Building a Movement

America has a long history of clustering heavy industry and toxic facilities in communities where people of color live. But in the 1980s, a series of events sparked a movement to fight back against these environmental injustices. We trace the history of the environmental justice movement from the farmlands of North Carolina to a watershed moment in the nation's capital.

Transcript

Guests:

• Vernice Miller Travis, environmental justice pioneer; Executive Vice President, Metro Group
• Rachel Seidman, curator at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum
• Charles Lee, a founder of the environmental justice movement; senior policy advisor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights

Visit the new exhibition To Live and Breathe: Women and Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum through January 7, 2024.