From Civil Rights to Environmental Rights: Constructions of Race, Community, and Identity in Three African American Newspapers’ Coverage of the Environmental Justice Movement

Environmental racism refers to the placement of health-threatening structures such as landfills and factories in areas where the poor and ethnic minorities live. These issues are often ignored by the mainstream environmental movement, which is largely White, male, and middle class. In advocating against discriminatory polluting practices, the environmental justice movement particularly emphasizes the issues of community, identity, and race. This article examines how the coverage of environmental justice in three African American newspapers (The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Chicago Defender, and Detroit’s Michigan Chronicle) articulates these three issues in politically problematic ways that are likewise present in the mainstream media.