Social Justice Activism

The Bronx, in New York City, has become a recent example of Environmental Justice
succeeding. Majora Carter spearheaded the South Bronx Greenway Project, bringing
local economic development, local urban heat island mitigation, positive social
influences, access to public open space, and aesthetically stimulating environments.
The New York City Department of Design and Construction has recently recognized the
value of the South Bronx Greenway design, and consequently utilized it as a widely
distributed smart growth template. This venture is the ideal shovel-ready project with
over $50 million in funding.
Litigation
Several of the most successful Environmental Justice lawsuits are based on violations
of civil rights laws. The first case to use civil rights as a means to legally challenge the
siting of a waste facility was in 1979. With the legal representation of Linda McKeever
Bullard, the wife of Robert D. Bullard, residents of Houston's Northwood Manor opposed
the decision of the city and Browning Ferris Industries to construct a solid waste facility
near their mostly African-American neighborhood.
In 1979, Northeast Community Action Group, or NECAG, was formed by African
American homeowners in a suburban, middle income neighborhood in order to keep a
landfill out of their home town. This group was the first organization that found the
connection between race and pollution. The group, alongside their attorney Linda
McKeever Bullard started the lawsuit Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management, Inc.,
which was the first of its kind to challenge the sitting of a waste facility under civil rights
law. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was used many
times to defend minority rights during the 1960s, has also been used in numerous
Environmental Justice cases.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is often used in lawsuits that claim environmental
inequality. The two most paramount sections in these cases are sections 601 and 602.
Section 601 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by any
government agency receiving federal assistance. To win an Environmental Justice case
that claims an agency violated this statute, the plaintiff must prove the agency intended
to discriminate. Section 602 requires agencies to create rules and regulations that
uphold section 601; in Alexander v. Sandoval, the Supreme Court held that plaintiffs
must also show intent to discriminate to successfully challenge the government under
602.
Contributions of the Reproductive Justice Movement
Many participants in the Reproductive Justice Movement see their struggle as linked
with those for environmental justice, and vice versa. Loretta Ross describes the
reproductive justice framework as addressing "the ability of any woman to determine her
own reproductive destiny" and argues this is inextricably "linked directly to the
conditions in her community – and these conditions are not just a matter of individual
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