OUR MISSION
WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT envisions a community that has:
- informed and engaged residents who participate fully in decision-making on key issues that impact their health and community.
- strong and equal environmental protections.
- increased environmental health through community-based participatory research and evidence-based campaigns.
THE HISTORY OF WE ACT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Our organization was born of victory. New York City decided to site a sewage treatment plant – originally slated to be built in whiter, wealthier communities – here in West Harlem. Peggy Shepard and Chuck Sutton were Democrat District Leaders at the time, and they joined forces with Vernice Miller-Travis to push back on this polluting facility.
Read about WE ACT’s first campaign, led by our three Co-Founders: Executive Director Peggy Shepard, Board Member Vernice Miller-Travis, and the late Chuck Sutton.
THE BLACK HISTORY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT
Poet and author Maya Angelou once said, “You can’t really know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” View our Black History & the Environmental Justice Movement storymap to learn about the history of the environmental justice movement.
To better understand the movement and its history, we encourage you to click here to read the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice drafted and adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held in October 1991 in Washington, DC. Click here (PDF) to read the Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing. And click here (PDF) to read the 10 Principles for Just Climate Change Policies in the U.S.