Anacostia Community Museum
To Live and Breathe
Women and Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C.
Introduction
Women have led the environmental justice movement. Women are often the ones who notice patterns of disease in their communities, fight to protect their families and neighbors, and bear the burden of health disparities. In this exhibition from the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum, explore how local women of color draw on a long history of activism and advance environmental justice efforts not only in D.C., but across the country and beyond. Visitors will be inspired as they learn why women have become leaders in the environmental justice movement, which pathways they have taken to arrive there, and how their efforts benefit our local communities and the earth.
Environmental justice is people's ability to live without harm, and to be the visionaries for their own community.
Building a Movement: Sidedoor Podcast
America has a long history of clustering heavy industry and toxic facilities in communities where people of color live. But in the 1980s, a series of events sparked a movement to fight back against these environmental injustices. Smithsonian's Sidedoor podcast traces the history of the environmental justice movement from the farmlands of North Carolina to a watershed moment in the nation's capital.