under siege.

Q. Why is it necessary to hold such a meeting and what do you expect to accomplish?

Bullard. Our communities are under siege. These threats are real--not imagined. All you have to do is turn on the television or read the newspaper and reality hits home loud and clear. The hard-fought gains blacks made over the past two decades are under attack. It is time for black people to go on the offensive. It has been nine years since we held the historic Summit. As a group, black people need a laser-like focus on such issues as environmental and economic justice, public health, livable communities, pollution prevention, brownfields redevelopment, clean production, transportation, air quality, and urban sprawl just to name a few areas.

Grassroots leaders will be sure to bring these and other issues to the table. In addition to local issues, we need statewide, regional, national, and international strategies.

Environmental racism is alive and well. Racism is making some of us sick (mentally and physically). The health of our children is endangered by lead paint in our homes. Black children are two times more likely than white children to be lead poisoned. Childhood lead poisoning is a preventable disease.

Where you live can impact your quality of life. In the real world, all communities are not created equal. Blacks (whether rural, urban or suburban) are more likely than whites to live in polluted environments, and lack health insurance and access to health care. In general, black communities receive less environmental protection than white communities.

The polluted air we breathe has sent the asthma rates through the roof. Today, asthma, not gunshot wounds or drive-by shootings, is the number one reason why black children are hospitalized or sent to the emergency room in most major cities. Blacks are 3 to 5 times more likely than whites to be hospitalized or die from asthma. Exhaust from cars, trucks, and buses is a major contributor to urban pollution. The most vulnerable population is poor urban blacks who are generally transit dependent or carless.

Black people need an EJ strategy that is inclusive and comprehensive--not exclusive and narrow.

We need a strategy that brings together black people from across the United States as well as from other parts of the globe. A little over 50 percent of all blacks in the U.S. live in the South. That means the other half live outside the southern region. We need to include our brothers and sisters who are all part of the Black Diaspora.

As in all black liberation struggles in the U.S. and around the world (i.e., the most recent example is the ANC's struggle to dismantle apartheid), a common theme that defines leadership is not whether one has a college degree. Leadership is determined, in part, by one's ability to work with others to get the job done and one's tenacity to endure the "long distance race" as opposed to the "sprint."

We need black activists, black organizers, black lawyers, black doctors, black educators, black journalists, black elected officials, black engineers, black entertainers, black athletes, black scientists, and the list goes on. We can not afford to allow any artificial barrier such as "class" and "color" or roadblock (i.e., grassroots vs academics) that might keep us from accomplishing the real task of dismantling institutionalized oppression. The bottom line is we need the "best and the brightest" in the black community to take us into the 21st century. We need young people to assume new leadership positions in all areas that impact black people and the black community.

We need to delineate a division of labor that maximizes all of the talents, expertise, and resources in the black community. We are a talent-rich community. We need to tap into this wealth. Black people have provided the vision for all social movements in the United States. We have to continue this visionary and forward thinking mode lest we get bogged down responding to reactionary, divisive, energy-draining, and self-destructive rhetoric of the ultraconservative right wing.

Working together as a collective, no forces (no matter how well financed) can stop black people from achieving our rightful place in the world. I definitely will attend the gathering in New Orleans this December.

Q. What are some of the challenges you see working in a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-cultural environment?

Bullard. There are many challenges. We tried to deal with some of this at the Summit in 1991. As people of color, racism has kept us separated and apart, fighting each other. One challenge of the environmental justice movement is to try to dismantle those artificial barriers that keep us apart. When we work together as a collective, that is when we are the strongest. What we have to do is try to submerge those petty differences between the various groups. Because there are real differences in terms of urban, suburban, rural, border, land rights, inner-city needs, etc., we need to develop the capacity to understand and appreciate this diversity. Ultimately, the common goal that we all want to achieve, whether on the reservation, in the barrio, inner-city ghetto or rural "poverty pocket" is a just, healthy, and sustainable community.

Q. Where is the environmental justice movement headed now?

Bullard. The movement is really expanding, growing, and maturing. Almost all of the early struggles were dominated by a "Not in my back yard" or NIMBY focus, fighting to keep LULUs (locally unwanted land uses) out of the community. These struggles are still very important in the movement. However, the movement has expanded beyond those realms to work on and demand our fair share of the "good" things or benefits and amenities such as affordable housing, brownfields redevelopment, community reinvestment, parks and green space, improved air quality and public health, energy and clean fuels, transportation, transit-oriented development, and a host of other economic justice issues.

Q. How does the Brownsfield redevelopment initiatives fit into environmental justice?

Bullard. Brownsfields redevelopment fits perfectly into the whole issue of healthy and sustainable communities. There are only 400,000 abandoned waste sites in this country. Some are contaminated and others are just vacant properties sitting dormant. Most of them are in urban, inner-city neighborhoods and poor communities. The challenge is how can we take those properties and clean them up, bring them back into use and redevelop and revitalize so that they become productive as opposed to destructive. The key is to insure that public health at Brownsfield sites is protected and to insure that the redevelopment strategy for that particular site fits into the community's vision.

Q. Where is the black church on environmental justice?

Bullard. The black church has always been a stable force in the lives of black folks. We are a spiritual people. It makes a lot of sense for black religious leaders to embrace this spirituality and the idea of stewardship. As African people, it does not make a whole lot of sense to embrace the destruction of "Mother Nature" who sustains us. Many black ministers have opened their doors a meeting places for grassroots groups who are fighting for environmental justice.

Q. How is your transportation work linked to EJ?

Bullard. Transportation is a big issue that EJ groups and communities have to get on their radar. All you have to do is follow the dollars. The dollars are in transportation at the tune of billions of dollars. That's billion with a "b." Transportation touches everything. If you don't have transportation to get to a specific job point, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to say that there are jobs in the suburbs. Transportation impacts air quality and public health. Transportation investments impact urban core development patterns and urban sprawl. I think these issues will drive EJ groups in the next decade.

Q. What international links are EJ groups making to address the problems?

Bullard. More and more EJ groups in the U.S. are linking up with struggles of our brothers and sisters abroad. When you think about it, it's just one struggle. Whether in post-apartheid South Africa or the struggles of the Ogoni people in Nigeria, or black folks in Norco, Convent, and Mossville, Louisiana. It's all about black people fighting for the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and to live and work in a safe and healthy environment. This past April, a delegation of black EJ community activists, educators, and lawyers traveled to Geneva, Switzerland and presented their case of environmental racism to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Environmental racism is a human rights violation that needs to be addressed by the international community.