Telegram - Serving Metropolitan Detroit Since 1944

On Saturday, July 8, a Legendary Women of Environmental Justice event was held at the Kemeny Recreation Center in Detroit. The event was promoted as a day of celebration, learning, connection, and support, amid the backdrop of a community which has struggled for decades against what has been termed "environmental racism" as surrounding industries fill the air, water, and soil where residents live, with pollutants. "The goal of today's event was to enlighten more people to get them to understand that we all have to come together to fight against environmental injustice that has been happening for decades," said Theresa Landrum, one of the event's organizers. "We are trying to cross cultural lines and join people together for the common theme that survival is our right, and clean air is our right. In order for the work to get done, we have to do it."

The event highlighted the work environmental activists have undertaken over the decades and featured a panel discussion of the environmental situation in the communities of southwest Detroit and its neighbors which include River Rouge, Dearborn, Ecorse, and Melvindale. The area contains more than 42 major and minor pollution sources including industries and pollution from traffic. Research from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institutes of Health indicate corporate polluters who put the public's health at risk are almost always located in zip codes containing low-income communities and communities of color. In fact, the area containing most these industrial polluters, Detroit's 48217 zip code, is known as Michigan's most polluted zip code. The result for residents living nearby is a higher incidence of asthma in both children and adults, respiratory issues, cancers, and birth defects.

Maria Salinas is founder and executive director of Congress of Communities, a community organization which seeks to foster and support communities and residents of southwest Detroit and downriver. Salinas was part of the panel discussion and she says, "The goal was to hear the perspective of the elders that have been in this movement, it's been a movement for the last forty years. Most of us grew up in this neighborhood and we have something to say. Our objective was to have a lot of young people and we did. I feel that our young people are looking for avenues of purpose. This is a whole way of reframing activism and asking what is this new era of activism and how do we as elders participate in this. First, we just had to see how people would receive us, we have done this and I think we're going to continue doing this to inspire, uplift, and challenge our young people but let them know we're here. There is definitely an interest in environmental justice."

Maria Salinas and Maureen Taylor were part of the panel on environmental justice last weekend at Kemeny Recreation Center

River Rouge resident Ebony Elmore is President and Executive Director of Just Transition Team, a community organization that partners with government agencies to improve the community environments where residents live in southwest Detroit and downriver with a focus on River Rouge. Elmore recalls that as a child growing up in River Rouge, the air outside always had a foul smell. She spoke at the event, offering encouragement and gratitude for the large number of young people in the audience. "I want to see more youth involved in organizing and actually taking a stand to the government, to our city officials and the people in Lansing and Washington as well," she says. As an educator, Elmore says her organization hopes to provide support, education, and a safe space for those involved in the environmental justice movement. "It is an environmental injustice because we are a community of disadvantaged people. They take advantage of those particular communities and if we don't say anything, they're going to continue. It's up to us to have a mindset that we can achieve and we are more valued and heard even with what we're going through."

To find out more about the environmental justice movement is southwest Detroit and downriver, reach out to Congress of Communities at http://www.congressofcommunities.com or contact the Just Transition Team at http://[email protected].