The environmental justice (EJ) movement was born out of a need for communities of color to speak out and defend themselves against the alarmingly disproportionate environmental abuses that were occurring in their neighborhoods. Traditional environmental movements were only advocating for the preservation of natural areas and paid less attention to justice issues. The EJ movement integrated traditional environmental concerns with social concerns, such as health hazards and human rights. EJ groups have defined “environment” as “where we live, work and play,” which captures this different approach to environmental and social conservation.

The EJ movement emerged from early victories of grassroots movements and grew through networking between different groups. Many of these groups had their start in the civil rights movement. The United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice’s 1987 study, “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States,” first thrust the concept of environmental racism into the national spotlight. This in turn allowed various groups to realize that they were not alone in this struggle. Many of these groups formed partnerships with other groups. For example, in 1990 SWOP (SouthWest Organizing Project) hosted a meeting with other activist groups and the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice was formed. In 1990, several EJ groups sent a letter to the “big 10” of the mainstream, or traditional environmental groups, challenging them on their lack of focus on environmental injustice issues in communities of color and the need to include them in their campaigns. In 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit brought many of the various groups together for the first time, showing that the EJ movement had officially arrived on the national and international arena. At this conference, the 17 principles of EJ were introduced. Finally, Executive Order 12898, enacted by the Clinton administration in 1994, mandated federal agencies to include EJ in all their programs. However, while these were all major victories for the EJ movement, the environmental justice scholar Robert Bullard suggests that much of the ground gained in the 90s has been lost during the current administration.

EJ groups first and foremost believe, and rightly so, that they must constantly stay vigilant and continually push for change, and that their main strategy is prevention (following the so-called “precautionary principle”). Hazardous sites should be opposed before they are built to avoid future injustices, be they associated with health, economic, or social issues. In order for this to happen, the government must not just listen to the voices of the disenfranchised, but they must allow them to participate in the planning process as well. Unfortunately, many of the positions and seats on various boards created during the Clinton administration for EJ advocates have now been closed or replaced with conservatives. Sadly, according to several new studies, many of these injustices are increasing, so the need for even stronger EJ fights will be necessary in our future.

An effective strategy followed by many EJ groups is the recruitment of youth to join in their struggle. Groups like PODER, SWOP, SNEEJ, and others maintain training programs for youth to become advocates for their communities. The education they receive is multi-faceted and includes intrioductions to historical, political and organizing issues, as well as hands on organizing workshops and real world experiences. Groups like SNEEJ have taken this one step further by starting a youth exchange program. This strategy gives us hope that these EJ groups will continue growing in the future.