WE ACT for Environmental Justice Mourns the Loss of Reverend Jesse Jackson

Feb 19, 2026

Peggy Shepard, Leslie Fields

  • Press Release

    • WE ACT for Environmental Justice Mourns the Loss of Reverend Jesse Jackson

    WE ACT Leaders Reflect on How Rev. Jackson Inspired Them

     

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    February 19, 2026
    Contact: Chris Dobens, 718-679-8542, chris@weact.org

     

    HARLEM, NY — The passing of Reverend Jesse Jackson on Tuesday weighs heavily on all who seek justice, but the news weighed particularly heavily on WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the Harlem-based nonprofit that recently celebrated its 38th anniversary, because of Rev. Jackson’s role in its origin story.

    “WE ACT may never have happened if it wasn’t for Rev. Jackson,” explained Peggy Shepard, the Co-Founder & Executive Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. “I was a journalist when a colleague suggested I go to a meeting being held for those interested in Rev. Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign, and I walked out as the Press Secretary.”

    “It was my first foray into politics, and I learned so much. On the campaign trail, I saw firsthand the vast differences between communities who were organized and those who were not,” added Shepard. “After that campaign, when the late Bill Lynch, who had been running Rev. Jackson’s campaign in New York City, asked me if I wanted to continue working behind the scenes or to step out front, I made the decision to run for Democrat District Leader in West Harlem. In that role, along with fellow Democrat District Leader, the late Chuck Sutton, and fellow Jackson campaign veteran Vernice Miller-Travis, we soon founded WE ACT for Environmental Justice in response to the siting of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant in our community.”

    Fellow WE ACT Co-Founder Vernice Miller-Travis recalled, “I had some of my most formative organizing experiences working on Rev. Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign. He had a formidable campaign structure in New York and decisively won the state’s presidential primary that year, which led to both Al Gore and Joe Biden dropping out of the race that night. Peggy, Chuck Sutton, and I were heavily involved in Rev. Jackson’s national organization, the Rainbow Coalition, and through the progressive club they had formed, West Harlem Independent Democrats, we were all-in for his 1988 presidential campaign – organizing our two local congressional districts. Peggy was elected as a delegate to the 1988 Democratic Convention where she had the honor of pledging to support Rev. Jackson.”

    “We kept that campaign structure in place and rolled it into the campaign to elect David Dinkins as the first Black Mayor of New York City the following year,” added Miller-Travis. “Looking back, I know my life’s path would not have been the same if it wasn’t for Rev. Jackson’s campaign and the Rainbow coalition. And like Peggy said, I doubt there would have been a WE ACT if it weren’t for our involvement in Jackson’s campaign.”

    Rev. Jackson also played a role in the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, held in Washington, D.C. in 1991. At this watershed gathering that helped launch the modern environmental justice movement, Rev. Jackson gave a passionate speech entitled “Fighting for the Right to Breathe Free.” Both Shepard and Miller-Travis were at that summit, and took his words to heart.

    WE ACT’s Chief Federal Officer Leslie G. Fields, Esq., who heads the organization’s Federal Policy Office in Washington, D.C., also reflected on Rev. Jackson’s influence on the environmental justice movement:

    “Rev. Jesse Jackson understood the relationship between civil rights and the environment, coining the term ‘environmental rights’ during his 1988 presidential campaign. He opposed drilling for oil off the coast of California and wanted to phase-out the use of nuclear energy. He called for the creation of a Pan American Energy and Environmental Alliance, to make lease sales obsolete in this hemisphere and to host a world environmental summit. He also urged manufacturers to use fewer toxic materials.”

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    WE ACT for Environmental Justice is a Northern Manhattan-based, membership-driven organization whose mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low-income residents are meaningfully included in the development of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. WE ACT has offices in New York and Washington, D.C. Visit us at weact.org and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram. WE ACT’s legislative priorities are detailed in our 2026 Policy Agenda.