Visions of Justice on the First Earth Day
Millions of Americans gathered in April of 1970 to express concern about diverse problems in the relationship between human society and the natural world. The mainstream environmental movement that took shape in the years that followed disproportionately drew from—and addressed itself to the priorities of—the white, suburban middle class. But participants on that first Earth Day came from diverse backgrounds, articulated broad conceptions of what counts as “the environment,” and thought it impossible to address environmental problems without tackling the social ills of the age. In the 1980s Americans would come to give this politics a name: environmental justice.
The podcast episodes below introduce you to activists who voiced this environment justice vision on the first Earth Day and argue that these speeches from a half century ago have much to teach us today.
Charles A. Hayes, “A Time to Live”
Civic Center Plaza, Chicago, Illinois, April 22, 1970
“Working people, black people, and poor people have known about pollution long before it became so fashionable to talk about it.”
Arturo Sandoval, “La Raza”
Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 22, 1970
“We are gathered here today next to a sewage plant in Albuquerque to say ‘Viva la raza.’”
Wilbur L. Thomas, “Black Survival in Our Polluted Cities”
Proud, April 1970
“…the threat of death is not new to Black people. Environmental pollution represent only another threat amidst many…”
Adam Walinsky, “The Blue-Collar Movement”
State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, April 22, 1970
“No one knows how many steelworkers have been crippled by silicosis, how many chemical workers have died of emphysema, how much of the enormous rise in cancer and stroke and heart failure is in fact the result of what men breathe while they work.”
George Wiley, “Ecology and the Poor”
Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, April 21, 1970
“You must take into account that most of the world is poor, and most of the world is colored, and most of the world is suspicious and distrustful of the rampant racism that exists in the United States.”