In 1996, the New York-based civil rights organization known as UPROSE was struggling. Founded by Puerto Rican activists, the organization could tout a rich history of organizing amid the rapid change of the 1960s, but by the ‘90s it was small and underfunded. Then civil rights litigator Elizabeth Yeampierre took over.
In a year engaging with members of the Brooklyn area that UPROSE serves, Yeampierre heard time and again about racial-justice issues that were deeply intertwined with sustainability: the siting of toxic industrial facilities in their backyards and the prevalence of lead paint in their homes. And so a revamped organization was born with a focus on civil rights through an environmental lens, a burgeoning area known as environmental justice. “It didn’t start with me being an environmentalist,” says Yeampierre, 66. “We staff the community’s priorities.”
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Since then, UPROSE has opposed the expansion of a highway that would pollute the local community, helped lead the push for legislation that would fund a revamp of abandoned toxic sites, and fought a developer’s plan to transform the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into an office park out of step with the community—and won. The new plan will feature clean-energy jobs accessible to local residents.
Yeampierre wants to see the approach to the new green industrial park replicated. “I hope people can see that something that has had a legacy of harm can become something that is not only incentivizing the local economy, hiring people, reducing emissions… but also addressing the future needs of our communities,” she says. “Cohesion is at the heart of everything that we do.”
Yeampierre’s work in New York City, where she was born and raised, has given her a national platform. She chaired the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council and works regularly with environmental-justice leaders across the country. But she keeps coming back to the need to root environmental-justice solutions in the communities where people live. “We speak different languages. We table at churches. We go to community festivals. We pass out literature. We have cultural events here,” she says.
It’s a helpful reminder as the environmental-justice movement faces headwinds from the Trump Administration, which immediately began trying to roll back environmental initiatives. Yeampierre says it’s important not to ignore the significant challenges that will emerge from Washington over the next four years. “The harm is epic,” she says. Nonetheless, working directly with affected communities can still offer a path forward.
“Our people have survived all kinds of things—our ancestors have, our parents have,” says Yeampierre, who is Puerto Rican and of African and Indigenous ancestry. “We’re going to be the people we’ve always been: creative, resourceful, solution oriented—and we are not going to be fearful.”
