Environmental Justice has been missing from Earth Day. Meet the Philly leaders who are changing that.

Local nonprofits and thought leaders are focusing on getting our relationship right with each other and the planet

Philadelphia’s Earth Day history is decades old and strong. After all, Philadelphia held one of the largest first Earth Day gatherings in the country on April 22, 1970, when, according to a CBS report, between 20,000 and 40,000 people gathered at Fairmount Park. Earth Day has been an anchor in the environmental movement ever since. 

The crowd at Fairmount Park, however, was notably lacking in diversity that day. The CBS report of the first gathering called the crowd “mainly white, middle-class young people.”  The racial divide at the celebration was likely due to the repeated lack of support for civil, economic, and social justice for Black Philadelphians, according to a Philadelphia Tribune article cited in a UPenn study. 

Activists and community leaders in the Philly region today say that a continuing disconnect between civil rights and environmental rights movements has been detrimental to both since those early Earth Day celebrations. 

“When Earth Day came about, it was decoupled from a social justice perspective. It was originally exclusionary, and the voices of African Americans and other people of color were not heeded,” said Tommy Joshua Caison. Caison is the Founder and Executive Director at Philly Peace Park (PPP). PPP has two neighborhood-led eco-campuses and passive parks in North and West Philly that provide free programs to the greater Philadelphia community, all through the lens of liberation and environmental justice. It is entirely volunteer-led by the communities surrounding the parks. 

Caison says that environmental and human liberation have been linked since the time of slavery in the United States. Africans who freed themselves from slavery founded hidden maroon communities throughout the Americas and Africa alongside Indigenous peoples. The clandestine towns resisted subjugation and re-established a connection with the land.

Environmental justice leaders across the nation continue to fight for recognition of that interconnection. The Indigenous Environmental Network advocates for Indigenous sovereignty and defends the planet at the international policy level. The Intersectional Environmentalist movement, founded by ecofeminist Leah Thomas, centers environmental justice through an intersectional identities lens.

Nevertheless, “oftentimes, we are still excluded,” said Caison. “It’s a little bit disheartening to me in Philadelphia, when I see an all-white panel talking about trees or talking about heat inside the community. I think that’s irresponsible.”

How EcoWURD focuses on the issues

EcoWURD is an environmental justice program at WURD Radio, Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned talk radio station. Leaving diverse perspectives out of the environmental conversation has led to both a white- and green-washing of Earth Day, says Tamara “P.O.C.” Russell, radio host at EcoWURD. “Earth Day is trendy,” said Russell. She says the focus of the celebration has become about buying and selling. “It is not necessarily focusing on issues – we should be cleaning up neighborhoods, fixing the housing, fighting the heat, protecting our kids, but also centering our conversations on justice.”

Russell often reports on those very issues in Philadelphia neighborhoods. Numerous neighborhoods in Philadelphia were identified as experiencing undue environmental burden by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Eastwick and lower southeast Philadelphia are in 100-year flood zones, and North Philly is particularly vulnerable to heat. Most of these locations are predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods. 

Several of the nonprofits and local groups working to undo decades of harm in these neighborhoods have lost funding under the Trump administration – including Philly Peace Park. 

Philly Peace Park does not observe a strict Earth Day celebration in April. Rather, PPP has traditionally held a “Peace on Earth Day” gathering instead, which pushes for a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of what Earth Day encompasses. 

“We say ‘Peace on Earth Day’ because we link the question of the saving of the planet to the achievement of peace among human beings,” said Caison.

This year for Earth Day, PPP is partnering with the Party for Socialism and Liberation to discuss the importance of food sovereignty and working with the land – emphasizing land care over Earth Day “photo ops.” PPP sets up and sustains regenerative projects and independent food systems, both of which seek to repair the bond between humans and the planet.

“Earth Day in Philadelphia should be understanding that, as we get our relationship right with the planet, it simultaneously must also be us getting our relationship right with each other,” said Caison.

“The conversation should be about the power of land trust, and what that means to different communities,” added Russell.

Additional Environmental Justice Resources

Learn more about land sovereignty and Environmental Justice this Earth Day:

• Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania
• Black Farmers Index
• Urban Creators
• Indigenous Environmental Network
• Philly Peace Park
• Native American House Alliance
• Sankofa Community Farm

Cover Photo: Children gardening with Philly Peace Park. Image courtesy of Philly Peace Park

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