OUR COMMITMENT TO BLACK SURVIVAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

On the very first Earth Day in 1970, a group called the Metropolitan Committee for Black Survival staged a play called “Black Survival,” a series of vignettes showing the ways that the health of Black families is impacted by environmental toxins such as lead paint and air pollution. It demonstrated that African Americans face an environmental crisis every day, one that is substantially rooted in discrimination and injustice, and they were and are ready to mobilize against it – but they have been overlooked by the mainstream, mostly white, environmental movement. 

Where was “Black Survival” written and performed? St. Louis, Missouri.

On the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day, Black survival is still at stake. Not enough has changed, neither within the mainstream environmental movement, nor at earthday365. We too, as a white-majority environmental non-profit in the U.S., have participated in de-centering Black voices within environmentalism.

At earthday365,  in the midst of ongoing strategic planning and mission evaluation, we commit to embracing the robust tradition of Black activism for environmental justice. We must highlight the interests, needs, and contributions of communities of color. We believe this requires authentic partnership with communities of color, supporting their lead and priorities as they are often disproportionately impacted by environmental toxins, lack of access to healthy foods, and by climate change. In these partnerships, we commit to a renewed focus on the issues prioritized by communities in our own Metro region that are disparately affected by environmental racism in various forms.

At the very first Earth Day, Black activists tried to teach us that the toxicity of systemic racism is inextricably intertwined with environmental toxicity. 50 years later, we have much more work to do, but we are listening, and we are acting.

            At earthday365, we seek to:

• Amplify Black voices and partner with organizations already doing important environmental justice and food justice work in the St. Louis region;
• Provide continued anti-racism training for staff and Board members;
• Build an employee and Board team that is representative of the rich racial and ethnic communities that make up the St. Louis region;
• Engage in a thorough evaluation of our current programs to be sure that they reflect the concerns and interests of local communities of color, and are accessible to them;
• Conduct a yearly accountability review with earthday365’s Board to measure our progress toward these goals.

Black Lives Matter. Black Survival matters. It cannot wait any longer.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jessica Watson, earthday365 Executive Director

The earthday365 Staff and Board of Directors