Although the political and environmental landscape around environmental challenges is constantly shifting, Detroit’s creativity and perseverance make it a model for other communities facing similar threats. 

BridgeDetroit and the University of Michigan Detroit Center on Feb. 19 brought together passionate grassroots activists, advocates and organizers to discuss solutions for air quality, water affordability and environmental justice issues. 

Moderated by BridgeDetroit environment reporter Jena Brooker, the event featured panelists Monica Lewis-Patrick and Aurora Harris of We the People of Detroit, KT Morelli of Breathe Free Detroit, Owólabi Aboyade (Will See) of Creative Calabash, Nick Leonard from the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and Shalanda Baker, vice provost at the University of Michigan. 

It was the third “Workshop of Democracy” session held by the two organizations. The first focused on food sovereignty and urban agriculture; the second talked about community benefits, land trusts and equitable economic development. 

Each panelist traced their journey into the work of environmental justice. Though they followed different paths, all made it clear that environmental issues in Detroit are inseparable from social justice and civil rights concerns. Harris traced her activism to her family’s struggle for food security. Her father was Black and from Detroit, and his parents were early converts to the Nation of Islam. Her mother was a Filipina who survived being a prisoner of war.

“My mother was running from bombs with seeds of rice in her pocket—to save them, to plant on any available land,” she said. 

Morelli described living “in the shadow of the incinerator” in Detroit, fighting pollution not just for clean air, but for democracy itself, “learning as much as I could about the incinerator and sharing that with my neighbors.” 

Aboyade recounted his early organizing around water shutoffs during the period of emergency management and bankruptcy, explaining, “The struggle for human rights was a struggle for a different type of society.” 

Lewis-Patrick, also known as “The Water Warrior,” called Detroit’s water affordability crisis a “canary in the mine,” and stated that connecting to the United Nations human rights agenda was a key achievement of the movement. 

Leonard explained that legal fights for environmental justice required “a lot of courage and faith,” as neighborhood residents are often aligned against powerful industry and skeptical officials. 

Referencing the battle scars she gained while working in the Biden Administration as the country’s first deputy director for energy justice, Baker expressed concern that big, top-down infrastructure projects to develop green energy could repeat old patterns of exclusion.

In discussing obstacles they had faced, Harris recalled the impact of market privatization on local farmers, while Morelli highlighted how waste privatization created a disconnect between workers and public health. Aboyade noted that gentrification complicated activism, and Lewis-Patrick stressed the importance of using art and culture to fight the “master narrative” about Detroit that has circulated for decades. Leonard discussed how legal battles revealed the law’s frequent inability to protect marginalized communities.

Among victories, panelists celebrated the closure of Detroit’s incinerator, a recently announced $100 million settlement with DTE and the power of community research that empowered youth with GIS mapping tools to track environmental harm in real time. 

“We deputize ourselves; no one is coming to save us,” Lewis-Patrick said. “We are winning more than we are losing. We just need to talk to the right people.”

Harris advised that people cultivate relationships, embrace creativity, and practice self-care to sustain their activism over the long haul. 

“Rest is revolutionary,” Harris said. “You can’t heal people if the healer is sick.”

Baker said that the federal administration’s current assault on environmental justice gives fuel to those who are fighting back.

“The power of us organizing is so threatening that they would rather raze it, burn it all down, than let us succeed,” she said. “When we are whole and united and connected, we are unstoppable.”