Sierra Club President 2015-2017, on Heritage, Stewardship, and Environmental Justice
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Oral History Center University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Aaron Mair Aaron Mair: Sierra Club President 2015-2017, on Heritage, Stewardship, and Environmental Justice Sierra Club Oral History Project Interviews conducted by Roger Eardley-Pryor, Ph.D. in 2018 Portions of this interview are sealed by Aaron Mair until January 1, 2045. This interview was supported by the vision and generosity of the Sierra Club Foundation and the William E. Colby Memorial Library Copyright © 2020 by The Regents of the University of California Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley ii Since 1953 the Oral History Center of The Bancroft Library, formerly the Regional Oral History Office, has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Aaron Mair dated November 15, 2018. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Excerpts up to 1,000 words from this interview may be quoted for publication without seeking permission as long as the use is non-commercial and properly cited. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to The Bancroft Library, Head of Public Services, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should follow instructions available online at http://ucblib.link/OHC-rights. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Aaron Mair, “Aaron Mair: Sierra Club President 2015-2017, on Heritage, Stewardship, and Environmental Justice” conducted by Roger Eardley- Pryor in 2018, Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2020. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley iii Aaron Mair at the Sierra Club's office in Albany, New York, November 2018. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley iv Aaron Mair and oral history interviewer Roger Eardley-Pryor at Mair's family homestead near Traveler's Rest, South Carolina, November 2018. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley v Abstract Aaron Mair is a leader in the environmental justice movement and was elected as the 57th president and first African-American president of the Sierra Club from 2015-2017. Mair was born on November 27, 1960, and grew up in Peekskill, New York. In 1984, Mair earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton University, which included studying at The American University in Cairo, Egypt. Mair trained at Rhode Island's Naval Education and Training Center, and in 1988, he departed from SUNY Binghamton's Political Science Doctoral Program to work for the New York State Department of Health in Albany, where he is currently an epidemiological-spatial analyst. In 1998, after a decade-long campaign that closed the toxic ANSWERS (Albany New York Solid Waste to Energy Recovery System) solid waste incinerator, Mair won a $1.4 million federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act settlement with New York State, which he used to create two nonprofit environmental justice and community service organizations. After joining the Sierra Club in 1999, Mair held leadership positions at every level: in the Hudson Mohawk Group of the Atlantic Chapter; as chapter chair of the Atlantic Chapter; as chair of the National Diversity Council and of National Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships; as an elected member to the national Sierra Club board of directors in 2014 and in 2019; and as president of the Sierra Club from 2015-2017. Mair has four daughters, three with his first wife, and one with his current wife. In this oral history, Mair discusses his genealogical research into his family's ancestry; his childhood along the Hudson River; his education; his career with the New York State Department of Health, including as a 9/11 emergency responder; his three- decades of work in the environmental justice movement; and his two-decades of leadership in the Sierra Club, particularly on issues of equity, inclusion, and justice. Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley vi Table of Contents Interview History by Roger Eardley-Pryor, Ph.D. xv Sierra Club Oral History Project History xxiii List of Interviews of the Sierra Club Oral History Project xxvii Interview 1: November 10, 2018 Hour 1 1 Born November 27, 1960 in Valhalla, New York — Growing up in the Hudson Highlands — Family genealogy and tracking heritage — Family connections to South Carolina, and Hagood Mill in Pickens County — Joseph LeConte and scientific racism — Helderberg Mountains connection between Mair and LeConte — Environmentalism and race — Ancestry of enslaved Africans — Culture, custom, and heritage amid slavery — Faith and the Golden Grove Baptist Church — Benjamin Hagood — Wendell Berry on the crisis of agriculture — The "saves" in environmental organizations — Stewardship and inclusion of humanity in environmentalism — Cultural connections to the land — Parents, Arnold Mair and Margaret Elizabeth McKenzie, family histories — Research in historic court, will, and tax records — Context of marriage between Mary Edens and Zion McKenzie — Common features of naming in the institution of slavery — Little Africa and the Ballenger and Foster families — Churches as repositories for complex land ownership arrangements — Zion McKenzie's son, "Uncle Andy," a photographer — Family reunions in Traveler's Rest, South Carolina — Efforts for education in Mair's family — Alex Haley's Roots — Great-grandfather William Barry McKenzie and other primary sources — Zion McKenzie like Moses leading an Exodus — Slave appraisal process — How Zion accumulated land — McKenzie family naturalists — Hagood family wealth — Jefferson Davis, the Stoneman raids, and Caesars Head Hour 2 18 Older siblings acting as parents — Mair's 40-year search for his family's history out of slavery — Discovering the Hagood family enslaved Mair's ancestors — Place-theory method based on epidemiological spatial analysis — Hagood discovery while Sierra Club President on 15th Amendment's 150th anniversary — Dr. Martin Luther King and John Muir's ideas of interdependence — Environmental crimes and civil rights violations — Environmental racism — Broadening environmental activism — Unifying civil rights, voting rights, and labor rights — Joseph LeConte's ideology of dominion — Faith for survival — Wendell Barry's writing and stewardship — Terrorism over Zion McKenzie voting — Seeing "what can be" as well as "what will be" — National competition for Sierra Club Board of Directors — Becoming President of the Sierra Club — Preaching diverse activist ideas — Climate change as biblical plague — Pollution Oral History Center, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley vii creep —Poll tax on emancipated African Americans, tool of suppression — Policies to stereotype Blacks as criminals — Summer riots 1919 — Lacking records of institutional racism — Zion McKenzie's poll tax records to mayor of Greenville, South Carolina — Sustainable development in Greenville, South Carolina — Personal connections within the Sierra Club — Trump administration legislation and rhetoric — Creating tensions between minorities and laborers that maintain oppression — Double standards today mirror Jim Crow era — Equity firms — Large businesses that disadvantage laborers — Lack of literacy and voting against one's interests — Defunding education and other poor governance Interview 2: November 11, 2018 Hour 1 37 Travelers Rest, South Carolina — Zion McKenzie — Mother, Margaret Elizabeth McKenzie — Black communities, churches, and faith — Golden Grove church and community — Attacks on Black churches after Brown v. Board of Education — Taxes displacing Black landowners — Taxation as a tool — Dwight Eisenhower, taxation, and universal education — Middle class formed by progressive legislation — Founding of the Sierra Club — Slavery enabled upper classes to enjoy nature — Caesars Head, South Carolina — Benjamin Hagood — Propertied slave-owners using political influence to amass wealth through land- use and zoning legislature — Joseph LeConte — Grazing cattle at Caesars Head — Ecotourism, Caesars Head Inn, and slavery — Jack-of-all trades slaves and Hagood's success