In recognition of Black History Month, we are featuring the stories of Black leaders in the environmental movement. Today, we chat with Vernice Miller Travis, the Executive Vice President for Environmental and Social Justice at Metropolitan Group and Vice Chair of Clean Water Action’s Board. Vernice is the co-founder of WeACT for Environmental Justice, and a national environmental justice champion who lifts the voices of those most impacted by environmental harm. www.cleanwater.org/podcast
Make a special gift to support our podcast today at www.cleanwater.org/donate
In recognition of Black History Month, we are featuring the stories of Black leaders in the environmental movement. Today, we chat with Vernice Miller Travis, the Executive Vice President for Environmental and Social Justice at Metropolitan Group and Vice Chair of Clean Water Action’s Board. Vernice is the co-founder of WeACT for Environmental Justice, and a national environmental justice champion who lifts the voices of those most impacted by environmental harm. www.cleanwater.org/podcast
Make a special gift to support our podcast today at www.cleanwater.org/donate
Jenny Vickers: Hello, everyone. Welcome to We All Live Downstream, a Clean Water Action podcast. In each episode, we will be interviewing leading environmental and Clean Water Activists about their work in the field. We'll dive deep into topics from drinking water and climate change to environmental justice, plastic pollution, and toxic chemicals. I'm your host, Jenny Vickers, the national communications manager for Clean Water Action. In recognition of Black History Month, we are featuring the stories of black leaders in the environmental movement. Today, we are so thrilled to welcome Vernice Miller-Travis to the show. Vernice is the executive vice president for environmental and social justice at Metropolitan Group, and vice chair of Clean Water Action's board. Vernice is the co-founder of We Act for Environmental Justice and a national environmental justice champion who lifts the voices of those most impacted by environmental harm. Welcome to We All Live Downstream. So happy to have you here, Vernice.
Vernice Miller-...: Thank you, Jenny. So happy to be with you.
Jenny Vickers: So, before we get started, can you tell us a little bit more about your background? Where are you from? Where do you live? What do you do?
Vernice Miller-...: I am from New York city. I am from Manhattan, born and raised in Manhattan, went to college and graduate school in Manhattan. I am, well, for those of us who live in Northern Manhattan, people tend to think that Manhattan is Wall Street, it's the business center, it's the theater district. But there are hundreds of thousands of people who live in Northern Manhattan, mostly black and brown people. But yes, it's like being from the district of Columbia. There are people who are actually from those places and that's where I'm from. And I live in Prince George's County, Maryland, which is just east of Capitol Hill of Washington, DC. So, it is the largest majority African American populated county in the United States. And it's a fairly extraordinary place. So, I moved here from New York. Moved here from Harlem. I'm from Harlem, New York specifically, and have been here for almost 25 years, but Harlem is still home base.
Jenny Vickers: And what do you do currently? I know you are involved in so many things, but what are you working on now? What are you up to these days?
Vernice Miller-...: I am working on helping a few federal agencies develop their environmental justice implementation plans that are tasked to every federal agency by President Biden in several executive orders that he rolled out on his very first day in office in January of 2021. And I am helping them to drive those plans to fruition, working with some national environmental organizations to really weave and integrate environmental justice more thoroughly into their day-to-day operations and mission and programmatic objectives. And yeah, so that's some of the things I'm working on right now.
Jenny Vickers: That's incredible. As you know, here at Clean Water Action, environmental justice is one of our top priorities. It's interwoven in a lot of our work around clean water, clean air, toxic chemicals, climate change, pollution, building healthier communities. Vernice, can you talk about the ongoing push for racial and environmental justice and how they're interconnected?
Vernice Miller-...: At Clean Water specific or generally?
Jenny Vickers: In general.
Vernice Miller-...: Oy vey, right? What a moment to be asking me that question, Jenny. So, this conversation about environmental justice is a descendant of the conversation and the social movement for racial justice, for environmental protection, for worker protection, particularly farm workers. We are really at the crossroads of the civil rights movement and the farm worker justice movement is where I think you would find the environmental justice movement. And we have been in this conversation for 40 years. Certainly I have been, me myself, have been in this conversation for 36 years going on 37, that race is an independent driver of the environmental harms that so many communities and so many places find themselves beset with. And so here we are at a propitious moment where the President of the United States has placed that issue and those issues at the highest priority of the Biden/Harris administration.
But yet we're also in a moment where the mere mention of race is sending some people completely over the cliff, right? And is impeding the implementation of public policy, is impeding people's access to the ballot and right to vote, is impeding people's opportunity to get healthcare and to be able to navigate this pandemic. Race is back again at the forefront of so much of what ails our country. And I want to be able to say that we've made a tremendous amount of progress and we have made some, but at this very moment, on this day, I'm feeling like we're hurtling backwards.
Jenny Vickers: So, it's February. We're celebrating Black History Month. I want to know, what does that mean to you at this moment in time?
Vernice Miller-...: Well, it means, fortunately I am from a family. I also was educated by a number of educators in the New York City public school system, as well as in private schools and at Barnard College and Columbia University where teaching that history, teaching the truth of the journey that we've been on as a nation, has always been important to my family and fortunately to the teachers that I've had over the years. And so it's important to know. I mean, I think if this is an adage, that's really true. If you don't know where you came from, then you don't know where you're going, right? You're just rolling around in circles if you have no idea what the journey is that people have been on before that brought you to this particular moment, right?
Jenny Vickers: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vernice Miller-...: So, I think it's really important just to know, and to have some context. So, one interesting thing, black history point that I did not know until I moved here to Prince George's County and to Maryland. So, the county right next to me, literally five miles a way from where I live, is Anne Arundel County. Anne Arundel County is where Annapolis, Maryland is. Annapolis, Maryland is the capital of the state of Maryland. Annapolis, Maryland is also the place where Kunta Kinte arrived in the United States on a slave ship. They have a festival in Annapolis that celebrates that landing. We all know, or many of us know, the story of Roots and Alex Haley's great book. But I knew that was a true story, but it became so much more real for me when I realized that he came on a ship that deposited him and so many of other Africans in Annapolis, Maryland, right?
That the place that I live, the county that I live in, well, freaking almost the whole state of Maryland, was one big, giant tobacco plantation, right? And the people who created the commerce system here in the United States were enslaved Africans who were growing tobacco, right? And that tobacco was one of the main commodities that built our economy. Besides cotton, the other is tobacco. So, everywhere you look where I live, the history is so vivid. And that just reminds me every day. Every day. Also, the county over from me, Anne Arundel County, there's a town in that county not far from where I live. I live in a town called Bowie, Maryland. There's a town in that county called Davidsonville, Maryland. And Davidsonville, Maryland was famous for breeding slaves. It's exactly six miles from where I live, right?
So, as much as we like to think that we are this great modern society, I don't think you can realize your full potential if you don't acknowledge all the things that made that country, that place, what it is. And if you try to teach that history or move forward without acknowledging that, I think you're doomed to failure. So, we are on a slippery slope. And black history to me means to acknowledge everything and everyone who has contributed to the making of this sometimes great country.
Jenny Vickers: Yeah. And speaking of history, you co-founded West Harlem Environmental Action in 1988. Can you tell us what was happening at that time? What was your focus?
Vernice Miller-...: Well, two things were going on. Well, one thing that was happening is that I was working at the time for a civil rights organization, the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice. And the United Church of Christ is a small Protestant denomination. I think we might have five million members, and it is the remnant of the church established by the pilgrims. And there are lots of black people that belong to this denomination. And because of some work, some organizing that was going on by local UCC churches in North Carolina in particular, they were fighting the sighting of a toxic waste landfill that was going to deposit PCB-laden soil in this majority African American county, Warren County, North Carolina. The Commission for Racial Justice got deeply involved in that struggle and determined after some years that what they were seeing on the ground in Warren County might be emblematic of a broader set of issues, right?
That where people of color lived was also where the toxic waste seemed to find its home, right? And is there a correlation between the fact that people of color live in these particular places and these hazardous waste landfills are also in those communities? And so they decided to undertake this study, the United Church of Christ did, the Special Project on Toxic Injustice, and hired me as a research assistant to work with Charles Lee. Charles is now one of the thought leaders on environmental justice at US EPA. But we did some research. We wrote this report and published this report, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States. At the time that I was doing that work, I met some neighbors. I was introduced to some people who lived in the community that I lived in in West Harlem, in New York, which is, if you know New York city, if you know Manhattan, it's just north of the campus of Columbia University on the extreme west side next to the Hudson river, right literally on the Hudson river.
And I had resisted going to this meeting. I was so busy. I go to this meeting one night and these folks are all in a room, and they're talking about the North River Sewage Treatment Plant. And I'm like, "What? What? You're talking about what?" So, it was under construction. Now, the thing about this, Jenny, that is so bizarre is that, so there's a park along the Hudson river in Northern Manhattan. It's called Riverside Park. It is my favorite park in all of New York. And I used to have my dad walk me all the way across town to the other side of Harlem so that I could go to this park because I loved this park. I loved the river. My grandmother lived north of where we lived in Manhattan. My grandmother lived in a few counties north in Rockland County, also right along the Hudson river.
So, the river was very, very important to me in my growing up. And I loved this river, even though it was filthy as all get out in the '60s when I lived there. And the sewage treatment plant was being required by the then fairly new EPA in the early '70s to help clean up the Hudson river. But they were going to build this sewage treatment plant south of us, and they determined that they didn't want it to be there. They needed to move it someplace else and they decided to move it to Harlem, right? And so the sewage treatment plant was designed to treat 180 million gallons of raw sewage and wastewater every day. It's 10 city blocks long, six stories high. It's a giant behemoth, right? And they built that plant and designed that plant with no odor control devices, and a 100,000 black and brown people live across the street from that plant. 100,000 people.
And from that moment that I walked into that meeting until right now, 36 years later, I was overcome by, "Oh my God, I'm researching a report and looking at communities in the Southeastern United States and right here, literally in my backyard, the very issue is going on." It's not a toxic waste site. It's a sewage treatment plant, but the very principles of who we decide are entitled to a safe and decent quality of life and who are not, it's happening where I live. And I had two experiences, Jenny. I was deeply ashamed that this had been going on for so long and I had not realized that it was under construction; and two, that I could focus on this very issue in my own community. And I joined that organization that night and that organization became We Act for Environmental Justice a couple years later.
Jenny Vickers: Wow. That's incredible. Like you mentioned before, systemic racism has long influenced where major sources of all kinds of pollution are located within our communities. You helped write that landmark report, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States. Can you talk about this pivotal moment in history and how does it relate to today's events? Like you mentioned the Biden administration is emphasizing environmental justice and addressing disparate impact.
Vernice Miller-...: So, based on what I'm about to say, people will forever be able to pinpoint the day that you and I had this conversation. Because today it's February 15th. Not a particularly propitious day, except that my birthday is three days from now. But other than that, it's [crosstalk 00:15:10]-
Jenny Vickers: Oh, happy birthday.
Vernice Miller-...: Thank you. It's not a particularly propitious day, except that the New York Times published an article today by Lisa Friedman saying that the Biden administration is going to move forward on a host and a raft of policies to address environmental racism, but they will not mention or focus on race. And Jenny, I'm holding it together in this conversation with you to not burst into tears about how I feel about that, right? I mean, I get it. I'm a political scientist, right? I operate in a space of public policy that is often informed by human reaction to a number of stimuli, right? Not always rational. But I get what moment we are in. I'm a black woman. I live in the United States of America. I know what time it is. And I know where we are in our landscape and our political landscape.
But I can't tell you how much that hurts to know that we have a president, President Joseph Biden, who is more committed to this issue than any president who has ever occupied the White House. There's no question about that. But in order to move this agenda forward, they've decided that the best course of action is to do so without focusing on or talking about race. And I get it. I'm also a communications professional. I get it, right? But it hurts. It hurts deeply to know that we've been on this journey for 40 years and we finally have, the political wins are all aligned. The heavens have opened, and it says, "Here, we're going to work on these issues, except we're not going to talk about race," right? And so this is going to test all of us who work in this space. It's going to test us like we've never been tested before.
How do you devise policy and implement policy and formulate strategy and organizing and narrative around an issue that affects people of color particularly because they are people of color and yet not talk about race? How do you make that work? I'm not sure. But I tell you what. I'm going to have to find out an answer because that's part of my job of what I do every day, is to to help my clients navigate these very difficult shows. But I just have to tell you, I'm still taking this all in, right?
Jenny Vickers: Yeah.
Vernice Miller-...: And it doesn't feel good. That's all I'm going to say. It doesn't feel good. I get the strategy. I get the practicality of it. We have enough headwinds that we are facing trying to move this agenda that we're trying to move forward, but it would be like trying to move forward an agenda about reproductive and women's rights and not talk about women.
Jenny Vickers: Yeah. There's a disconnect.
Vernice Miller-...: But I get it, right?
Jenny Vickers: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, if anyone could influence and shape and come up with a solution, I have confidence that you will. You're incredible. I just want to take a little step back and talk about, when did you get involved? I mentioned earlier Clean Water Action. You're on our board as vice chair. And when did you get involved? What achievements are you proud of at Clean Water Action?
Vernice Miller-...: Well, I guess I got involved in 2004. And 2004 is when I joined the Maryland Commission on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Communities, which is sort of the EJ Commission in the state of Maryland. And on that commission was a man named Andy Fellows. And Andy Fellows was the long-serving Chesapeake regional director for Clean Water Action. And Andy, because he was an organizer, is an organizer to the bone, and is just an amazing strategist, helped to expose me and inform me of the panoply of environmental justice issues that existed not only across the state of Maryland, but across the Chesapeake Bay region, issues that I was not particularly familiar with until I met Andy. And so he took me to lots of places. He took me to lots to meetings. But he also took me a lot to meet the Clean Water Canvas in Baltimore City.
And I saw these young folk do some amazing organizing with communities that, for the most part, had been completely neglected and completely ignored in terms of water quality issues, storm water issues, sewage issues. There was a battle over an incinerator. And it wasn't just water issues that Clean Water Action was engaged in. We were engaged in a whole range of issues, but I didn't see anybody else standing with these communities like I saw the Clean Water Action Baltimore chapter do, and so that really stood out to me. And then Andy was doing this other thing. And I used to chide him about this other thing that he did, which was this, right? So, Andy kept spending a tremendous amount of time in Northern Virginia. And so when I moved here, just as an aside, my late husband and I were great fans of Costco and the only Costco in the area at the time was in Pentagon City in Northern Virginia.
But to get to the Costco, you have to drive on this street called Jefferson Davis Highway. And I'm like, "Are you freaking kidding me? Really?" A stone's throw from the United States capital, right? On the other side of the Potomac River is a street called Jefferson Davis Highway. And it would go from Northern Virginia to freaking Richmond. I mean, it's a major, major... It's also known as US-1, right? It's a major thoroughfare. But I'm like, "Jefferson Davis? Really? Is that what we're calling the street now?" When you're from New York, all of this vivid demonstration of the Confederacy, it's just not something you ever have to think about in New York. We are not trying to lift up the damn Confederacy or anything related to the civil war in New York City, except President Grant is buried in west Harlem. Thank you very much.
But anyway, I found everything about Northern Virginia, not everything, but a lot of things about it were repugnant to me because Virginia just embraced that Confederate ideology so thoroughly. Now, my husband's family is from Southern Virginia. And we'd go to Costco and we'd turn around and come back and I'd have blinders on. Don't let me have to look at the name of that damn street. I just couldn't take it. So, Andy's spending all this time in Northern Virginia organizing. The Canvas is there all the freaking time organizing? And I'm like, "What are you doing? And why are you wasting resources and staff time in a place that just so openly reveres its racist history?" And Andy said, "There's opportunity here." And I mean, for years, Jenny, we were having this running conversation, for years. And I'm saying, "Andy, you are wasting your time. Andy, you are wasting your time," right?
And I'll be damned if, in the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama did not win the state of Virginia. And until this most recent gubernatorial election in November of 2021, everybody counted Virginia as a blue state. I had no idea that that was possible. Andy saw that, right? And Clean Water Action put tremendous resources into mobilizing voters in Northern Virginia. Now, we weren't the only organization organizing in Northern Virginia, but a whole lot of people were, but we had been there for years. And we were there because Andy said, "This is a place that we can really make a difference." And so that meant so much to me, Jenny, so much to me that we would fight like that. And we would bring our human capital to help the folks in Virginia who were trying to lift up a progressive voice and a different vision for the state. I would just also say, as an aside, last year they finally got permission from the general assembly in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, to change the freaking name of that street, right? So, it's no longer Jefferson Davis Highway.
Jenny Vickers: Good for you. I'm clapping.
Vernice Miller-...: I just thought, "Oh my God." So, I'm just saying transformation is possible. You have to have a vision. You have to deploy resources. You have to organize on the ground the way that we do, right? We are one of the few organizations that I know of that, after the pandemic and before the pandemic, we knock on people's doors. We make relationship with communities. We engage in the issues that are important to them. We connect their reality to the broader struggle for clean water. I can't think of anything that is more valuable than an organization who works from that set of values, right?
And so we had a slip-up last November and a Republican got elected and he might set us back policy-wise, but we know that there is a strong, progressive, pro-environment community, not just in Northern Virginia, really all over Virginia. But we can win it back, but you have to be willing to make the investment. And we were willing to make the investment when, frankly, nobody else was, and I was a doubting Thomasina, right? If Andy had listened to me, right? We wouldn't have been in there investing those resources and turning Virginia blue. So, that's what I love, Jenny. That is my favorite Clean Water Action story is Andy saying, "We are going to work in Virginia until we turn that place blue."
Jenny Vickers: That story gave me the chills, actually. That's incredible. So, you are proud of that achievement clearly, and that's a great story to share. Is there any other of your favorite Clean Water Action memories or stories that you'd like to share?
Vernice Miller-...: So, I'm trying to remember what anniversary it was. We were honoring our founder and we had this big event, a fundraising event, annual event in DC. And I go to the event and I see all these people that I know from other spheres of my life. Had no idea. These people had been canvassers for Clean Water Action. No idea whatsoever. 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, organizing for clean water, right? And that was how so many people got their start. And my head was on a swivel. "Oh my God, you used to work for Clean Water Action? Oh my God, you used to work for Clean Water Action?" It was really moving. It was really something.
But it says that the people who are affiliated with Clean Water Action and the people who have worked for Clean Water Action are people who are really committed to their soul to social and political transformation, to fighting to the bitter end for the full embodiment of the Clean Water Act and all of its manifestations, who though they may not continue to work for Clean Water Action throughout their careers, those values follow them wherever they go, right? And I mean, what more of a testament to an organization is that, right?
And I swear, sometimes I'm still astounded by the people that I know from completely different arenas who were canvassers for Clean Water Action early in their lives. And some of them, like our our current CEO, Bob Wendelgass, Bob has been affiliated with Clean Water Action for 30, 40 years. That level of commitment is also something that I have profound respect for. That's certainly the way it has been for me and We Act for Environmental Justice, but you just don't find a lot of folks like that anymore, you know?
Jenny Vickers: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vernice Miller-...: And so I recognize it and I am so, so proud to be affiliated with a crew of people who are so committed to the work to defend the Clean Water Act.
Jenny Vickers: Yeah. Well, we're so happy you're with us. I mean, you're an incredible person. I love listening to you talk about all these stories. And I was a canvasser, too. It's definitely shaped everything about my life as well. And so, you mentioned there's a lot of work to do. There's a lot of work to do. So, we like to end the podcast with a call to action. What can people do to take action, get involved in environmental justice, racial justice, Clean Water Action, anything that you want to mention that folks can do?
Vernice Miller-...: Well, I think one set of things that people can do right now that meshes a lot of these issues together, there's going to be a lot of work going on at the state and local level about investing in and improving water infrastructure across the United States. As a result of the bipartisan infrastructure law that President Biden signed a few months ago, we are about to see the most significant investment of federal dollars in water infrastructure that we've seen since President Eisenhower, which is a president that was president before many of us were alive, right? I think I was one when his term was over. And it's going to require that people get engaged in the planning process about how that money is going to be spent. If you know that there are communities in your area that don't have safe drinking water...
So, in Baltimore, one of the issues that Clean Water Action in Baltimore has worked on for a long time is a lack of sufficient sewer infrastructure in a particular part of Baltimore City. And there's now going to be resources to address that issue. There's going to be resources to address lead in drinking water, right? And replace all the lead service lines across the United States of America for every community that's been drinking lead tainted water, right? There's going to be money to help the Navajo Nation get access to drinking water, which people might be shocked to learn they don't have, right? And they also don't have indoor plumbing, a lot of households. You would be surprised how many thousands of households still do not have indoor plumbing, right? Or folks in Lowndes County, Alabama, that don't have sewage treatment, right? Or people that don't have sufficient storm water infrastructure, or flood mitigation or safe drinking water access.
All of those issues are going to be on the table for consideration. Now, there are also going to be some big ticket water infrastructure projects that states and local governments have wanted to get done for a long time, but there was no federal money for that to happen. And there're going to be some public meetings and people are going to call on you to come to the table and help decide what is the number one priority. They might even ask you to vote on a referendum. How do you want to see these money spent? Show up. Don't be too busy. Don't be too tired. And believe me, I know what it's like to be too tired at the end of the day. But I also know that if I have an opportunity to influence how policy is going to get made that is going to affect the lives of generations of people to come, then it's time for me to show up, right?
And so I'm begging you all. If you're listening to this podcast, pay attention. Pay attention to this infrastructure conversation that's rolling out and public policy. Don't let other people make decisions for you that are going to affect the lives of you, your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. Show up. Be a part of the decision making. Go to the meetings. Go to the planning sessions. Sometimes it'll be on the weekends. Please show up and let your voice be heard and tell folk, right? "This is what we want you to do with our..." Remember, this is your money, right? They didn't pull this money out of some magical bank account in Switzerland. This is your money. And so you should be a part of the conversation determining how does that money get spent and how does it get spent to address some longstanding infrastructure inequities in terms of water, sanitary sewage, flood mitigation, storm water. This is our moment, right? And we got to grab this moment.
Jenny Vickers: Yes. So important. I think there's a lot of power at that local level. Thank you again, Vernice, for being here and all the incredible work that you do. Thanks for sharing this history, your story with us for Black History Month. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention before we close out the show today?
Vernice Miller-...: Well, you didn't say I couldn't ask. So, if what I'm about to say is not within the realm of the podcast, you can always edit it out, right? We are a nonprofit organization and we survive and we do the work that we do based on donations that people make to our organization. You can go to www.cleanwater.org and make a donation to our organization. Every dime that you give us goes to support the work of our organizers, the work of our policy advocates, the work of our strategists, the work of our communications team. This is how we make the work that we do possible. And I would implore you to please make a donation to Clean Water Action.
Jenny Vickers: Thank you so much, Vernice. Thank you to all of our listeners for joining us to help lift up these important leaders during this month of celebration and reflection. To learn more about our work, visit cleanwater.org. And like Vernice said, if you want to support us, so important, just click on that donate button. As a nonprofit organization, your donations keep our engines running and allow us to continue to fight for healthier communities and a more just world for all. Be sure to subscribe to Clean Water Action's podcast, We All Live Downstream, available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, and all of your favorite podcast streaming apps. Bye, everybody. Bye, Vernice. Thanks so much for being here. I had a great time.
Vernice Miller-...: Thank you.