By Demetrius Dillard
In recent years, climate change awareness and environmental justice have become major topics of interest in mainstream society.
Ongoing concerns surrounding climate change and environmental safety have come to the forefront all throughout the nation, including New England.
According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, there are more than 600 potential pollution sources in each of Connecticut’s five major metropolitan towns: Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Stamford and Waterbury. These five cities combined contain: 19% of the state’s pollution; 20% of all potential pollution sources; 51% of all the state’s population in poverty; and 71% of the state’s minority population.
The environmental issues facing Connecticut’s minority communities in particular are only a microcosm of the larger assortment of challenges affecting American residents in urban areas across the country.
LaTricea Adams, one who has spent most of her professional career in the education sector, probably never envisioned herself as one of the leaders and key spokespersons of the environmental justice movement.
The outspoken social activist is the founder and CEO of the Tennessee-based Black Millenials 4 Flint, a nationally known environmental justice and civil rights organization that aims to unite like-minded organizations for advocacy against the crisis of lead exposure, specifically in African-American and Latinx communities throughout the U.S.
The organization, birthed out of a passion to advocate for better treatment of Black people amid the Flint Water Crisis, began as a programming initiative within Greater Washington Urban League Professionals led by Adams.
April is regarded as Minority Health Month, and many experts urge that the fight for climate and environmental justice is more crucial now than ever. In Connecticut last year, there were 166 severe weather events resulting in $1.5 million in property damage from extreme weather events, according to the Climate Action Campaign (CAC).
The CAC also notes that climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, based on research from leading experts, and project the number of billion-dollar storms will become more common, damaging and deadly, unfortunately having a far more detrimental effect on Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.
The abundance of troubling statistics and data reveal the dire need for organizations like CAC, BM4F and President Joe Biden’s Environmental Justice Action Plan.
Adams, a Memphis, Tenn., native, founded BM4F in February 2016 – a time when the water crisis in Flint, Mich., drew national attention.
“I literally remember the moment when I learned what was going on in Flint, and out of all the different things that plagued Black folks something just hit me in my gut when I began to learn more about what was going on in Flint,” said Adams, who also serves as the director of organizational quality for Shelby County Schools Office of Charter Schools in Memphis.
“The imagery that we were seeing at the height of the Flint Water Crisis, I mean it still brings me to tears to this day and I felt like at that time our civil rights organizations weren’t showing up in the way that they should have in the beginning of the crisis. So as opposed to me just kind of pointing the finger… I didn’t necessarily know what I was doing but knew I had to do something.”
BM4F has launched a number of campaigns and projects supporting the betterment of adversely affected communities of lead and water crises, such as the distribution of fresh drinking water in Flint for instance. The four core urban areas BM4F has set its focus are Flint, Memphis Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Adams has worked closely with Urban League chapters in the four aforementioned cities in addition to the chapter Buffalo, N.Y., demonstrating her heartfelt devotion to improving the lives of Black Americans. Through the tireless contributions of Adams and her colleagues, Washington passed the Childhood Lead Exposure Prevention Amendment Act of 2017.
“I think it’s really important to me as it relates to really focusing on environmental justice as a way to achieve Black liberation. Environmental [issues] – it’s killing us, it’s taking us out,” said the HBCU graduate (Tennessee State).
“I think a lot of times, it’s such a big focus on criminal justice reform and police brutality – which is very important – but there are other ways in which we are suffering as a people… it really takes educating a community about what is happening and it is also important for me as a leader to juxtapose that with solutions and power-building.”
There will be an official Earth Day screening of a documentary short BM4F produced in conjunction with the Environmental Defense Fund and Climate Action Campaign titled “Toward Environmental Justice” which will outline 30 years of the “17 Principles of environmental justice.” Anyone interested in viewing the screening is encouraged to visit BM4F’s website to learn more.
As alluded to earlier, environmental justice is at the core of BM4F’s mission. The nonprofit’s work is guided by its vision, values and four-point action plan. As a community leader, Adams strives to make aspects of the civil rights movement applicable to the environmental justice movement, she said.
“We’re not there quite yet, but I’m giving it a heck of a fight for us to get to a place where elders feel comforted that we are knowledgeable, that we are well-informed to continue to carry this torch in environmental justice work because it’s so much that still needs to be done.”
