Creator of the environmental justice movement talks about his work and legacy in Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Professor, author, and advocate Dr. Robert Bullard says he came into the field by accident through a boots-on-the-ground field project he assigned his grad students in the late 1970s. The task was to look at where landfills were located in the city of Houston. The result was a study that found over 80% of all garbage disposed in Houston was dumped in Black neighborhoods, even though only 25% of the population at the time was Black.

"That was my a-ha moment," Dr. Robert Bullard said. "We have something here. Houston doesn't have zoning, and Black neighborhoods historically, over 50 years, had been unofficially zoned for garbage. And that was that was my introduction to this issue of environment and justice."

Ever since, Dr. Bullard has continued to advocate for environmental equality through his books, teachings and by founding the Bullard Center for Environmental Justice. Most recently, Dr. Bullard was honored with one of Time Magazine's Earth Awards of 2024. Other notable honorees were former Secretary of State John Kerry and actress Jane Fonda.

In honor of Black History Month, ABC13 Meteorologist Elyse Smith spoke to Dr. Bullard at Texas Southern University to learn more about where the movement is now.

"Environmental justice embraces the principle that all people and communities are entitled to equal protection of our environmental laws, housing laws, transportation laws, health laws," statesDr. Bullard's definition of the subject. Houston was the birthplace of the environmental justice movement, mainly thanks to Dr. Bullard after that fateful assignment back in the late 70s.

It was then his wife, Linda McKeever Bullard, who filed the first lawsuit in the nation to challenge waste and pollution under civil rights law.

"The perception that it was okay to put landfills in Black low-income neighborhoods and black middle-income neighborhoods. (It) didn't matter what was the common denominator. (It) is that these neighborhoods were Black," Dr. Bullard said about the lawsuit. While that lawsuit didn't win in court, any new landfills that were developed in Houston since are located outside of city limits. But landfills were just the beginning of the environmental justice movement.

Today, Dr. Bullard describes how many historically Black neighborhoods on the east side of Houston are still hotspots for pollution. This is due to the number of industrial plants located in these communities. An example is the city's historic Fifth Ward, which was mentioned in Dr. Bullard's research on illegal dumping. The neighborhood is also a well-known cancer cluster, where recent soil sampling found toxic levels of lead in the ground.

"Breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and having your kids play on playgrounds are not contaminated. These are not something that's reserved for some and not for others. No community should somehow be overburdened with pollution and environmental stressors," Dr. Bullard remarked.

So when asked what the solution could be, Dr. Bullard said the way to break this cycle of injustice is through activism, by prioritizing legislation and the necessary means to help these communities. Additionally, educating those neighborhoods on how to advocate for themselves.

Finally, when asked about his legacy, Dr. Bullard chuckled, as it was a question he'd been pondering for years.

"Hopefully, it will be the work I have done as a teacher, researcher, scholar, and activist who cares about people. And never apologize for trying to get justice," he said.