Juneteenth Call to Action: Black Lungs Matter

 

Juneteenth emancipation day from enslavement is being marked across the state with parades, festivals, concerts, lectures and protests for voting rights from Hartford to New Haven to Norwalk and dozens of other towns.

Sierra Club Connecticut hosted Black Lungs Matter, a Juneteenth Press Conference on Thursday at the State Captiol.. Local organizers and community members fighting for clean air and environmental justice highlighted the disproportionate impact of air pollution on Black residents in Connecticut and the policy choices that contribute to this pollution. Speakers also honored African Americans who have paved the way to freedom both from the past and present.

Alycia Jenkins, Sierra Club Connecticut, introduced the event with a call to action. Rep. Maryam Khan spoke as a community ally in support of environmental justice. Sharon Lewis, Connecticut Coalition for Economic and Environmental Justice, connected the right to a clean and safe environment with the significance of the Junteenth emancipation day.

Dr. Mark Mitchell, co-chair of the Connecticut Equity and Environmental Justice Advisory Council. and chair of the Connecticut Environmental Leadership Collaborative commented on public health and the need for a renewable update of CAS measures of air quality.

At a public hearing in February Mitchell told the State Legislature.“Climate change affects everyone, but those who contributed least to global warming are affected the most,” including many people of color due to historic government and institutional policies including redlining, housing and job discriimination and community disinventment. He said many children are suffering from asthma due to the high rate of air pollution, and that the corporations who created the problem should be required to pay into the climate superfund for alerts and protections.

Many Junteenth events will include voter registration in response to the all-out attack on Black representation and voting rights by the US Supreme Court and in Southern States. National Freedom Summer/Fall mass events are being launched in Atlanta and Harlem with local actions across the country in the coming months.

This year Connecticut expanded voting rights to include “no-excuse” absentee voting so that every voter can choose to vote absentee.