The environmental justice movement grew from Black communities fighting pollution. In 1982, residents of Warren County, North Carolina, a majority-Black county, protested a landfill for soil contaminated with PCBs, and more than 500 people were arrested. In 1987, the United Church of Christ published Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, which found race was the strongest predictor of where hazardous waste sites were located.
In 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit adopted 17 Principles of Environmental Justice. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, directing federal agencies to address environmental harms in minority and low-income communities. The sociologist Robert Bullard, often called the father of environmental justice, documented these patterns starting in the late 1970s.
The issue remains urgent. In Flint, Michigan, a majority-Black city, a 2014 switch in water source exposed residents to lead. In Louisiana's Cancer Alley, petrochemical plants sit beside Black communities. In January 2025, President Donald Trump revoked Executive Order 12898, and federal agencies were directed to close their environmental justice offices.