Winning Women

Women of color leaders across the US South are bringing in wins big and small that propel us toward cleaner energy, build health and wealth in disinvested communities, and protect democratic rights for Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and other marginalized populations. These are just a few of the wins and the women behind them we’re celebrating this women’s month.

STALLING DIRTY ENERGY EXPANSION

“This will be a win for all of us.” Roishetta Ozane said when she heard the news in January that the Biden Administration had agreed to pause Department of Energy approval some liquified natural gas export projects. “What this means is that for once the United States government is listening to people who are impacted by their decisions.” A community organizer based in Southwest Louisiana, Ozane has become a leading national advocate for an end to fossil fuel expansion, putting a megaphone to the lived experiences of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities along the Gulf Coast who have been challenging industrial pollution for decades.

INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES

“None of the work we do would be possible without community partners,” says Denae King, Associate Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University.  “Those strong collaborations help us make sure that our work is sustainable and has a long-standing impact.” King is a leading public health advocate and environmental justice researcher who knows what it takes to work deeply with communities to create transformational change. The Bullard Center, in partnership with Houston-based ACTS, was selected to disburse $50 million in grant funding for community-led projects through the EPA’s Thriving Communities grantmaking program, a big win for groups in the region.

SHAPING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE POLICY

“Until we have achieved the goal of providing all communities with a healthy environment, we all lose,” Sherri White-Williamson told North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper as he signed an executive order to integrate environmental justice considerations into state decision-making. White-Williamson is a powerful advocate, organizer, and coalition-builder whose work to expose the harms of dirty biofuels in rural communities in North Carolina has helped get recognition of the cumulative impacts of pollution on overburdened communities into policymaking for the first time.

PROTECTING DEMOCRACY

“It’s a powerful moment for Black voters in this state and it’s a powerful moment for history.” Those were the words of Power Coalition Executive Director Ashley Shelton after the Louisiana state legislature approved a court-ordered redistricting map creating a second Black-majority US House district among six total seats. The new district, long overdue in a state that is a third Black, was the result of years of legal, advocacy, and organizing work by Power Coalition and its partners.

PROTECTING COMMUNITIES FROM MVP

“If corporations have legal rights, why can’t nature?  Water is one of the basic necessities of life, alongside shelter, clothing and food. If we can’t protect that, how can we sustain life?” This is a question 7 Directions of Service co-founder Crystal Cavalier-Keck asks in community meetings around the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline and other projects that threaten the Haw River in North Carolina, a body of water that is sacred to the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. The group’s powerful organizing, legal, and advocacy work around the rights of nature and the health and safety of the land and community in the pipeline’s path has created significant delays for the project and protected some communities from it altogether. In December, developers announced they would cut the route of the Southgate Extension in half, sparing Alamance County and several Haw River crossings. As we celebrate this important progress, Cavalier-Keck continues to fight the unnecessary pipeline with a committed community of activists.

MOVING MONEY FOR CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

“Whatever ideas, concepts, plans you entered the room with, I’m calling on you to think bigger…We’ve got to come together in ways we’ve never done before.”  If anyone understands the opportunity new federal climate investments are creating for disinvested Black and Brown communities in the US South it’s Felicia Davis, longtime climate justice advocate and founder of the HBCU Green Fund. The Fund, which helps finance sustainability and resilience projects on college campuses, is developing new models for financing community-driven climate solutions in Atlanta that bring deep economic and health benefits to residents. The Green Fund did outreach for the Department of Energy's inaugural $6.75M HBCU Clean Energy Education Prize and partnered with Morehouse College to be among the first-round winners.