Environmental Justice Means Racial Justice

Students fight for an environmental movement that serves all communities.

Nearly 600 protesters gathered on the South Royalton green on the evening of June 6—an unusual sight in Vermont Law School’s tiny town with a population of around the same size. In a speech during the Rally to End the Violence, Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson JD’86 captivated the crowd, chronicling her journey to “SoRo” after growing up in the segregated South and marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama. Jefferson, who organized the event in response to police brutality against Black Americans, reminded law students of their role in the continued fight for racial justice. “We’re going to need you lawyers,” she said to the crowd. “You can’t just tell them what the law is. You’ve got to change the law and policy in this country.”

Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson JD'86

Meanwhile, in the center of the green, students in VLS’s Environmental Justice Law Society (EJLS)—which, when founded in 2018 was the first law school organization of its kind in the country—were conducting outreach and selling t-shirts to raise money for local organizations. EJLS co-chair Jameson Davis JD’20/MELP’19 followed Jefferson with a powerful speech about how “I can’t breathe,” the last words of Eric Garner, apply not only to chokeholds, but also to the choking effects of pollution that disproportionately affect BIPOC communities.

From left: Kendall Keelen JD’22, Jameson Davis JD’20/ MELP’19, and Sierra Suafoa-McClain JD’21

The coming weeks and months revealed the community’s commitment to the movement for the long haul. Davis’s words echoed in an official statement of solidarity and call to action published by EJLS, followed with statements from several other student groups including the Food and Agricultural Law Society. Jefferson, environmental law professor Mark Latham, and other faculty members launched an ongoing virtual panel series “Embedded Racism in the Law.” Faculty, students, and invited guests now gather biweekly to discuss how racism pervades the legal system, with rotating topics including policing and qualified immunity, racism in the food system, and indigenous rights.

Meanwhile, students continue the work that they started well before this summer’s protests swept the nation. The EJLS released a documentary film featuring members of its executive board and activists Mustafa Santiago Ali, Raya Salter, and Nadia Seeteram. Titled "Trace the Roots: Voices Left Out of Environmental Conversations," the video examines how traditional environmentalist spaces continue to exclude BIPOC voices, and how white-led organizations can align themselves with the current social and racial movement.

In late August, students in VLS’s Environmental Justice Clinic launched a multimedia blog that gives a glimpse into their work. The series “EJ Clinic Conversations” features articles and video interviews with clients and partners, amplifying their perspectives on the connections between environmental justice, the struggle for racial justice, and the Movement for Black Lives. “Of particular significance for our work, [Environmental Justice Principles] include a demand that policy be based on mutual respect and an affirmation of the fundamental right to self-determination,” wrote Davis and EJ Clinic Director Marianne Engelman Lado in an introduction to the series. “Support for the right to self-determination begins with hearing the voices of environmental justice communities.”

Insight from "EJ Clinic Conversations"

For their blog series, Environmental Justice Clinicians interviewed partners and clients on the frontlines of the EJ movement.* View all of the interviews, including videos, at vermontlaw.edu/blog/environmental-justice.

It’s easier to hide pollution and undesirable land use in poor, more rural areas… we in Vermont shouldn’t automatically assume ‘Well we’re rural, we don’t have the same environmental justice issues.’ It’s not as obvious as when you’re in cities... but rural environmental injustice is very much present here. We have a lot of work to do in Vermont.”

— KESHA RAM, Senior Fellow at Center for Whole Communities (CWC) and Vermont State Senate Candidate

I want to be very, very clear, this is about race. You put on [a U.S. map] where the heaviest densities of people of color live, and then you take another map with the heaviest densities of industrial pollution, industrial waste, waste dumps, incinerators, other things, and you put them right on top of each other. You see that they are mirrored.”

— JOSÉ BRAVO, Executive Director, Just Transition Alliance

Before [Black Lives Matter] came about, we were in the movement, it just did not have a name. [BLM] is a continuation of something that… should have been done years and years and years ago. You’re in for a big fight. A long fight. Patience is a virtue. Consistency is a virtue. We have to keep going.

— BEN EATON, President, Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice

People don’t sit around and do nothing because they don’t want to. You don’t do anything when you don’t know what to do. Once [people] get the right information, you see them go from, I can’t do anything, to standing up and fighting back. That is the most encouraging thing that can happen in this work.”

— NAEEMA MUHAMMAD, Director of Organizing, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN)

Until we have state and federal and local governments that prioritize public health at all costs, environmental justice communities and organizations are going to need to be better-funded. When we prioritize Black lives, all lives will benefit. All of our struggles are tied together.”

— KERENE TAYLOE, Director of Federal Legislative Affairs, We Act for Environmental Justice

*Quotes have been condensed for brevity.