City Care: Historical and Contemporary Lessons from Environmental Justice Coalition-Building

This article examines the historical roots of the challenges facing contemporary climate justice advocacy campaigns, and draws lessons from this history regarding how to more comprehensively address racial equity in resilience planning and environmentalist advocacy. As the modern US environmental movement gained momentum in the 1970s, fault lines developed between environmentalists and civil rights advocates. A key source of tension was debates over whether urban environments were deserving of the same kinds of environmental protections as more traditional and pristine forms of “nature.” African Americans’ prioritization of economic equity alongside legal equality also led to a critical dialogue about economic growth and the economic externalities of regulating industry and safeguarding the environment. This article draws on environmental justice and environmental history scholarship as integrated lenses for analyzing racialized debates during the early years of the modern American environmental movement. I trace how public deliberations played out regarding the first Earth Day in 1970, and the City Care Conference of 1979—the first national conference that brought together major environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and civil rights organizations such as the National Urban League to deliberate the linkages between racial equity and environmentalism. Finally, I connect these historical analyses to recent data from the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute’s Hoosier Life Survey in order to better understand contemporary racialized disparities of climate change vulnerability, and relatedly, of climate change opinion.

“The Epitome of Black Masculinity”: Isaac Hayes, Black Moses, and the Long Freedom Struggle

Isaac Hayes provides a vital public figure through which scholars can analyze, evaluate, and more fully understand the comprehensive nature of the black freedom struggle as it progressed into the 1970s. Hayes merged the integrationist political objectives of mainstream civil rights organizations and leaders with the notions of racial pride, assertiveness, and autonomy that characterized the popular appeal of the black power movement. Hayes, through his “Black Moses” persona and LP of the same name, moved those freedom struggle promises and opportunities into the cultural realm, where he personified African American artistic self-determination. In doing so, he demonstrated that the contemporary conceptualization of black masculinity was not monolithic, as Hayes introduced and embodied an ideal that countered the prevailing notion of black manhood which pervaded popular culture and remains a central component of popular memory concerning black power. Most importantly, Isaac Hayes embodied a model of black masculinity that contradicted the prevailing “black macho” ideal. “Black Moses,” therefore, embodied the freedom of African Americans to move beyond contemporary racial classifications in a cultural capacity and presents scholars with an intriguing model through which to examine the evolution, possibilities, and accomplishments of the post-1960s American black freedom struggle.

The Italian Case: A Strong Opposition in the Name of Women’s Sexual Identity and Motherhood

Surrogacy is prohibited by law in Italy but it is increasingly undergone abroad by Italian aspiring parents. Although the majority of couples resorting to surrogacy internationally are heterosexuals, the surrogacy debate in Italy intertwines with discussions on homo-parenting and the problem of children born through surrogacy abroad, remaining in a legal limbo once they arrive in Italy. Since 2015, Italian feminists, led by the feminist group Senonoraquando-Libere (Snoq-L), in alliance with French feminists, have mobilized for the universal ban of surrogacy and the enforcement of surrogacy national prohibition, along with saying no to attempts of legalization promoted by same-sex families and civil rights organizations. Italian feminists are engaging in a battle that presently, and until surrogacy will be prohibited by law, does not closely pertain to the exploitation or commodification of women in the country, but to the commodification of women in other countries of the world, and more broadly to the theoretical notion of “the woman”. Although there are other feminists who do not agree with the abolitionist demand, this case study does not identify a structured regulatory or pro-surrogacy feminist front.

To Solve the Coronavirus Crisis: Click Here

Human beings are technical beings. From the clothes we wear to the spaceships we fire into the sky, all these technologies are developed with the aim to protect ourselves, improve ourselves, and control the fickle world in which we live. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that when hit with one of the biggest health crises of the last century, all over the world, governments have turned to technology to contain this life-threatening event. Most of these proposed—or already developed—technological solutions are data-driven.Just as the turn to technology to solve this crisis does not come as a surprise, neither does the protest it has caused. Critical citizens and civil rights organizations worry about the possibility of personal data being shared with private parties, about governments ending up using the collected information against citizens, and they fear an overall loss of privacy and freedom if these applications became widely used. Overall, they suspect that what is introduced as a temporary instrument to counter this crisis will have long-lasting effects on society.

Can civil rights organizations deter discrimination?

To what extent can civil rights NGOs protect ethnic minorities against unequal treatment? We study this question by combining an audit experiment of 1260 local governments in Hungary with an intervention conducted in collaboration with a major Hungarian civil rights NGO. In the audit experiment we demonstrated that Roma individuals were about 15%-points less likely to receive responses to information request from local governments, and the responses they received were of substantially lower quality. The intervention that reminded a random subset of local governments of their legal responsibility of equal treat- ment lead to a short term reduction in their discriminatory behavior, but the effects of the intervention dissipated within a month. These findings suggest that civil rights NGOs might face substantive difficulties in trying to reduce discrimination through simple information campaigns.

“Tears of Joy”

This chapter centers the jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald’s career as a racial crossover artist, whose early career was critical to securing jazz as a profession for race representation. After emerging as a popular vocalist for Chick Webb’s swing band, she became a symbol of a respectable African American woman to counter the negative characterizations of the jazz world as corrupting of youth. Her career in the late 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s became an effective vehicle for the desegregation of performance venues and the creation of integrated clubs, due to her popularity with black and white audiences. Fitzgerald’s race representation included her status as a wealthy African American woman who provided for her extended family and who made charitable investments in civil rights organizations, particularly the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Fitzgerald’s highly visible race representation entailed constant black and white press coverage and critical assessments that produced two major and recurring debates: whether Fitzgerald constituted a legitimate jazz singer, and whether her perceived lack of emotion in performance disqualified her as an authentic black jazz woman vocalist. Importantly, Fitzgerald showcased the jazz profession in several aspects as a non-religious vehicle for accomplishing the progressive, integrationist pursuits of religious race representatives.

Black Panther Party–Community Relations

Pete O’Neal describes the Black Panther Party’s various community support programs in Kansas City, Missouri. They include a pre-school breakfast program for inner-city children, as well as clothing, food, medical support, and job and family counseling for people in need. O’Neal explains how these programs were supported by local churches and businesses. O’Neal describes ways the Panthers joined forces with other civil rights organizations such as Soul Inc., the Black Youth of America, and Students for a Democratic Society to protest city policies they deemed to be unfair to inner-city residents and to expose persons who took advantage of these same people. O’Neal also describes the Panthers’ confrontation with a “white” inner-city church (Linwood United Methodist Church) and the resulting reconciliation between the church and the Black Panther Party.

The Age of Segregation, 1900–1950

This chapter argues that segregation generated organized opposition from African Americans and a small group of whites that challenged the system. Segregation was rigid, capricious, and designed to demonstrate white power. While it kept most blacks in menial positions, a small black middle class emerged that produced leaders who attacked Jim Crow. The organization leading the charge was the NAACP, which developed publicity, lobbying, and litigation campaigns. The effort gained steam in the 1930s, as a cadre of black lawyers challenged segregated education, the CIO and the Communist party championed civil rights, and the New Deal gave blacks a voice in federal policy. It further accelerated during World War II as the federal government challenged workplace discrimination, membership in civil rights organizations swelled, black veterans demanded their rights, and the Supreme Court became more aggressive on civil rights.

Social Movement Upsurge

Chapter 3 looks at the social movements of the 1930s and 1940s, their historical uniqueness, and how they gave support to and magnified the strength of labor movements, especially in the South—a distinguishing feature of this era. First and foremost were the struggles of the unemployed, led mostly by leftists, often Communists. The chapter also looks at the role of farmers, sharecroppers, and tenants, as well as the special role of civil rights organizations, north and south.