Black Caucus
Building Towards Black Liberation
Black communities have been at the forefront of the movements for environmental and climate justice since their inception. This is no surprise given we have been impacted by extractive economies and polluting industries for centuries through land grabs, displacement, climate disasters, contaminated water, soil, air, and more. Through it all, Black people have always created pathways towards freedom and liberation for themselves and their communities. The formation of CJA’s Black Caucus arose out of a need to authentically engage frontline Black communities and hold spaces for and center Black leadership within the climate justice movement. Black and Afro Diasporic members within the Climate Justice Alliance created the Black Caucus as a vehicle through which to develop a long-term plan to build power, heal and strengthen movement relationships in a collaborative way, and organize for Black liberation and Black self-determination – this includes addressing environmental racism in all its forms.
🌱 ✨️ The countdown is ON! Join us 9/26 at #ClimateWeekNYC for the annual Black Climate Leadership Summit! Co-hosted with our partners: Ubuntu Climate Initiative, @CJAOurPower Black Caucus, @ashe_cac and @ChisholmLegacy!
🔗 https://t.co/pc7RvivS0G #BlackEarth #WeChooseNow pic.twitter.com/RTXKsy59Pm— Taproot Earth (@TaprootEarth) September 17, 2024
Narrative Power
Translocal Organizing
A Peoples' Teach-In
The Black Caucus is a people oriented movement body seeking to deepen and expand capacity among frontline communities within the African diaspora. No matter the circumstances of any individual we are all impacted by climate change and the current climate crisis. In this light, the Black Caucus is working to develop a Climate Justice Peoples’ Teach-In geared towards Black communities and designed to spark the next generation of Black climate and environmental justice leaders.
Building the Bigger We
Black Caucus Jubilee
35 members of the CJA Black Caucus came together in New Orleans, Louisiana for the Black Caucus Jubilee, where we deepened our relationships, regrounded ourselves with the roots and culture of the Black Caucus, and established a structure for internal leadership. Video by Keenan Rhodes
Ten Prong Vision for Black Communities in Environmental Justice Movement
- Black communities will have sovereign decision-making and self-determination in our lives, health and environmental outcomes.
- Black communities will center healing, patience, and care on personal and interpersonal levels.
- Black communities will clearly define and fight for liberation.
- Black communities will control our narrative and center joy.
- Black communities will radically transform to meet our needs.
- Black communities will value and center our sacred and ancestral connection with the earth, fire, air, and water.
- Black communities will deepen our trust, security, and relationships to bolster our collective strength.
- Black communities will center our values of love, empathy, curiosity, and courage.
- Black communities will create and sustain businesses that serve and protect the environment.
- Black communities will respect everyone and how they identify, bringing our whole selves into spaces.
Our Climate Justice Black Caucus: A History
We as Black people in the diaspora assert that there is no such thing as climate justice without environmental justice, for it is the cruel and exploitative treatment of our communities’ land, air, water, soil, and people that has given rise to the climate crisis and we are the ones who bear the brunt of the burden.
The Memphis, Tennessee Sanitation Workers fight was one of the first documented incidents where African-Americans led a national and broad coalition for safe working conditions and equitable wages for African American workers.
Residents of the predominantly Black Warren County, North Carolina began protesting the construction of a chemical-waste landfill near Afton where the state planned to bury 400,000 cubic yards of PCB tainted soil. PCB stands for polychlorinated biphenyls which are highly toxic industrial compounds.
McCastle v. Rollins Environmental Services’ lawsuit ruled that individuals living in communities enduring environmental harm could sue corporations as a class. The area where the lawsuit was focused was in St. Gabriel, Louisiana commonly referred to as “cancer-alley” where Jacobs Drive was home to fifteen cancer victims in a two-block stretch. Half a mile away, there were seven cancer victims living on one block. In fact, the eighty-five-mile stretch of the Mississippi River running from Baton Rouge to New Orleans is known as the Petrochemical Corridor and harbors 135 plants near predominantly Black neighborhoods.
The People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit brings together 1,100+ Black, Indigenous, LatinX, Asian Pacific Islander, and other People of Color to declare Principles of Environmental Justice and expand the mainstream concept of the environment to mean more than the natural landscape but where people live, work, play, and pray.
Decades of air pollution contributes to hotter weather, sea-level rise, and powerful hurricanes such as Hurricane Katrina that ripped through the southern United States. Systemic neglect of the levies leads to massive flooding of homes, playgrounds, and businesses in the predominantly Black city, New Orleans.
During the Our Power National Convening, co-hosted by the Our Power Richmond Coalition and Climate Justice Alliance, the idea for the formation of a Black Caucus arises in order to engage Black communities and center Black leadership within the climate justice movement.
Black Caucus National Convening is held and Denise Abdul-Rahman of the NAACP and Eric Harrison from Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy are elected to serve as Black Caucus representatives on the CJA steering committee, solidifying formal leadership positions within CJA.
Black 2 Just Transition Convening is co-hosted by East Michigan Environmental Action Coalition (EMEAC) and CJA to bring together 80 members of CJA’s Black Caucus and Black members of the It Takes Roots Alliances as a vehicle through which to develop a long-term plan to build power, respond to political shifts, heal and strengthen movement relations across multiple frontline communities of color. From the convening the vision and goals of the Black Caucus solidify.
The Black Caucus kicks off the 2023 CJA Member Convening with a Skate Night, and premieres the Black Caucus documentary "Grasping at the Roots - a love letter to the movement," at the historic Madame Walker Legacy Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana.
35 members of the CJA Black Caucus come together in New Orleans, Louisiana for the Black Caucus Jubilee. The goal and purpose of this gathering is to deepen the relationships between Black Caucus members, reground ourselves with the roots and culture of the Black Caucus, and establish a structure for internal leadership.
Participating CJA Members
If you are a member of the Climate Justice Alliance and are from a Black-led organization wishing to participate in the Black Caucus, please reach out to the Black Caucus at [email protected] for more information.
Black and Afrodiaspora individuals from CJA member organizations are also invited to join Black Caucus meetings, please reach out to the Black Caucus to join!
