A community-led coalition (formed following the murder of George Floyd + in recognition of environmental injustice used as another tool of oppression on Black community) exposing and rectifying the harms caused by the Brookhaven Landfill and other harmful environmental injustices inflicted on the primarily Black, Latino/a/x, and Indigenous community of North Bellport, on Long Island, New York.

Core members: Abena Ansare, Monique Fitzgerald, Michelle Mendez, and Dennis Nix, Dr. Kerim Odekon, and Hannah Thomas.

Brookhaven Landfill to stay open for 2 more years

50 acre landfill (content visualization of 50 acres)

Dr. Robert Bullard is the father of Environmental Justice. In the 1970s Dr. Robert D. Bullard, a sociologist, began collecting data on the impact of people’s surrounding environment + their health research grounds our current understanding of environmental racism. 

Bullards documentation for a 1979 lawsuit [challenging environmental racism using civil rights law] linked race and exposure to pollution. He was the first scientist to do so..

Concerned Citizens of St. John is an environmental justice organization based in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Their advocacy and action has prompted research and further investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and Louisiana Environmental Action Network.

Catherine Coleman Flowers is the founding director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ)

An environmental and climate justice activist bringing attention to inadequate waste and water infrastructure in low-income rural communities in the United States, especially in her home state of Alabama.

Jerome Foster II is a Plastic Pollution Coalition Youth Ambassador, climate activist, and the youngest member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, at 20 years old.

Tonya Gayle is an environmental justice advocate and executive director of Green City Force, an organization creating a model corps in New York City that enlists and trains people from low-income housing communities to help build a more just and equitable economy.

Joacqueline Peterson is the founder and executive director of the Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership, connecting Black communities facing climate injustice with resources to realize their visions for change.”

Peggy Shepherd is the executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, New York City’s first environmental justice organization, which she co-founded in 1988 with two other advocates—Vernice Miller-Travis and Chuck Sutton—who realized that their West Harlem neighborhood was a target for toxic pollution.

Beverly L Wright PhD is the founder and Executive Director, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and Member, White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council