New Frontiers for Title VI Walk a Mile in My Shoes
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July/August 2014 Volume 23: Number 4 New Frontiers for Title VI On this 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we are taking a forward look at Title VI of the Act, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal funds, and which also created its own administrative enforcement infra- structure in each federal agency’s “Office of Civil Rights.” As the articles below discuss, despite some serious setbacks, Title VI is adapting in new and important ways to the shifting landscape of civil rights in the 21st Century. – the editors Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Los Angeles Celebrates Anniversaries of the Civil Rights Movement Robert García “If you can’t fly then run, evokes the March on Washington for Angeles. These communities have long if you can’t run then walk, Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and the strived for equal access to public re- if you can’t walk then crawl, March on Selma that led to the Vot- sources, including parks, recreation but whatever you do, ing Rights Act of 1965. The traffic and public art. These communities have you have to keep moving forward.” island in the Baldwin Hills in African- struggled to be free of environmental Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. American Los Angeles on Rodeo Drive degradation, including sewage odors and Martin Luther King Boulevard and overflows, and the risks of urban Communities in Los Angeles are focuses on national heroes of the Civil oil fields. Although Baldwin Hills may celebrating the civil rights revolution Rights Movement, while the island a (Please turn to page 2) with public art and green space: A new mile away on Rodeo and Jefferson parks project, called “Walk a Mile in Boulevard focuses on local heroes. The My Shoes,” commemorates the move- “Walk a Mile” project is inspired in ment by honoring local and national part by the National Park Service’s In- CONTENTS: heroes. The civil rights park trans- ternational Civil Rights Walk of forms two traffic islands one mile Fame. Los Angeles celebrated the rib- TITLE VI apart from each other. The space bon-cutting for the project—the only Los Angeles CRM monument in the city dedicated to the Anniversary ............. 1 Civil Rights Movement—on June 26, EPA & Title VI ............ 3 Robert Garcia (rgarcia@city 2014. Dept. of Education .... 3 projectca.org) is Founding Director More than symbolic, the civil rights 50th Anniversary and Counsel of The City Project, and park is itself the result of the success- serves on the Community Faculty at ful civil rights and environmental jus- Civil Rights Act ......... 5 Charles Drew University. The City tice struggle for clean water justice and Letter to the Editor ..... 9 Project is a non-profit policy and le- green access in African-American and PRRAC Update .......... 11 gal advocacy team whose mission is Latino Los Angeles. The Baldwin Hills Resources ................. 12 equal justice, democracy, and livabil- and South Central Los Angeles are the ity for all. historic heart of African-American Los Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 1200 18th Street NW • Suite 200 • Washington, DC 20036 202/906-8023 • FAX: 202/842-2885 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org Recycled Paper (LOS ANGELES: from page 1) cording to EPA. Experts from around Munger, and Rice. More broadly, the world visit Los Angeles to learn Concerned Citizens of South Central be comparatively well-off financially, how the city has fixed up the sewer Los Angeles, represented by The City it is plagued by the inequality and en- system, spills and odors. Project and diverse allies, have fought vironmental injustice common to The settlement agreement calls for for over a decade to protect the com- South Central and other communities multi-benefit city green and blue park munity and the Baldwin Hills Park, that are of color or low-income. “Walk and water projects to improve the sewer the largest urban park designed in the a Mile in My Shoes” reflects the com- system citywide, clean up sewer odors, U.S. in a century. They have stopped munity struggle for both: freedom to and create park, creek and wetland a power plant in the park, stopped a enjoy the benefits of green space, and projects to improve water quality and garbage dump there, and saved the freedom from the risks of sewer odors, quality of life. These supplemental Baldwin Hills Conservancy. They spills and oil fields. environmental projects are part of the have fought in and out of court to regu- The project is the result of an epic settlement agreement. The SEP late the adjoining Baldwin Hills oil 40-year community struggle to fix the projects include the South Central L.A. fields to better protect human health sewer system citywide, and eliminate Wetlands Park, which transformed a and the environment, in an action sepa- noxious odors that plagued African- bus parking lot into green space; the rate from the Clean Water Justice case. American and Latino communities for According to the County of Los An- decades. The odors smell like rotten geles, as a result of that settlement eggs and are caused by hydrogen sul- The Civil Rights Move- agreement, the Baldwin Hills is the fide escaping from the sewers. Com- most heavily regulated oil field in the munity leaders working with civil ment is not over; it is nation. rights lawyers and the United States alive and kicking. With the ribbon-cutting for “Walk Environmental Protection Agency a Mile in My Shoes,” the Clean Wa- (EPA) reached a $2 billion court-or- ter Justice consent decree is coming to dered consent decree and agreement North Atwater Creek Park, which has an end after ten years. The City’s Bu- with the City of Los Angeles to settle helped kick off the revitalization of the reau of Sanitation, the members of the a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act. L.A. River; and the Garvanza Park Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Homeown- Civil rights attorneys intervened in the Stormwater project in Highland Park, ers’ Coalition, and The City Project action to fully represent the interests which captures and cleans one million have agreed to continue working to- of the affected community. This was gallons of rain and runoff with cisterns gether voluntarily to keep the commu- the first time the Clean Water Act was under the park that filter and replen- nity clean and green. The City and the used to address sewage odors, sepa- ish groundwater, irrigate the park, and people have learned to trust each other, rate from overflows. The Los Ange- keep polluted runoff out of the L.A. to listen to each other, and to work les sewer system is one of the largest River and the ocean. together. That is a testament to the in the U.S., making this work signifi- These green and blue projects di- transformative power of the Civil cant to the nation well beyond South- rectly benefit the community along the Rights Movement. ern California. This is one of the larg- River and in Baldwin Hills, South est sewage cases in U.S. history, ac- Central Los Angeles, Northeast L.A. and beyond. The civil rights art project The Civil Rights by artist Kim Abeles enhances those Revolution Poverty and Race (ISSN 1075-3591) communities and the city as a whole. is published six times a year by the Pov- Diverse allies helped fix the sewer The year 2014 marks major mile- erty & Race Research Action Council, system citywide to eliminate noxious stones in the Civil Rights Movement: 1200 18th Street NW, Suite 200, Wash- odors and create park and clean water It is both the 50th anniversary of the ington, DC 20036, 202/906-8023, fax: projects through the Clean Water Jus- Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 20th 202/842-2885, E-mail: [email protected]. Chester Hartman, Editor. Subscriptions tice agreement. Allies include Baldwin anniversary of Executive Order 12898 are $25/year, $45/two years. Foreign Hills/Crenshaw Homeowners’ Coali- on environmental justice and health. postage extra. Articles, article sugges- tion, Baldwin Hills Estate Home- Of more recent vintage, the Afford- tions, letters and general comments are owners Association (HOA), Baldwin able Care Act’s Section 1557 reflects welcome, as are notices of publications, Hills Village Gardens Homes HOA, a renewed commitment to combat conferences, job openings, etc. for our Resources Section. Articles generally Concerned Citizens of South Central health discrimination by any health may be reprinted, providing PRRAC Los Angeles, Crenshaw Neighbor- program or activity that receives fed- gives advance permission. hoods HOA, Expo Neighbors Block eral funding, or is administered by a © Copyright 2014 by the Poverty & Club, United HOA, Village Green federal executive agency. Section 1557 Race Research Action Council. All Homes HOA, and civil rights attor- references Title VI of the 1964 Act, rights reserved. neys at The City Project and English, (Please turn to page 6) 2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 23, No. 4 • July/August 2014 Title VI of the Civil Rights Act at 50: An Unfulfilled Promise at EPA Marianne Engelman Lado In 1987, Toxic Waste and Race in Race and Income,” in From the Chemical Policy Reform found that the United States, a report of the United Ground Up: Environmental Racism residents living in proximity to facili- Church of Christ’s Commission for and the Rise of the Environmental Jus- ties that store or use highly hazardous Racial Justice, served as a wake-up call tice Movement (2001), 167-183; see chemicals are disproportionately Af- about the unequal distribution of health also U.S. Commission on Civil rican-American or Latino.