Environmental Update Main Environmental Justice Main Regional Projects Green Jobs and Climate Justice EJ Activist newsletter Meet the Activists Staff Contacts News Events Calendar Resources     En espaņol Detroit EJ Project 2727 Second Ave., Ste 320 Detroit, MI 48201 Organizer: Rhonda Anderson rhonda.anderson@ sierraclub.org

Regional Projects: Detroit Photo by Melissa Damaschke Campaign Highlights With seven proposed new coal-fired power plants, plans for a massive expansion at the Marathon oil refinery, and persistent solid waste issues, the need for Environmental Justice in Detroit is important now more than ever. Sierra Club organizer Rhonda Anderson spends her days working with Detroit residents and local politicians to fight for the rights of communities already overburdened with polluting industries. In 2007 Rhonda was one of the activists who spurred Governor Jennifer Granholm to sign an EJ Executive Order. Rhonda's powerful voice as a community advocate was recently recognized by the Michigan Chronicle, who named her as "One of the 10 Voices of Change for 2007". Learn More Read Governor Jennifer Granholm's Executive Directive No. 2007-23: Promoting Environmental Justice. Issued on November 21, 2007, Rhonda Anderson worked with the Detroit environmental justice community to make this important and groundbreaking directive a reality. Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice Michigan Environmental Council About the Organizer Rhonda Anderson came of age in Detroit during the '60s and remembers it all like yesterday: the assassinations, the Black Panthers, Vietnam, riots, tanks rolling through her neighborhood. "The day Martin Luther King was killed, I saw this huge black cloud coming down the street. It was kids from one high school coming to gather the students at our school to join them in a march through the streets. The first person in the crowd was a girl. She had her fist raised and was yelling, 'Black Power! Black Power!' I will never forget that." Since then, Anderson has worked for equal rights for blacks and women; delivered food, condoms and hygiene kits to prostitutes in her city; helped homeless girls find jobs or return to school. She was part of the effort to shut down a polluting incinerator, and then worked in a juvenile detention center where most of the inmates are black. It occurred to her that many Detroit youth show the effects of growing up in a toxic environment - a sad fact she's working to change by, for instance, getting industrial sites cleaned up. "To me, being black has been a war," Anderson says. "I've always fought, always struggled against a power that appears bigger than I am. But I know I'm making a difference by organizing my community. People tell me so." Get Involved To learn more about the Detroit EJ program or to find out how you can help, email Rhonda Anderson at rhonda.anderson@sierraclub.org. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club