Save the Date: Webinar Opportunity – December 11, 2018

Opportunity Youth United Community Leaders:
What it means to be a Community Leader and how you can get involved

Details

The Corps Network and Opportunity Youth United (OYU) want to remind everyone they are joining forces December 11th to administer a webinar outlining the Opportunity Youth United’s Community Leader position and how interested individuals can get involved. The webinars will feature two former Corpsmembers of the Year, Timothy Gunn and Philan Tree, both of whom are members of the National Council for Young Leaders, OYU’s governing body. These two will share their experiences as members of OYU, describe the OYU movement generally, and dive into some of the specifics of being an OYU Community Leader. The webinar is geared toward Corps alumni, but is open to current Corpsmembers and Corps staff as well. We encourage all to participate, but current Corpsmembers and Corps staff should be aware of any and all AmeriCorps restrictions (please see disclaimer below). This is an issue that will be addressed during the webinar. Even if you find the position is not the right fit for you, you might find it would be perfect for someone you know and pass along the information.

For additional context, Opportunity Youth United is a solution-oriented national movement of present and former Opportunity Youth united to increase opportunity and decrease poverty in America. The movement engages opportunity youth of all racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds, as well as their adult allies. They come from both rural and urban communities and despite this diversity, they are united in their aim to end poverty and injustice. Community Leaders are involved in this movement to serve as public spokespeople and local organizers in their own communities. They organize community improvement projects, strengthen civil engagement and support national policy initiatives all in an effort to end poverty and injustice and achieve the National Council for Young Leader’s recommendations.

If this is something that interests you, and you are between the ages of 18-24, have strong leadership skills, a strong connection to your community, and are a former Opportunity Youth, heed the call and learn more about being a Community Leader. The webinar will be held at two separate times, Dec. 11th at 4:00 p.m. EST and Dec. 11th at 7:00 p.m. EST. Registration for the 4:00 p.m. time slot can be done here. Registration for the 7:00 p.m. time slot can be done here. We encourage all to register, but if you happen to forget, we still want you to participate. Feel free to call in at 202-599-4501 and view the screen share here.

 

Disclaimer about AmeriCorps Restrictions:

Staff and Corpsmembers may not engage in the following activities while charging time to an AmeriCorps program, accumulating service or training hours, or otherwise performing activities supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS):

  1. Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office
  2. Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials
  3. Conducting a voter registration drive or using CNCS funds to conduct a voter registration drive;

Staff and AmeriCorps members may not engage in the above activities directly or indirectly by recruiting, training, or managing others for the primary purpose of engaging in one of the activities listed above. Individuals may exercise their rights as private citizens and may participate in the activities listed above on non-AmeriCorps time, and using non-CNCS funds. For more information on Prohibited Activities, see this resource from CNCS

Questions?

Please contact Conor Rooney from The Corps Network Government Relations Team, crooney@corpsnetwork.org.

 

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On the Front Lines: How Corpsmembers Engage in Wildfire Response, Recovery, Mitigation

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of Corpsmembers and staff with the California Conservation Corps have served night and day in response to the Camp, Woolsey, and Hill Fires. Now that the fires are contained, Corpsmembers are still hard at work trying to prevent landslides in areas that have been stripped of vegetation. Some staff and Corpsmembers even continue to serve after losing homes, friends, and family in the Camp Fire.

In this difficult time, our thoughts are with the CCC and those affected by the recent fires.

We are grateful for the Corpsmembers across the country who not only respond to wildland fires, but help mitigate the threat of future fire events, and provide recovery support in the days, weeks, and months after the flames have subsided. Read below for an overview of some of the ways Corps engage in fire response, recovery, and mitigation.

 

Due to warmer temperatures, drier weather, and the spread of the mountain pine beetle – an insect that feeds on trees, killing off whole sections of forest – conditions across the West are fueling longer, costlier wildfire seasons. To meet this challenge, state and local Conservation Corps are training AmeriCorps members in the skills to not just fight wildfires, but help manage fire risk.

Last year alone, Corps responded to over 560 wildfires, a sharp increase over the 140 fires Corps addressed in 2014.

Through partnerships with federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM), as well as with state forestry agencies, several Corps across the country offer AmeriCorps members the opportunity to be certified as Type-I or Type-II firefighters. Type-II training leads to a kind of license called a “Red Card,” which allows individuals to serve on fires with federal agencies. Type-I firefighters might receive upwards of 80 hours of training in more advanced firefighting skills.

WCC responds to Thomas Lane Fire earlier this year. Photo from WCC Facebook page, courtesy Trevor Cassidy.

Washington Conservation Corps (WCC), housed within the state’s Department of Ecology, has 300 AmeriCorps members, all of whom have the opportunity to earn their Red Cards. So far this year, over two dozen Corpsmembers have been deployed to fires, often on “hand crews.” This means Corpsmembers come through after a fire to survey for heat, extinguish embers, and dig ditches to keep fires contained. In advance of the hand crew, a WCC wildland fire chainsaw crew will clear trees and branches.

“It’s really hard work,” said Brad Mahoney, a WCC AmeriCorps member. “You have to be mentally and physically ready. It’s pretty draining, but there is a certain satisfaction that keeps you coming back. Being able to take part in something that is so important is a really meaningful experience.”

California Conservation Corps, summer 2018.

Further South, the California Conservation Corps (CCC) operates a larger fire program. About 70 percent of the Corps’ 1,400 Corpsmembers will at some point work on a fire, either as camp support or as firefighters. CCC members have responded to all major California fires this year, including the recent Camp Fire, as well as the Mendocino Complex, Ferguson, and Carr fires.

Fighting fires on the front lines is incredibly important, but so is supporting fire camps. Every CCC Corpsmembers undergoes training in fire camp operations. A given fire camp can easily have upwards of 5,000 firefighters and support personnel, with activity happening 24 hours a day. CCC members are a critical asset, helping in the kitchen, managing equipment, dispersing ice, collecting trash, and monitoring the perimeters.


Meet Oscar Nuño, a CCC Corpsmember.

 

“A shift usually starts around 6:00 a.m. and they are camping out in tents. Because of the fire, it’s hot. It’s hot, hot, hot,” said Bruce Saito, Director of the California Conservation Corps. “… It’s 12 days in a row having to be tolerant, patient, understanding, and not letting petty arguments get in your way. You’re a team, you’re serving, you’re helping hundreds of thousands of people by the work you do.”

CCC members also help manage equipment and food distribution at fire camps.

Another critical element of fire management involves mitigating the risk of future fires. Since 2015, Corps across the country have removed well over 70,000 acres of hazardous fire fuels, such as dead trees and overgrown brush. In January 2017, the California Conservation Corps launched a new program – Save the Sierras – through which AmeriCorps members cut down more than 15,000 dead trees in the Sierra Nevada mountains before the end of the year.

The non-profit Montana Conservation Corps (MCC) also does a significant amount of work clearing invasive species and fire fuels. MCC has several chainsaw crews, as well as two AmeriCorps programs that are more focused on fire and fuels management: their Veterans Green Corps and their Women’s Fire Crew. Members of both programs receive their Red Cards and S212 chainsaw certification, spending much of their time removing hazardous trees and, in the case of the Women’s Fire Crew, conducting controlled burns on USFS and BLM land.

Montana Conservation Corps and Southwest Conservation Corps members in the BLM Women’s Fire Corps program.

“They gain some serious skills that are empowering and teach them a lot about what they are capable of, and they gain skills that could launch them into a career…a lot of these folks are going to go on and get fire jobs or stay in natural resources, and that saw certification goes a long way,” said Adam Hein, MCC’s Central Divide Regional Director.

AmeriCorps service on chainsaw and fire crews can be an important step towards a job in wildland fire or resource management. Not only do Corpsmembers earn certifications, but they get to serve side-by-side with professionals at agencies like USFS and BLM. Colorado-based Conservation Legacy has produced numerous career wildland firefighters through their young adult and veterans crew AmeriCorps programs at Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC), Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC), and Southeast Conservation Corps (SECC).

Southwest Conservation Corps – Veterans Fire Corps at Coronado National Memorial.

“My time spent crew leading for AZCC helped significantly in not only providing me with the skills and qualifications to obtain my position with the Forest Service. It prepared me for a lifestyle of living simply, performing arduous work for long hours, and perhaps most importantly, connecting with a crew to work towards a common goal,” said Olivia Gagliardi, an AZCC alumna and hotshot firefighter with Coconino National Forest.

Demand for wildland firefighters and saw crew members isn’t expected to slow down. Earlier this year, Congress created an annual fund of more than $2 billion to be accessed when the cost of wildfires exceeds the 10-year average. Agencies like USFS won’t have to divert as much funding to firefighting and, instead, can focus resources on mitigation. Congress also specifically directed USFS to address forest health issues – like beetle outbreaks – that increase the risk of fires. Indications suggest that, in the near future, AmeriCorps members could be engaged in more fuels management projects and, unfortunately, more fire response projects.

 

Did you know?

As of 2016, all Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers offer wildland fire training. Through this program, Job Corps can annually deploy more than 1,000 Corpsmembers to fire emergencies and forest health projects.

  • Learn more about the 2017 Project of the Year awarded to JCCCC for their Wildland Fire Program

 

In 2018, Southwest Conservation Corps and Montana Conservation Corps won a joint Project of the Year Award for their BLM Women’s Fire Corps pilot program.

 

Fire recovery takes years. Watch this video from 2013 about Texas Conservation Corps members helping rebuild infrastructure destroyed by a 2011 fire at Bastrop State Park. To this day, TxCC Corpsmembers serve at Bastrop.

Meet the 2019 Corpsmember of the Year Finalists

Meet the finalists for the 2019 Corpsmember of the Year Award! We are inspired by all of these outstanding candidates; it will be an incredibly difficult task to only pick five winners.

The winners will be announced in December and will be recognized at Resilience – The Corps Network’s 2019 National Conference, taking place Feb. 10 – 13, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Corpsmember stories are arranged in alphabetical order by Corps name.

 

California Conservation Corps (CA)
Jessica Wermes

“Jessica Wermes has displayed a commitment to the program and herself since the day she joined the Corps. Jessica is a tremendous asset and a positive influence on the Corps, her peers, and the community. She inspires others with her strong energy, respect for others, and positive leadership.”

Before joining the California Conservation Corps (CCC), Jessica Wermes was trying to find a positive path forward. She had experienced a challenging adolescence, but knew she wanted to overcome past setbacks by dedicating her life to service. Jessica embraced the numerous opportunities the Corps offered and achieved a plethora of accomplishments. She earned three AmeriCorps Education Award Program scholarships, a Class B Commercial California Driver License with Passenger Endorsements, completed the California Conservation Corps Leadership training, and received a 40-hour certification in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response. Jessica was promoted twice within 20 months to become a Crew Leader II, the highest-ranking Corpsmember at a center. Jessica volunteers her time to help make Placer Center (in Auburn, CA) a better community and continuously takes on leadership roles on the Corpsmember Advisory Board. She was also selected to complete the specialized Backcountry Trails Program (BCTP), an AmeriCorps program through California Volunteers, and has qualified as a lead firefighter to work alongside CalFire during the 2017 fire season. Once she is done with her time in the CCC, Jessica hopes to travel and eventually continue working on public lands.

 

Climb CDC Conservation Corps (MS)
Hunter M. Ferguson

“Hunter has shown our AmeriCorps members that it does not matter where you come from, your past experiences or anything that you have gone through, that they can achieve their goals with hard work and determination.”

Hunter entered the world of Conservation Corps after he started learning more about how much overdue work is needed on private and public lands across the country. He decided to be part of the solution to improve these lands and discovered the opportunity to do so through Climb CDC. Hunter accomplished many goals through hard work and dedication and always had a positive attitude during his time with the Corps. Since completing a nine-month term as a “GulfCorps” member in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, he was promoted to be a Crew Leader. Hunter’s long-term goal is to become a wildland firefighter and eventually a park ranger. As he says, his vision is to live out his life in an A-frame cabin, surrounded by the forest he loves.

“If we don’t change how we live, there will truly be no natural wonders left for generations to come,” said Hunter. “The future I now look at is rather bright rather than bleak.

 

Fresno EOC Local Conservation Corps (CA)
Nestor Sanchez

“During his nearly two years at the LCC, Nestor has exhibited an excellent work ethic, strong moral compass, and high expectations for himself and his fellow corpsmembers.”

Through volunteering with Fresno EOC Local Conservation Corps (LCC) monthly food distributions, Nestor learned about the opportunities the organization had to offer. Seeing his dedication, the Corps encouraged him to apply to become a Corpsmember. Being a Corpsmember enabled Nestor to build self-confidence and become a first-generation high school graduate. He also built his résumé with certifications in chainsaw operation, aquatic restoration (Waders in the Water), forklift operation, and CPR/First Aid. Primarily through his work at Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, Nestor has also qualified for the Public Lands Corps non-competitive hiring authority. With the assistance of his AmeriCorps Education Awards, Nestor currently attends Fresno City College. With his remaining Education Award funds, he plans to pay for the Fire Academy and eventually go into wildland firefighting.

“My Corps experience has been inspiring and now my life has meaning. My Corps experience has helped me to develop into a responsible man, build confidence within myself, and I am now a leader in training for tomorrow. I’m working to make a difference in my community and be a positive role model.”

 

Green City Force (NY)
Justin Baker

Justin Baker was working a retail job, feeling stagnant and unhappy. He knew he needed a change. When he discovered the opportunity to serve as an AmeriCorps member with Green City Force, he jumped at the opportunity. As a Corpsmember, Justin focused on making sure projects got finished to the end. Though he comes from Staten Island – the farthest borough in New York City, he has the most service hours and has achieved one of the highest ranks in his cohort. During his term with GCF, Justin has primarily participated in the Corps’ Farms at NYCHA program, through which Corpsmembers tend crops and provide food education on New York City Housing Authority Properties. Since he started in May of this year, Justin has been one of the most reliable and passionate members of his team, helping lead them in educating hundreds of residents and schoolchildren, engaging thousands of farm visitors and dozens of volunteers, and distributing over 22,000 pounds of organic produce to families in need. GCF staff rely on Justin’s ability to – with great enthusiasm and seriousness – educate all ages, from children, to young adults, to parents and seniors. In the future, he hopes to continue engaging in community-building activities.

“I would say that Green City Force has put me well on my way to be the best version of myself.”

 

Heart of Oregon Corps (OR)
Thyreicia Simtustus

Thyreicia Simtustus first joined Heart of Oregon Corps after her Junior year of high school. She was interested in being outside and on a crew. She is now completing her third AmeriCorps term across two programs at Heart of Oregon: she has served more than 2,100 hours on public lands and has served outside in collaboration with The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. For the last year and a half, Thyreicia has participated in the Corps while also attending college, commuting over two hours a day roundtrip to do so.

Thyreicia has participated in a range of projects, from planting trees and removing invasive species, to improving recreation resources and managing wildfire fuels. She is known by her Corps to patiently help new Corpsmembers, taking extra care to help some of her peers who experience disabilities. She also openly shares about her indigenous culture and is proud to be a role model, especially to Native American girls. Serving with Heart of Oregon Corps has completely changed Thyreicia’s career. Originally, she planned to have a career in medicine, but she has now discovered how working with the Forest Service can help her get closer to her true dream of becoming a pilot. She recently completed a job shadow with the Forest Service Air Center and had the opportunity to learn about the dispatching system for smokejumpers.

Thyreicia currently serves as “Miss Warm Springs” on behalf of her tribe and is active in tribal community service.

 

Los Angeles Conservation Corps (CA)
Damontre Halcromb

“I have witnessed the exceptional contributions that Damontre has made to the local community and the fellow corpsmembers he’s worked with.”

Damontre didn’t waste any time when he started with Los Angeles Conservation Corps in January 2018. He participated in every training and certification opportunity, earning his First Aid/CPR, OSHA, and forklift certifications, as well as his driver’s license. Due to his hard work, Damontre was recently promoted to be a Corpsmember driver, a role that requires a high level of leadership among his peers. He currently serves with the City Plants project, driving across LA County every day to deliver free trees to residents that requested them. He previously served with the Mayor’s Million Trees Program, planting over 750 trees across LA County. Damontre’s proudest accomplishment, however, is knowing that he has made a positive impact in his community. His goal is to earn an AmeriCorps award and enroll in Los Angeles Trade Tech community college.

“Prior to joining the Corps, I did not have a sense of community even in the neighborhood that I grew up in for the last 20 years,” said Damontre. “Before the Corps, I felt as if I was taking from my community only to benefit myself. Now that I have been a part of the Corps, I feel as if I’m giving back and it makes me see everything in a more optimistic light.”

 

Limitless Vistas, Inc. (LA)
Jasmine Poole

“Ms. Poole works hard and always has a great attitude no matter how hard the work is, or how dirty the job may be… Her attitude has been noticed by our project sponsors so much so that they ask for her personally when they need help with community projects and events. She has also become a positive role model and leader for young, minority women in her community. Jasmine serves as an excellent example of a hard worker, a leader and a participant in the community.”

Jasmine Poole completed two AmeriCorps terms through the Opportunity Youth Service Initiative and now serves as a “GulfCorps” crew member. Growing up in a city, Jasmine had few opportunities to experience nature. However, she has embraced the work of managing public lands and enhancing the environment and has taken full advantage of the trainings LVI offers. Since starting her service in March 2017, Jasmine has helped clean up an EPA brownfields site; conducted a plastics and microplastics survey at Elmer’s Island Wildlife Refuge; cleaned and preserved historic grave markers at Chalmette National Cemetery, and participated in numerous community events. Jasmine became the first and only woman to complete a GulfCorps service term with Limitless Vistas. Upon completing her second GulfCorps term, Jasmine plans to use her AmeriCorps Education Award to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology and minor in business management.

 

Montana Conservation Corps (MT)
Dolly Sanchez-Webb

When Dolly was hired for the Montana Conservation Corps’ Youth Conservation Corps, she was just a high school graduate looking for a summer job. Coming from a ranching community, Dolly was initially apprehensive about serving on projects with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS); ranchers and federal resource managers have historically not always agreed on land use practices. Through her summer building fences and trails with MCC, however, Dolly quickly grew to respect and enjoy the work of the USFS.

Dolly is a very hard worker and a natural leader. Just a few weeks into the program, she was asked to step up and help co-lead the crew. With her problem-solving abilities and ranching experience, Dolly developed efficient ways to complete tasks. She took it upon herself to hold check-ins with her fellow crew members and make sure everyone’s voice was heard. When the work got tough, Dolly’s enthusiasm kept the group cohesive and encouraged.

Dolly is now a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho, studying Exercise Physiology and Recreation Management. With the support of project sponsors at the USFS, she hopes to work with the Forest Service this coming summer.

“Dolly was a dedicated, hardworking crew member… She was always eager to jump right in and get to work, no matter the project.” — James Helsley Recreation Technician, Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest, Townsend Ranger District.

 

Mt. Adams Institute – VetsWork Environment (based in WA, service in SC)
Elamon White

Elamon White has demonstrated outstanding leadership and dedication to environmental stewardship and community engagement through her AmeriCorps terms with the Mt. Adams Institute VetsWork program. Her path to this program started when she enrolled in the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program in college. While training to become a Naval Officer, Elamon also studied marine science. While she enjoyed serving her country alongside “some of the best sailors she had ever met,” Elamon knew she wanted to pursue a career in conservation. Through VetsWork, Elamon has served as a partnership and volunteer coordinator intern on the Andrew Pickens Ranger District of the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina. She established a detailed volunteer engagement tool, has strengthened relationships with the community, and created a system to track projects, all of which have proved very useful on a district that relies heavily on volunteer support. In addition, Elamon has been the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) Crew Leader for her district for the past two summers, leading especially productive crews in projects including campground rehabilitation and trail reconstruction. Once she completes her second AmeriCorps term in January 2019, she hopes to transition to a neighboring district, where she is actively being pursued for a Resource Assistant position.

“I have found purpose in my life and want to continue efforts in protecting and stewarding our public lands so that we have them for future generations.”

 

Sequoia Community Corps (CA)
Maria Corona

When she joined Sequoia Community Corps, Maria Corona had recently become the sole provider for herself and her two small children. Maria had previously taken a break from school to raise her family, but she now needed to start earning an income. She began her Corps training in the organization’s Energy Services call center, fielding questions and scheduling appointments. Maria worked hard and excelled.  Her supervisor noticed her hard work and offered her an administrative position in charge of customer feedback and assisting site assessors. In addition to having a strong attendance record and an excellent work ethic, Maria is well-liked by her fellow Corpsmembers, who respect her dedication to her children and ability to always put family values above all else.  Maria is a positive role model, taking her experience working in the community as a motivator to always be the first to sign up for volunteer activities.

Maria is still deciding on her career path, but her new job skills have given her a sense of confidence and opened the possibility of getting a permanent position with the Corps. Her plan for the future is to go back to school to finish her associate’s degree.

“The reason why I knew I wanted to become a Corpsmember is due to the fact that I genuinely wanted to help others.”

 

San Jose Conservation Corps & Charter School (CA)
Paola Flores

“Paola has been a positive influence in so many ways to her peers in encouraging them to continue in life no matter the obstacles. She shares with them that she herself has faced many obstacles but continues to work towards success every day.”

With her strong work ethic, Paola has achieved a great deal during her time with the San Jose Conservation Corps & Charter School (SJCC & CS). Over a two-year timeframe, she has completed four AmeriCorps terms of service, obtained her high school diploma, and successfully gained hands-on job experience in the Corps’ Environmental Projects Department and Recycling Department. She achieved all of these accomplishments while also taking college classes and managing the responsibilities of being a single mother to her 3-year-old daughter. Paola has gone above and beyond, attending volunteer activities on the weekend, and helping her peers register for college, update their résumés, and access support services. She has been selected to represent her peers at the Corps at several speaking engagements and recruitment events. “Paola amazes SJCC & CS Staff from all departments within the organization daily with her mature professional can do spirit!”

Paola is currently enrolled in Evergreen Community College, where she is putting her AmeriCorps Education Awards towards a degree in psychology. She hopes to pursue a career in social work.

 

Southwest Conservation Corps – Ancestral Lands Program (based in CO, service through Southwest)
Sheldon Tenorio

“Sheldon is committed to his crews’ personal and professional development, and their development of conservation and stewardship ethics… Sheldon models strong work ethic, dedication, and professionalism.”

After previous experience with Rocky Mountain Youth Corps – New Mexico, Sheldon has been an exemplary Crew Leader with Southwest Conservation Corps’ Ancestral Lands program. Now in his third AmeriCorps term, he has shown a commitment to the success of the program, as well as sincere dedication to empowering Native American youth to make a positive impact on the land, their communities, and in their own lives. This year, Sheldon led some of the most successful crews for the Ancestral Lands program, consistently receiving high praise from partners for their accomplishments. Among other efforts, his crews worked on habitat restoration, trail maintenance, and community outreach and engagement. Their project in partnership with the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge has helped to expand the Refuge’s definition of conservation and environmentalism to include the voices of people of color, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, and people whose voices have historically been excluded from the conservation narrative. Sheldon plans to stay with the Ancestral Lands program for a while longer to help create more opportunities for Native American youth. He hopes to one day start a Corps program out of the Kewa Pueblo.

 

Stewards Individual Placement Program (service in OH)
David Kilroy

“I enjoy being able to do work that has value, and has an impact on the people around me… I know that when I look back on my experience in the AmeriCorps, I will recognize the significant impact it has had in shaping not only my career trajectory, but my personal growth.”

Part of David Kiliory’s assignment as an AmeriCorps VISTA through the Stewards Individual Placement Program was to build capacity for his host site, Shawnee State University Innovation Hub. He did this by writing and receiving a $2.78 million grant to fund renovations to the Innovation Hub’s facilities. This in turn will help expand technological innovation and creativity in the community. David is very loyal and committed to work that he starts and decided that he wanted to see this project through and stayed for an additional VISTA year with this program.

David moved to Portsmouth without knowing anyone. Through his service, David made connections and quickly learned about his new community. Among other activities outside of his AmeriCorps service, David joined a local Toastmasters chapter, becoming the Vice President for Education, and most recently was nominated for the board of the local Main Street organization. Once David is done with his second term, he plans to stay in Portsmouth and hopes to continue working on his current project as a full-time staff member.

 

Trapper Creek Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center (MT)
Levi White

“Levi is an amazing individual with an infectious attitude and an even bigger heart. As a member of the fire crew, at times, he literally gave fellow crew members the shirt off his back.”

Prior to enrolling at the Trapper Creek Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center, Levi White was homeless. He worked all through high school to help support his family, even walking great distances to get to and from his job after his car broke down. Job Corps offered the opportunity for a fresh start and Levi was motivated to leverage every resource the program offered. He enrolled in the Natural Resources Training Program and red-card certified as a wildland Firefighter Type 2 (FFT2). He became a member of the Trapper Creek Fire Crew and a member of the Trapper Creek Trails Crew. Levi also quickly found his footing as a student leader. On campus, Levi served as a student guide and helped ensure newly enrolled students had a support system to navigate the program. He also gave campus tours to several notable guests, including Senators and U.S. Representatives. In addition to leading by example among his peers, Levi served as a role model to a younger generation by teaching conflict management and communication skills to middle school students through the Center’s Advanced Leadership program, or SUMMIT. Levi is open about using his own past challenges to relate to students.

Levi is currently enrolled at Grafton Job Corps Center in the Human Service Worker Advanced Trade Program. Ultimately, he’d like to work to support those in ground level facilities, such as rehab centers, corrections facilities, and homeless shelters.

 

Utah Conservation Corps (UT)
Ruth Campos

Ruth started studying at Utah State University and felt like something was missing. To complement her education, she has since done three AmeriCorps terms of service, completing physically strenuous natural resource conservation projects, as well as serving on campus to decrease the student body’s carbon footprint. In addition to serving with Utah Conservation Corps, Ruth also served with Montana Conservation Corps on their Project of the Year-winning Women’s Fire Corps program. Ruth has served as a visible role model for diverse populations in natural resource conservation. She is a competent and hard-working AmeriCorps member, and has also given extra effort to become a visible spokesperson for the UCC and the nationwide Corps movement. This was demonstrated by her summer 2017 meeting, interview, and photoshoot with former Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell at the Outdoor Retailer Show, which became a part of the Outdoor Industry Association’s Together We are A Force campaign. Outside the Corps, Ruth also provided leadership for the USU Center for Community Engagement (CCE) Alternative Spring Break service trip to Guatemala, ultimately earning CCE’s Outstanding Service Award for her commitment to engaging diverse populations in community projects.

Once she finishes her third AmeriCorps term and completes her undergraduate degree in Philosophy this spring, Ruth hopes to attend graduate school. Over the summer, she plans to serve on a wildland fire crew.

 

Urban Corps of San Diego County (CA)
Monica Lopez

“Monica works hard to ensure that everything she does is done with a purpose in her life. This positive attitude makes Monica a leader and a role model amongst her peers and in her community”

Monica joined Urban Corps of San Diego County at the beginning of this year, setting high goals for herself. Monica is a proud single mother and, after having to take a break from her education, she was determined to step out of her comfort zone to make changes in her life. Through hard work, Monica was promoted to Crew Leader, obtained her driver’s license, and is currently studying for her Commercial Driver’s License. During her service, Monica has participated in a range of trainings and projects, including doing fire restoration work in Yosemite National Park.

Monica is expected to graduate in December 2018 with her high school diploma. She is currently enrolled in the Corps’ Construction Apprenticeship Readiness Program and is scheduled to take her Electrician Apprenticeship test in January with the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Once Monica gets in the apprenticeship program, she will be able to earn a high-paying salary and build a career while receiving free college credits.

 

Weber Basin Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center (UT) & Schenck Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center (NC)

“Job Corps is sometimes called a “program of opportunity” and Abdusalam is an exemplar of this motto. Job Corps merely allowed him to shine and hone the intelligence and determination that he already possessed.”

At age 24, Abdusalam’s Ibrahim’s life experiences have made him mature beyond his years.  After his village in Sudan was invaded, Abdusalam and his family made their way to a refugee camp in Chad before eventually immigrating to the United States. Seeking to make his American dream come true, Abdusalam enrolled in the Weber Basin Job Corps, after first obtaining his high school diploma and certification in auto mechanics at Clearfield Job Corps Center. He graduated this September from Weber Basin Job Corps with a career technical training certificate in Office Administration and certification as a wildland Firefighter Type 2 (FFT2).

Abdusalam achieved his success and profited from his Job Corps experience by setting clear goals, using all resources available to advance to higher levels of education, practicing a strong work ethic, and remaining open to the feedback. In addition to his work in the office, Abdusalam was repeatedly dispatched on wildland fire crews because those he worked with appreciated his motivation, tireless enthusiasm, and willingness to learn. Recently, Abdusalam was accepted into the rigorous Schenck Job Corps Advanced Wildland Fire Management Program. This aligns with his dream of becoming a wildland firefighter. In the future, he also hopes to volunteer at an immigration center to help other newcomers to America.

 

“Not in Anyone’s Backyard”: People of Color and the Environmental Movement – Part II

The following is part of the Moving Forward Initiative blog series.
By Allison Puglisi
Ph.D. Candidate, American Studies, Harvard University

 

This is the second of a two-part blog series on the hopes, concerns, and activism of environmentalists of color. Part one discussed the United Farm Workers’ (UFW) fight against pesticides, as well as other environmental events in the 1960s and 1970s. Part two, below, resumes the story at the end of the 1970s.

At that time, America witnessed several key changes: deregulation of industry, setbacks in workers’ rights, a housing crisis, and the start of a sharp rise in the prison industry. Environmentalists of color were committed to addressing all of the above. They also believed the environmental movement had a responsibility to prioritize the concerns of those most at risk: people of color and low-income people. This belief would evolve to become the environmental justice movement.

*Banner above is a photo of MELA, Mothers of East Los Angeles.

Northwood Manor

In spring of 1978, Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI) sought a permit for their latest project: a landfill in predominantly black northeast Houston. BFI had already acquired a plot of land, and after all the necessary arrangements were made, they would begin to build. They had not paused to consider that the plot was next to a residential community.

That community was Northwood Manor, a mostly black subdivision. As soon as the residents learned a landfill was planned near their homes, they voiced their concerns. As historian Elizabeth D. Blum points out, the landfill’s proposed location was not far from the local high school. Residents were worried about their children’s safety. One parent, Mildred Douglass, was certain that “over a long period of time . . .  [the landfill] would cause some type of health problem.” Another parent, Margaret Bean, told Blum there were no “sidewalks out here. I was concerned because the kids were walking home and . . . these big old Browning-Ferris trucks [would be] going up and down the street. I thought some of these kids might get hit by these trucks.”

Bean started knocking on her neighbors’ doors to inform them about the impending landfill. Soon after that, she joined forces with two other women in the neighborhood: Patricia Reaux and Louise Black. The three women became known as the “Gunfighters” because, in Reaux’s words, “they knew that if we were going to fight, we would fight to the end.”

The Gunfighters used a variety of strategies: they called and visited their neighbors, handed out pamphlets, held demonstrations, circulated petitions, and hosted frequent “clean-up days” in their neighborhood. They also hired a lawyer named Linda McKeever Bullard, who prepared to argue that the siting of the landfill was racially discriminatory. The Gunfighters, meanwhile, helped her case by conducting research on Houston’s landfills.

 

Warren County

The same year that BFI proposed the Texas landfill, a similar issue emerged in Warren County, NC. It began when Robert, Timothy, and Randall Burns drove through the county with 50,000 tons of toxic waste.

The waste came from Ward Transformer Company, an electrical equipment company owned by Robert Ward. To avoid the cost of proper disposal, Ward hired the Burns family to dump the waste illegally along the highway.

The state of North Carolina sued and sentenced Ward and the Burns family, but 50,000 tons of waste containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)—a toxin and potential carcinogen—still lay strewn across the county. With approval from the EPA, the state of North Carolina declared its plans to open a landfill in Warren County and move the PCBs there.

The residents of Warren County demanded to know why they should have to live with Ward’s waste. They held demonstrations at the site, and in 1982, they enlisted the NAACP to represent them in court. Like McKeever Bullard, the NAACP argued that North Carolina and the EPA had allowed the landfill in their community specifically because it was black and low income.

Neither the Warren County case nor the Northwood Manor case was successful in court. In both Texas and North Carolina, activists were able to delay but not ultimately prevent the landfills. Still, the movements were successful in pushing many people—for the first time—to consider the relationship between racism and environmental degradation. As Blum writes on Northwood Manor, “The impact of the Bean case lies not in its result . . . Bean yielded a new cause to which [environmentalists of color] energetically applied themselves. Over the next few years, the movement gained in prominence, drawing support from other scholars and activists. During the 1980s, activists in the environmental justice movement developed definitions of their movement in strong opposition to their perceptions of the ‘mainstream’ environmental movement.”

The residents of Northwood Manor and Warren County laid the groundwork for later organizing, and they inspired other groups. One such group was the United Church of Christ (UCC).

The UCC had been following the events in Texas and North Carolina. Its Racial Justice Committee decided to conduct research on environmental hazards in communities of color. In 1987, they published their findings in a report still cited today: Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States. The report found that race was the most important factor in the siting of landfills, processing plants, and other hazards. It also determined that three out of every five black and Latinx Americans—and half of Asian and Native Americans—lived in “communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites.”

With Toxic Wastes and Race, the UCC started an important conversation—a conversation much of America, unfortunately, was unwilling to have. In many ways, the politics of the 1980s ran counter to the UCC’s views and values. The decade was marked by deregulation of industry, large tax cuts, and budget cuts. It was also a challenging decade for environmental issues. Then-President Ronald Reagan hired James G. Watt as Secretary of the Interior and Anne M. Burford to head the EPA. Both were criticized and eventually pushed to resign: Watt, for insensitive remarks toward people of color and people with disabilities, and Burford, for “mismanagement in cleaning up toxic waste.” Reagan, too, was rebuked for his 1981 statement that “trees cause more pollution than cars.”

 

Local Struggles, Broad Visions

On the local level, grassroots environmentalist groups were responding to these trends. In 1986, a group of mostly Chicana mothers formed the Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA), which still exists today. The mothers originally came together to challenge a $100 million prison planned in their neighborhood, but later organized against an oil pipeline and waste incinerator as well. At first glance, these three projects seem separate and distinct—but to MELA, prisons, incinerators, pipelines, and chemical plants all fell under the same category: large industrial projects designed to damage both the land and its residents’ quality of life. Since its founding, MELA has pushed environmentalists to rethink what constitutes an environmental issue.

MELA is not the only group to push these boundaries. Also in California, a number of Asian and Asian American groups have made an environmentalist case for workers’ rights. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s—when Silicon Valley was a technology manufacturing hub (and not just an information technology hub, as it is today )—its labor force was comprised mostly of Asian and Latinx women. Very few were unionized, and as Julie Sze points out, this posed serious consequences: “the health and environmental effects of computer production-line labor are numerous, and particularly destructive to reproductive and nervous systems (such as triggering miscarriages).” To address this, groups like the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) emerged to place pressure on the computer industry and educate people on matters of environmental health.

 

The First Summit

In October 1991, local environmental activists from across the country came together and held the first ever National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. 300 people of different races, from all U.S. states and the Americas, descended on Washington, D.C. to – as Dana Alston put it – “redefin[e] environmental issues in their own terms.” They heard from Havasupai activists fighting uranium mining in Arizona, black activists challenging the petrochemical industry in Louisiana, Western Shoshone activists organizing against nuclear testing in Nevada, and many others. They informed one another about their issues, they shared strategies, and they drafted and ratified “The Principles of Environmental Justice.”

On one hand, the Principles affirmed what many already felt: that people of color were most affected by environmental degradation, and that mainstream environmentalism had not met their needs. At the same time, the document offered a vision of justice that was both forward thinking and cognizant of past violence. It acknowledged how slavery and colonialism shaped – and presently shape – American politics. It also indicted the military industry, declared support for workers’ rights, and “affirm[ed] [indigenous peoples’] sovereignty and self-determination.”

The Principles retain their relevance today, as the residents of Flint, MiI continue to doubt the quality of their water, and the people of Standing Rock Sioux Reservation continue to organize against oil pipelines nationwide. Today’s environmentalists of color are not an anomaly or contradiction. They are part of a long-standing tradition that dates back to the Gunfighters and earlier: a tradition that links environmental rights with human rights.

 

Reflection Questions:

  1. Many environmental justice groups were led by women, and had mostly women members. Why do you think this is? How might women’s rights and environmental justice be related?
  2. Take a look at the Principles of Environmental Justice here, on page 16. The US Constitution reads, “We the people . . .” while the Principles begin, “We the people of color . . .” What do you find interesting or surprising about the Principles?
  3. People of color today–in Flint, Standing Rock, and many other places–are still fighting for clean and safe resources. What do they have in common with the activists in the twentieth century, and what is different?

 

Resources 

All sources cited in this piece can be found in the Moving Forward Initiative Resource Library.

CCC Legacy comes to Oregon 2018

By Natalie Whitson
Northwest Youth Corps, Development Officer

As many know, today’s Conservation Corps owe their ethic of service to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which operated across the US from the years 1933 to 1942. The state of Oregon – home to several members of The Corps Network, including Northwest Youth Corps (NYC), Heart of Oregon Corps, and three Job Corps Centers – hosted 61 CCC camps. These camps enrolled nearly 25,000 Junior and Veteran CCC members; 2,750 Native Americans; and 6,800 other participants. One of these camps was at Silver Creek Falls, located east of Salem, and now Oregon’s largest state park.

In recent years, NYC crews have worked at Silver Falls State Park to help rebuild and re-roof cabins originally constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the CCC, as well as complete other projects, such as reroofing the lodge. More information can be found here: https://www.ccclegacy.org/Northwest_Youth_Corps.php.

Over the weekend of September 29 – September 30, Silver Falls was the site of the CCC Legacy Annual Gathering. Co-hosted by Northwest Youth Corps, this year’s event celebrated the 85th anniversary of the CCC. Attendees included more than two dozen guests, as well as a few members of the original CCC.

Activities included a kick-off social attended by 10 authors who have written about the era, as well as the CCC alumni – also known as the “CCC Boys.” Beside a tabletop display of “traditional” hand tools surely familiar to CCC members, and still in use by NYC and other crews today, NYC Development Officer Natalie Whitson and NYC Program Coordinator Edison Velez both spoke about how members of The Corps Network carry forth the ethic of service started by the CCC.

The next morning, a NYC crew and NYC staff joined CCC Legacy during their trip to Silver Falls State Park. During the morning activities, hosted by Brad Chandler of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, NYC Corpsmembers helped beautify the grounds, prior to eating lunch with the CCC Boys and CCC Legacy. NYC Director Jeff Parker welcomed the group and acknowledged the work of the original CCC. He spoke of the ‘30s era historic preservation techniques and tools that NYC members had to use during reconstruction at the Park, due to Silver Falls’ properties being listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Jeff also read the text of a Governor’s proclamation naming September 29, 2018 as Oregon CCC Day. For their service, NYC Corpsmembers received a specially-designed CCC patch, while Jeff and Natalie received special certificates for their service.

After lunch and taking photos with the NYC crew, CCC Legacy’s guests then traveled to the Forest History Center, Forest Office Headquarters, where they toured and laid a wreath at the CCC Worker Statue. CCC Legacy also toured CCC buildings at the Zigzag Ranger Station with Ranger Bill Westbrook, and toured the CCC museum at the Mt. Hood Cultural Center. Guests also visited Timberline Lodge, built by the WPA from 1936 to 1938 and furnished by local artisans of the era. CCC Legacy’s guests learned about the CCC Art Program, a unique group of artists sent into CCC camps with President Roosevelt’s personal approval, who chronicled America’s greatest conservation movement. Some of the art produced was contributed by Art Clough, who – with his two assistants – created six huge wood carved panels and 18 smaller panels illustrating the work of CCC enrollees in the forests of Oregon. These panels now permanently reside at the University of Oregon, in Eugene.

More than mere artifacts of wood and stone, however, the lasting legacy of the CCC is service. The men of the CCC were so convinced of the goodness they derived from their CCC experience that they firmly believed that everyone should have a public service experience. When they were younger, some of the CCC Boys would come to The Corps Network Forums, and they loved it.

In that same spirit, NYC salutes the work of Naomi Shaw, Secretary of CCC Legacy and Chair of the Annual Gathering Committee; Joan Sharpe, President of CCC Legacy; and all the board members of CCC Legacy who worked tirelessly to organize this celebration, and who work year-round to represent the CCC alumni of America, bring awareness to the heritage of the CCC, and offer support to the modern Corps who carry on the work of preservation, education and conservation.

RAP Profile: Britney Pizzuto & Courtney Fernelius

The USDA Forest Service Resource Assistants Program (RAP) is a rigorous and immersive, paid internship for U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are at least 17 years old. The program is designed for those interested in conservation, natural and cultural resources, environmental management, research and development, and other career opportunities with land management agencies. Resource Assistants (RAs) are recruited by partner organizations and work under the supervision of Forest Service staff to accomplish mission-critical work that develops leadership, critical thinking and strategic communication skills. Through collaboration, coaching and mentorship, resource assistants gain the tools to launch their careers and expand their understanding of our Nation’s natural and cultural resources.

 

In partnership with the Forest Service, The Corps Network and several Member organizations of The Corps Network recruit RAP participants. This recruitment strategy helps the Forest Service engage the emerging workforce and increase the diversity of highly qualified candidates to support the Forest Service mission.

 

Below are stories of two RAs recruited through Utah Conservation Corps.

Britney Pizzuto, a native Utahan, became a Resource Assistant with the Manti-La Sal National Forest after completing her first year as a nursing student in an undergraduate program. Though she was originally hired in May to work at the front desk, Britney transitioned into the RAP program. Britney quickly learned the impact this internship would have not only on her summer, but on her long-term career plan.

“Since transitioning into the program, I have changed my major in college. I was studying nursing, but now I’m going for wildlife biology. Being an RA has definitely influenced what I want to do,” said Britney. “I was in classes for nursing and I hated it. I hated every second of all my classes. I wasn’t into it, I didn’t want to learn it.”

After expressing her feelings about her classes to her supervisor at the Forest, Britney was given the opportunity to go out into the forest to see if a career in conservation was right for her.

“So that’s when I had a field day with one of the wildlife biologists. After that, I knew this is what I want to do. It’s something that actually makes me happy.”

Courtney Fernelius is a recent alum of the Resource Assistants Program. Before becoming an RA, Courtney studied recreation management and landscape architecture at Utah State University. As an RA, Courtney researched recreation trends and issues within Utah’s forests. This research allowed her to do week-long forest visits across Utah. These trips involved directly interacting with the Forest Service staff to address specific recreation needs. These forest visits, along with additional research, lead Courtney to create around 20 research papers. These papers were ultimately distributed to the different forests and utilized when developing each forest’s individual recreation plan.

 

“One of the best parts of being an RA was going to different national forests. I really liked to see all the different resources that are out there. I also got to meet so many different people who work on the forests. They would share their experiences with me and tell me about paths they have taken to get where they are now. I just loved that interaction.”

 

As for what she’s doing now, Courtney is working for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under funding from American Conservation Experience (ACE).

 

Both Britney and Courtney found that being a Resource Assistant has influenced their career trajectory. Both of them are actively pursuing careers in conservation and resource management.

9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance 2018

September 11 is known as “Patriot Day” or the “National Day of Service and Remembrance.” It is a time when Americans honor the lives lost in the terrorist attacks of 2001 by coming together to volunteer and make our communities stronger.

Every day, young adults at America’s Service and Conservation Corps engage in service to our communities and public lands. On September 11, Corps often coordinate or participate in neighborhood volunteer events or activities to honor those affected by the events of 9/11/01. Here are just a few ways member organizations of The Corps Network participated in this year’s National Day of Service and Remembrance.

 

Arizona Conservation Corps

In Flagstaff, Arizona, Arizona Conservation Corps engaged with community members at the Flagstaff Food Bank. They teamed up with the Flagstaff Family Food Center to assist in food relief efforts for the Flagstaff community. This involved emptying, flattening, and crushing 10 small dumpster loads of recyclable materials and crushing 2 bundles of plastic and cardboard for food bank recycling program. Additionally, the Corps organized a food drive to benefit first responders and will be ongoing all month.
In Tucson, Arizona, another crew teamed up with the University of Arizona Mathematics Mentoring Program. They brought together the community in a full day of STEM related activities. These activities included: balloon racing, drawing with a swing, chemical reactions with eggs, and wind sculptures. This event opened with a few words by Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and brought together over 60 members of the community.

The Earth Conservation Corps

On a rainy morning in Washington, District of Columbia, Earth Conservation Corps spent their Day of Service and Remembrance by presenting a raptor education show for the cadets at Capital Guardian Youth ChalleNGe Academy.

Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps

In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Opportunity Youth Service Initiative (OYSI) Corpsmembers at the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps attended 9/11 events hosted by the Milwaukee Fire Department and Milwaukee County War Memorial Center.

Louisiana Conservation Corps a program of American YouthWorks & SBP

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, AmeriCorps members with Louisiana Conservation Corps and SBP Baton Rouge teamed up to assemble over 7,000 emergency preparedness supply kits to ensure senior citizens are prepared for hurricane season. A crew with Louisiana Conservation Corps also built a wheelchair ramp at a retired firefighter’s home.

Maine Conservation Corps

In Canaan, Maine, Maine Conservation Corps brought together over 70 Corpsmembers, along with staff and community volunteers, to Lake George Regional Park to volunteer in remembrance of victims, survivors, and those who served in response to the attacks. The focus of the volunteer project was to make improvements to trails to provide recreation opportunities for visitors. Click here to learn more about this project via FOX ABC Maine

Rocky Mountain Conservancy

In Estes Park, Colorado, Rocky Mountain Conservancy and local volunteers completed a project with Rocky Mountain National Park fire crews. The project supported wildland fire crews’ efforts to reduce the fuel load from areas surrounding trailheads, roads, and campgrounds. This valuable work helps protect visitors, promotes healthy and diverse ecosystems, and mitigates risk to firefighters. Read more about this project on their blog.

Texas Conservation Corps a program of American YouthWorks

In Houston, Texas, an AmeriCorps Opportunity Youth Service Initiative (OYSI) crew with Texas Conservation Corps spent their Day of Service at the Indiangrass Preserve with Katy Prairie Conservancy. They worked to remove invasive Verbena brasiliensis.
Meanwhile, in Austin, Texas, two crews helped facilitate the Pleasant Valley annual Memorial 9/11 Stair Climb. Over 30 firefighters with Austin Fire Department each climbed 110 flights of stairs, in full fire gear, to represent the height of the twin towers. The Texas Conservation Corps crews assisted the firefighters with putting on their gear and helped set up and breakdown the event.

Utah Conservation Corps

In Logan, Utah, Utah Conservation Corps spent the Day of Service and Remembrance at the UCC Urban Community Farm. They hosted community volunteers and worked together to harvest and control weeds.

Western Colorado Conservation Corps

In Clifton, Colorado, Corpsmembers with Western Colorado Conservation Corps worked towards advancing and restoring riparian lands. This project involved removing invasive plants, re-vegetation planting, caging plants to protect from predation, and general site maintenance.

Youth Conservation Corps

In the City of Waukegan, Opportunity Youth Service Initiative (OYSI) AmeriCorps members participated in a full day of projects and engaged with local volunteers and law enforcement. Following a memorial ceremony at Fireman’s Memorial Park, a beach cleanup was conducted in conjunction with first responders from the Waukegan Police Department.

Taking Nature Black


Panelists at second Taking Nature Black conference (Left to Right: Chancee Lundy, Teri Brezner, Tina Smith, Beattra Wilson. Photo courtesy of Audubon Naturalist Society)

The following is part of the Moving Forward Initiative blog series.
By Allison Puglisi
Ph.D. Candidate, American Studies, Harvard University
On February 28, 2018—the last day of Black History Month—Mustafa Santiago Ali took the floor at the Taking Nature Black conference in Maryland. He had an unusual question for the audience: “By a show of hands, in the last sixty seconds, how many folks have taken a breath of air? Hold your hand up if you’ve taken a breath of air.”

The audience, laughing, raised their hands.

“When we breathe in,” said Ali, “we expect to be receiving something positive to our bodies.” He listed a number of cities with severe air pollution and told the group, “we have far too many communities across our country who are still battling every day for a breath of fresh air.”

Ali, Senior Vice President of Climate, Environmental Justice, & Community Revitalization for the Hip Hop Caucus, was one of 21 speakers at Taking Nature Black. The one-day conference, which is in its second year, is hosted by the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS) at their headquarters in Chevy Chase, MD. This year, the conference filled to capacity just three weeks after registration opened. More than 200 people attended—double the number at the first conference in 2016. https://www.anshome.org/2017/11/taking-nature-black-2016  

The conference featured performers, professors, riverkeepers, engineers, inventors, lawyers, public officials, and consultants—all of whom work on environmental issues. Speakers discussed the environmental problems facing communities of color, and what today’s environmentalists can learn from black farmers and conservationists in history. They challenged the idea that urban communities lack nature or wildlife, andencouraged conference-goers to look close to home for interactions with nature.

The conference also addressed environmental activism and careers. Speakers discussed how to make racial justice a more central part of environmentalism, shared experiences from the workforce, and offered strategies to impact the political process—as well as build “green” careers. https://anshome.org/2018/01/tnb-topics-2018/


Kim Lambert of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a sponsor of the Taking Nature Black event.

Perhaps most importantly, Taking Nature Black brought together a group of people often excluded from the environmental movement. Caroline Brewer, conference chair and Director of Marketing and Communications for the ANS, says Taking Nature Black is an “opportunity to share and celebrate African American contributions to the environment. Rarely do you see African Americans represented, and yet we have this long-standing history.”

That history spans farming, conservation, environmental activism, and many other traditions.

After centuries of being forced to cultivate land under slavery, and being exploited as sharecroppers, many African Americans bought land and continued farming on their own terms. To this day, farming remains a tool for African Americans to sustain their communities and preserve their family histories. Over the last several decades, hundreds of thousands of black farmers have lost their land to scams, government discrimination, and development. Farmers who still own land are working to keep it amid rising costs.

This is what “taking nature black” means to Joseph James. James is founder and president of Agri-Tech Producers, a company that remediates polluted soil by growing special biocrops. Preserving black landownership is particularly important to James, whose company is based in South Carolina. As an innovator and entrepreneur, he has been active in political discussions about land, agriculture, and energy. At Taking Nature Black, he spoke on a panel about engaging elected officials.

In addition to farming and agriculture, African Americans have been crucial to environmental activism. In the 1910s, the National Association for Colored Women (NACW) led public awareness campaigns on health issues like garbage disposal and insect-borne diseases. Later on, at the height of the Jim Crow era, black Americans fought to access the parks, beaches, and swimming pools that so many white nature enthusiasts already enjoyed. Many pools did not allow black swimmers at all, but some allowed them on designated days. At the end of the day, they would empty and refill the pool with new water before reopening it to white patrons.

After civil rights activists won integration and ended practices like these, many of them turned their attention to the problem of oil, chemicals, and toxic waste. They demanded, and continue to demand, that waste dumps and other hazards be removed from minority communities.

As these moments show, African Americans have long advocated for the environment: through civil rights organizations, religious institutions, and family farms. On the other hand, mainstream environmental groups did not always address African Americans’ needs or include them as full participants. Rather than confront that difficult history, some still assume African Americans have no interest in the outdoors—or concern for the earth.

“Taking Nature Black disrupts that perception,” says Karen Driscoll, who spoke at this year’s conference. Driscoll is a Senior Associate at the Raben Group and also works with Green 2.0, an initiative to strengthen diversity at environmental NGOs, foundations, and government agencies. At Taking Nature Black this February, Driscoll joined two other panelists for a discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion in environmentalism. For Driscoll, diversity is about more than filling a room with people: “It means making a commitment to do your work differently,” she said.

The ANS and organizations like it are part of this changing landscape. The ANS was originally founded in Washington, D.C. in 1897 for the conservation of birds. Today, it also serves the needs and interests of the Washington, D.C. area by providing environmental education.

As environmental organizations address their pasts and work to increase diversity, their members and partners interrogate the meaning of the word “diversity.” Brewer suggests that although people often think of diversity in raw numbers, numbers mean less if minorities are expected to simply “blend in.”

This year’s conference was not about blending in. It was an opportunity to confront racist histories, reclaim forgotten legacies, and bring together future leaders.

 

For your Consideration:

  • Do a quick web search for “green jobs,” or glance at the short bios of this year’s Taking Nature Black speakers (https://anshome.org/taking-nature-black/). What do you find? What do these careers have in common?
  • On its conference page, the Audubon Naturalist Society writes, “Diversity and inclusion are actually two very different concepts, but their impacts in the workplace and the larger society are more profound when the two are implemented together. In fact, diversity is essentially meaningless without inclusion.” What do you think? How are diversity and inclusion different?

Farming as a Political Act: The Connection between African-Americans and Land – Part 2

Blog by Ashley McNeil, Communications Assistant

For centuries, the connection between African-Americans and agriculture was tainted by the institution of slavery and the exploitative labor systems that continued in the years following the abolition of slavery. Even as African-Americans gained the right to own land, there were – and continue to be – institutional policies and practices that work against black farmers and land owners. In the modern day, however, farming has become a way for African-Americans to reclaim a piece of history and promote community health and healing. In this two-part series, we will explore what it means to be a black farmer. We will discuss history (Part I), as well as the modern black farming movement (Part II), by uncovering stories of heritage, lost and reclaimed. 

 

PART II: Back to the Land 
 

Modern Farmer
Engineer-turned-farmer Chris Newman left fast-paced Washington, D.C. for the quiet hills of Charlottesville, VA. In D.C., long hours and fast food halted his quest for a healthier life; he wanted to get outside and move around. Now, living on his farm in the country, he is healthier, eats dairy products again, and enjoys rising with the sun. Newman and his wife raise pigs, ducks, and chickens.

“Because I grow all this stuff, I tend to eat it. I don’t eat at Popeye’s anymore. I think it’s disgusting. I used to love Popeye’s. Now I can’t eat that crap,” Newman said.

The transition from engineering to farming was more a political act than for personal gain. Newman hopes to encourage other people of color to become farmers. He advocates for sustainable farm practices that enable access to healthy food for all communities. His main goal is to fix the system to be more inclusive: farming is more than 90 percent white and the second whitest job in the country. Visibility of African-Americans in this field is somewhat nonexistent.

“You go into Whole Foods around here, you don’t see black people; you go to farmers markets, don’t see that many black people; you go to farms, don’t see any black people.”

Newman suggests money and continued racism are the pitfall of inclusivity in farming. Newman’s produce is expensive: eggs sell for $5 a dozen. This price tag comes from the fact that his farm is completely organic, chemical, and preservative free. His animals fertilize the soil: the healthiest way to grow crops. Newman is quick to acknowledge his food is not affordable or accessible for everyone. In the United States, accessing fresh, healthy food can be particularly challenging for people living in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Lack of access to healthy food limits overall physical health. According to author Alan Yu, “African Americans are one and a half times as likely to be obese than white people, and they eat fewer vegetables than other racial groups.”

In this new profession, Newman has experienced racism and prejudice first hand. The cops were called on him when he delivered food to customers, and when he pulled over in a white neighborhood to eat his lunch. As he puts it, this is just part of  farming while black. Even so, Newman continues to address the lack of diversity among farmers by hiring interns, prioritizing the recruitment of women and people of color from underrepresented communities.

“It’s about recognizing that there are barriers there for them that there aren’t for other people and that we need that lift, because the world is not our oyster,” he said.

Newman’s hard work paid off: last year his farm broke even. He hopes his story will be an example to people of color that they too can succeed in an industry that has previously taken not only their land, but their connection to the land.

 

Next Generation
Many black people have strayed from farming because of the legacy of land grabbing and forced labor. In an interview with VICE Impact, Walker Marsh, founder of Tha Flower Factory, a Baltimore initiative to grow local herbs and flowers, stated, “I used to equate land work to slavery. But the first day I started farming, I realized this was not slavery at all. When you can go out and create something, that’s true freedom to me.”

Marsh is one of many black farmers who have new joy in farming and use this work to diversify and reclaim a practice once corrupted with injustice.

According to black famers and activists alike, the revitalization of farming in the African-American community lies in the hands of youth. In partnership with the Chrysler Foundation, the National Black Farmers Association grants scholarships to encourage young people to get involved in farming.

“You don’t see black farmers,” said Marsh. “We don’t know what a black farmer looks like. When I was a kid, I pictured an old white dude with a pitchfork on a tractor. But now that I’ve been doing it, I’ve met black farmers I look up to.”

Representation and visibility are key to improving the number of African-American farmers. Local farmers Xavier Brown, Boe Luther, and Wallace Kirby, founders of Hustlaz to Harvesters, offer the formerly incarcerated a way out of poverty by introducing them to urban agriculture careers through the Dix Street community garden in Washington, D.C. The farm was created through the urban agricultural initiative Soilful City. Thirty-two garden beds serve the predominantly African-American community of Clay Terrace, home to 70,000 people. Like most low-income African-American communities, access to healthy, fresh produce was limited: there’s only one large grocery store. Most of these communities are food deserts. Through the garden, the community was rebuilt. Connection to healthy produce and cultural heritage were regained.

 “Afro-ecology is reorientation of our connection to the land, an organizing principle, and the way we express our culture while we grow food and grow healthy people.” – Xavier Brown

 

 

Community Farming 
A number of Corps engage in urban farming or have created community gardens to provide healthy produce to communities in need and train a young, more diverse generation of farmers.

Green City Force
Since 2012, Green City Force has worked with New York City Housing Authority to bring urban farming to low income communities. The Farms at NYCHA program is part of Building Healthy Communities (BHC), a city-wide partnership focused on improving health outcomes in 12 neighborhoods throughout the city. The farms, which are located on NYCHA properties, are designed to bring organic produce to food deserts and promote sustainable living in public housing communities. Their presence is intended to encourage residents to engage in local green spaces and start important conversations about food and environmental justice. The Corpsmembers who grow the food and maintain the gardens are also all NYCHA residents. Through the program, they gain valuable leadership and job skills.

Covering a total of five acres, the NYCHA farms have transformed formerly underutilized areas in low-income communities into lush green spaces that encourage active living and healthy eating. The farms project a spirit of togetherness; fruits and vegetables are distributed to public housing residents in exchange for volunteer time or household compost; over 20,000 residents benefit from this program.

Civic Works
Civic Works’ Real Food Farm initiative works towards a just and sustainable food system by improving access to food, providing education, and developing an economically viable and economically responsible local agriculture sector. Corpsmembers at Civic Works help transform abandoned lots throughout the city of Baltimore into community gardens and green spaces. They also grown local fresh food by managing an eight-acre farm at Clifton Park. Food access in the city is improved through the Corps’ Mobile Farmers Market, a converted delivery truck that sells fresh fruit and vegetables at community gathering locations, like schools and libraries. Since 2009, over 60,000 of food has been grown and over 3,000 people have been educated about gardening, sustainable agriculture and healthy eating.

Los Angeles Conservation Corps
From 2013 – 2017, the Little Green Fingers program, made possible through a grant from First 5 LA, sought to address the growing obesity epidemic in Los Angeles County by providing access to fresh fruit and vegetables to young at-risk children in low-income communities that are also considered “food deserts.” The goal was to help children and their families lead healthier lives and maintain healthier weights.

The LA Conservation Corps and partner organizations worked closely with the community to plan a garden. They considered everything from its layout, to amenities in the garden, to what crops to grow. Families applied to join the garden and played an active role in its construction.

Once constructed, Corpsmembers handled the final details – like ensuring the irrigation system worked, installing fencing, and constructing children’s play equipment – before handing over care of the garden to the community; many garden’s are still run by communities today.

 

For African-Americans, reclaiming connection to the land is, in fact, a political act. Instead of walking away from farming, and its history of hatred and discrimination, today’s community of African-American farmers recognize the past, and realize the importance of participating in building a future agricultural system that is inclusive, empowering, and capable of making healthy food more sustainable and accessible.

Resources 

All sources cited in this piece can be found in the Moving Forward Initiative Resource Library.
 

For your consideration

  1. The vast majority of farm owners are white. What steps should be taken to generate more diversity and inclusivity in farming? How do we move forward?
    • ​In what ways (if any) do you believe our agricultural system might be affected if farm ownership were more diverse?
       
  2. Newman states “farming while black” can be difficult. Why do you think there is a stigma around black farmers?
    • ​Does unconscious bias play a role?
       
  3. In the last few years, community farming in low-income communities has boomed. What benefits could community farming bring to any community, not just low-income neighborhoods?
     

 

 

Farming as a Political Act: The Connection between African-Americans and Land

Blog by Ashley McNeil, Communications Assistant
 

For centuries, the connection between African-Americans and agriculture was tainted by the institution of slavery and the exploitative labor systems that continued in the years following the abolition of slavery. Even as African-Americans gained the right to own land, there were – and continue to be – institutional policies and practices that work against black farmers and land owners. In the modern day, however, farming has become a way for African-Americans to reclaim a piece of history and promote community health and healing. In this two-part series, we will explore what it means to be a black farmer. We will discuss history (Part I), as well as the modern black farming movement (Part II), by uncovering stories of heritage, lost and reclaimed. 

Part I: A Legacy of Loss and Exploitation
 

Would you believe me if I told you that farming is a political act for African-Americans?

As said by Leah Penniman, a farmer and activist, “You can’t go through hundreds of years of enslavement and sharecropping and tenant farming and convict leasing and not have that trauma get imprinted into your DNA and your cultural history.”

Penniman, Co-Director of Soul Fire Farm in Upstate New York, is a prominent figure in the conversation about diversifying the farming community and reconnecting people to the land. Through accepting food stamps and supporting customers who can’t pay every week, Soul Fire Farm developed a progressive system to feed hundreds in the community. In addition, Penniman offers workshops focused on basic farming skills, healing people and the land, and understanding the history between black people and farming in the United States. The act of farming, as well as teaching and understanding the history of black farmers, is a source of liberation.

“We are in a moment where Black and Brown people are ready to reclaim our right to belong to the Earth and ready to reclaim our place and agency in the food system.” – Leah Penniman, pictured right

 

History of Exploitation

Farming for African-Americans is tainted with a history of racism and discrimination. During the centuries of enslavement, African-Americans harvested cash crops like tobacco, cotton, and sugar. In addition to their labor, the knowledge of enslaved Africans was also exploited. According to Judith Carney, author of Black Rice, the enslaved people who worked on rice plantations in South Carolina helped create one of the most profitable economies of the 18th century. European settlers, who did not know how to grow rice or millet, could not have achieved this on their own; they relied on the skills of enslaved persons, who brought knowledge of these grains from Africa. Other popular crops brought from Africa to the U.S. include coffee, watermelon, black-eyed peas, and okra.

Post-enslavement, black farmers continued to face injustices, beginning with the failed promise of, “forty acres and a mule,” the federal government’s attempt to distribute land to freed African-Americans.

The idea behind “forty acres and a mule” started during the Civil War, when blacks cultivated land abandoned by whites throughout the South. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln ordered 20,000 acres of abandoned Confederate land be sold to freedmen in 20-acre parcels. Salmon Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, expanded the parcel to 40 acres and agreed to loan army mules to freedmen. By 1865, 40,000 formerly enslaved persons lived on 400,000 acres of coastal land in South Carolina and Georgia. There were indications Congress would expand this program when they authorized the Freedmen’s Bureau to divide additional confiscated lands into small parcels to sell to African-Americans and loyal Southern whites. However, President Andrew Johnson intervened, ordering most of the confiscated land be returned to its former owners, despite how the land had already been settled by African-Americans.

This was the first of many practices crippling African-Americans’ access to land. The Southern Homestead Act, which created a program to help poor tenant farmers and share-croppers acquire land, offered land prices that were still too expensive for most freedmen. Additionally, the development of Black Codes, restrictive laws that forced African Americans into oppressive labor contracts and servant positions, greatly limited hopes of economic prosperity.

For African-Americans who did not own land, the practices of sharecropping and tenant farming were essentially another form of slavery. In sharecropping, landowners (who were primarily white) assigned families land to farm in exchange for food, shelter, clothing, and farming equipment. When the land was harvested, and goods sold, owners deducted a “furnishing” tax for room and board, giving the meager amount of remaining cash to the African-American farmers. By 1930, there were 1,831,470 tenant farmers in the South.

Despite the laws and systems working against them, African-Americans had accrued some 15 million acres of land by the 1920’s. Most of this land was in the South in “low lands” – areas by rivers and swamps that had been abandoned or deemed undesirable by whites. Much of this land was used for farming: at the time, 925,000 farms in the U.S. were black-owned. For generations, however, this number has dwindled. Land has been taken, sold illegally or deviously schemed from black property owners.

 

Land Grab

“If we don’t have our land, we don’t have our family. This is the battle we’re in now.”
– Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation
 

Roosevelt Simmons (pictured right) of South Carolina is one of many victims of land grabbing. Simmons’ family owned 54 acres on Johns Island for more than three generations, but part of the property was sold last year. The sad reality is that Simmons had been trying to get a title for his land since 1999; the parcel was previously owned by his grandmother and had been in her name. Although he worked with numerous lawyers and spent thousands of dollars immersed in legal battles, the property was sold, without his consent, due to arguments that a “false heir” had claimed it. Offered a mere $50,000 for his share of the land, Simmons continues to fight to get his property back.

According to Barney Blakeney of the Charleston Chronicle, stories like Mr. Simmons’ are common.

“…the impressive number of Black farmers and rural landowners would drastically decrease over the 20th century. During that century, some 600,000 Black farmers were forced off their lands. The Nation reported that by 1975, only 45,000 Black-owned farmers remained,” said Blakeney.

For many years, black farmers protested and filed suit over these discriminatory practices. In 1999, 40,000 farmers filed a discrimination lawsuit against the federal government, claiming denial of loans. Overtime, the government recognized these injustices. In 2010, President Obama signed into law a settlement that would repay $1.2 billion to about 18,000 farmers; payments of $62,500 began in 2013. This was the second time black farmers received payments from the government. In 1999, several farmers received funding from a class-action lawsuit over claims of discrimination by federal officials who denied them loans and aid because of their ethnicity.* 

In parts of South Carolina, where Mr. Simmons is from, a main force driving African-Americans off their land hasn’t necessarily been the denial of loans, but the development of coastal properties.

Gullah/Geechee, descendants of West African slaves, work to preserve their cultural practices to this day. Brought to the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the 1700s, the Gullah/Geechee worked on rice fields, cotton fields, and indigo plantations on fertile lands in a similar climate to their homeland. Post-enslavement, they settled in remote villages, forming strong communal ties and a rich history.

Not long ago, the Gullah people inhabited all of Hilton Head Island. The Gullah people thrived in isolation, free of the Jim Crow South. Economic prosperity was finally attained, but, throughout the 1950s – 1990s, the development of high-priced waterfront properties displaced many Gullah people, threatening their history and culture. Some families lost their land due to high taxes, but, according to Leah Douglas of The Nation, many in the community lost their property for a variety of other reasons, including land partition sales, auctions and forced sales by developers, or schemes by partial owners to convince majority-owners to sell the property for a fraction of its value. There was a time where the Gullah accounted for 90 percent of the population across Hilton Head, compared to just 10 percent today.

“The property that we owned was prime property,” says Alex Brown, a Gullah native and chair of the island’s planning commission. “Over time, it’s been sold and traded and stolen.”

Landgrabbers fail to realize that the loss of land is far more than just an exchange of property. Cultural heritage, family legacies, and generational economic opportunity are taken.

*The National Action Network and National Black Farmers Association continue to fight against unfair loans, land grabbing, and other discriminatory practices in agriculture.

 

Parker Family

My family have been the target of land grabbing attempts as well. Over the last 175 years, my family has owned 35 acres of land in King George, Virginia. My great-great grandparents purchased the property with the intention to live on and work the land. The land is currently owned by my grandfather and his four siblings (who are all alive – ages 85 to 90). For generations, my family has raised children, produce, and countless memories there, but we have also been met with turmoil. I remember as a child, my grandfather talked about how developers offered to buy the land at a price that undercut the value of it, hoping he would fall for a scam. Because of this, my family has been proactive in paying taxes and having accurate titles on the land, just in case we are met with questions of ownership or fraud, like Mr. Simmons.

Whether he’s tending to the yard or talking with neighbors, my grandfather still spends most of his time outdoors. Although we don’t live on a farm, every summer he builds a garden in our backyard. He plants sweet potatoes, corn, kale, tomatoes, bell peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe, squash, you name it. He loves getting his hands dirty and watching the fruits of his labor come to life. I often wondered why he enjoyed spending so much time outdoors, but I now see the connection. His time working, living, and cultivating his family’s land brought him great joy. His early connection to land and nature has continued throughout his life. This connection could one day be lost. We are currently in talks to sell our land. My grandfather and his siblings are getting older and taxes on our property continue to rise. Selling a piece of family history is devastating, but ultimately might be necessary.

While activists like Penniman use farming as a political act to reclaim connection to the land that was once lost, land ownership for my grandfather and Mr. Simmons is a connection to family lineage. Without both, each story becomes a fragment of history and time.

 

RESOURCES

All sources cited in this piece can be found in the Moving Forward Initiative Resource Library.
Photos are linked to their source. 

 

For your consideration

As you read this blog, here are some questions for you to consider:

  1. African-Americans have played an enormous role in building our country’s agricultural system. How can we recognize these contributions? Where do we begin?
     
  2. The agricultural system, and society as a whole, continue to harbor racism. How do we promote one’s agency in a racist system?
     
  3. In what ways might the false promise of “forty acres and a mule” continue to hinder black farmers? How might farming – or society in general – be different in this country had a program like forty acres and a mule succeeded in giving freed African-Americans land and a livelihood? 
     
  4. Regarding the 2010 settlement in which the U.S. government agreed to pay $1.2 billion to 18,000 farmers who sought justice for discriminatory practices at the Department of Agriculture:
    1. Do you believe the $1.2 billion payout helped or hindered this community of farmers?
    2. Do you believe the farmers should have received land instead of money?
    3. Why weren’t farmers given the option to choose land or money?
       
  5. How can the practice of land grabbing be prohibited in the future? Is this something that can’t be fixed?
     
  6. In about forty years’ time, Hilton Head witnessed the erasure of a culture. How do we reconcile with these circumstances? Should the Gullah community receive some sort of payout as well?
     
  7. When we visit a new place, we might not fully understand or appreciate the history of its people and cultures. How can we better educate society about the ways in which cultures are tied to land and place?
     
  8. Do you have any familial ties to land? What would you do if you were faced with selling your property? Would you try to keep it, or would you sell?
     

Points for further research and consideration:

  • Do some research on the Freedmen’s Bureau. What was its significance for African-Americans after the Civil War? What role did it play in land distribution?
     
  • The blog discusses “forty acres and a mule.”  Early after the Civil War, land confiscated from Confederates was distributed to freedmen. President Andrew Johnson intervened and ordered that the vast majority of this land be returned to its former owners. Compare this to the Homestead Act of 1866, which was designed to give sharecroppers and other poor families access to land, but failed due to high prices that kept land ownership out of reach for many of the people the program was designed to help. What are your thoughts on both polices/programs? What are the underlying reasons why these programs didn’t work? What could have been done differently to make them succeed?
     
  • George Washington Carver is widely known as the Peanut Farmer, but his agricultural contributions are enormous, including his research into Crop Rotation and the “biological regeneration of the soil through the Nitrogen Cycle.” Dr. Carver looked to address the stripping of the soil as a result of cotton planting. Take a look at this article and note some of his other contributions: https://www.farmproject.org/blog/2017/2/4/hikqys8igvv0bo368aco3mrb1rv7d1
     
  • Research the role of other black inventors in America’s agricultural advances, including the contributions of Frederick McKinley Jones, who patented the refrigerated truck in 1940, which allowed for the shipping of produce over long distances. See what you can find and discover for yourself the “hidden history” of black inventors and farmers.
     
  • The Gullah/Geechee people have been featured in mainstream culture. For example, many of you may remember the Nickelodeon show, “Gullah Gullah Island.”  Additionally, the Gullah/Geechee’s rich history was chronicled in the 1991 film, “Daughters of the Dust.”  Beyond these mainstream cultural artifacts, what else can you find out about the Gullah people of today?