Equity task force hears from “the father of environmental justice”

Robert Bullard, known as “the father of environmental justice,” reinforced the interconnectedness of transportation, segregated housing, climate change, and pollution on the health and economic well-being of Black Americans in a meeting with a state task force this week.

Bullard, the distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University, is the author of 18 books including Dumping on Dixie. First published in 1990, Dumping on Dixie discusses the importance of the national protest in the 1980s against dumping in Warren County  soil contaminated with toxic PCBs  to the environmental justice movement.

Black Americans and Latinos are less likely to live in a household with a car, which impacts employment, evacuation in a disaster, and the ability to get to a grocery store, Bullard told the task force.

“Not having a car can mean lack of access and mobility,” he said.

Transit system cuts have a disproportionate impact on Black Americans and Latinos.

“If you don’t have transportation, you are subject to a higher unemployment rate,” he said.