We have much more to do and your continued support is needed now more than ever.
Community Spotlight: A Conversation with EJ Leader Vernice Miller-Travis
This blog is part of the Environmental Justice Leaders Spotlight Series, where we highlight past and present figures committed towards building a healthy, sustainable, and just world.
Vernice Miller-Travis is a trailblazing leader in the environmental justice (EJ) movement, whose advocacy has shaped local and national policy and empowered marginalized communities disproportionately burdened by pollution and environmental hazards. As a co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, she has spent decades advocating for policies that protect global-majority communities from environmental harm, pushing for stronger air quality regulations, cleanup of hazardous waste sites, safer housing, and equitable climate solutions at both the local and federal levels.
In this interview, I learned how growing up in Harlem and The Bahamas shaped Miller-Travis’ understanding of environmental justice from a young age, how she stays resilient despite shifting political landscapes, and how she works to build a multigenerational movement that keeps the fight for clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment going.
I even got the inside scoop on what went down at the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991. Her passion, persistence, and deep commitment to justice make her an inspiration to all of us working toward a healthier, more equitable world.
The Interview
Nishant Shah: I read that you grew up in both Harlem and the Bahamas. Tell me about that experience and your community. Who inspired you and showed you community power and joy? Who inspired you to be the changemaker you are today?
Vernice Miller-Travis: “When I was growing up in Harlem in the 60’s, I was most impacted by our Congressman and pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church Adam Clayton Powell Jr. He would be walking up the street (West 138th Street) to his church when he was home in Harlem, and would often encounter us kids while we were playing on the sidewalk, and he would always stop and have a real conversation with us. He was humbly leading quite a movement for social justice from his perch in Congress, yet he was a man of the people.
Malcolm X, who was based at the Nation of Islam’s Mosque number 7 in Harlem, was also organizing in our community and would give street-side talks in front of Harlem Hospital while others would be selling bean pies and The Final Call newspaper for the Nation of Islam. Often, on payday Fridays, my mom and I would see him speaking outside this hospital where she worked. I was so little, but something about his voice called me.” Listen to hear more.
Nishant Shah: What experience(s) first made you aware of environmental justice? Is there an example from your upbringing/community that showed you the strength of collective community action?
Vernice Miller-Travis: “My mom and I moved from Harlem to the West Bronx in a neighborhood called High Bridge just west of Yankee Stadium. The middle school I went to was in the South Bronx, and just our luck, there was god awful urban deterioration underway, and they were setting it on fire.
All these absentee landlords figured out they could pay these young kids in the community, a very poor community, to set buildings on fire because they made more money from the insurance payout than from the rent rolls of the poor, working-class people that lived in their buildings. This was an actual planned strategy of benign neglect.” Listen to hear more.
Nishant Shah: How can legacy leaders like yourself better foster a multigenerational movement and ensure young leaders are equipped to continue the movement?
Vernice Miller-Travis: “Well, you have to be intentional. When I entered this space, it was launched by folks who were active in the Civil Rights Movement. They were bringing some of the strategies and tactics they had used in the Civil Rights Movement to bear and push back against the siting of environmental hazards and pollution in their own neighborhood.” Listen to hear more.
Nishant Shah: My first blog in this series focused on the late Hazel M. Johnson. Can you take me back to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit that she also attended? That was a pivotal moment in EJ history, so what lessons and principles stick out and guide you? Our EJHCR2 Team here at NWF uses those principles to this day.
Vernice Miller-Travis: ”I remember grabbing Peggy Shepard’s hand and saying ‘Oh my God, we are not alone.’ As long as I live, even as I’m telling it to you now, I get a little bit of a chill because I remember we really thought we were the only people dealing with what we were dealing with. It just felt so good to know we were not alone.” Listen to hear more.
Nishant Shah: What does the push for EJ look like in the next 2, 4, and 10 years? What are some of the ways to defend the EJ wins while facing an imminent threat to progress from the current administration?
Vernice Miller-Travis: “They cannot erase the progress that we have made, the way that we’ve changed policymaking, science, how we aggregate data, what the sources of the data are, what we define as the environment… we’ve changed the whole game. So they can come, and they are, but they can’t erase what we’ve done.” Listen to hear more.
Nishant Shah: What do you wish you knew when you first started doing this work that you know now? How do you view the changes in the movement through the decades? What keeps you hopeful?
Vernice Miller-Travis: “Take good care of yourself and be prepared for the long haul. One important lesson is not to take ourselves so seriously that we don’t make time for joy and fun. My main message at this time is that it’s okay to be disappointed, but it’s not okay to be defeated.” Listen to hear more.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Vernice. Every day since we talked, your story and words have inspired me to keep going. Legacy leaders like you are what keep the movement for a sustainable and just future alive and thriving. We can’t back down from building healthier communities, but we should also celebrate our achievements and partnerships while continuing forward together.
I hope listeners and readers are just as inspired as me, and if you want to continue forward with the National Wildlife Federation’s Environmental Justice, Health, and Community Resilience and Revitalization program, reach out to environmentaljustice@nwf.org to join in. To reach out to Vernice Miller-Travis and learn more about her current work, check out this site. There is no going back!
Read other blogs in this series
Join Us in Advancing Environmental Justice. Sign up for the Environmental Justice, Health, and Community Resilience and Revitalization Program’s quarterly newsletter and follow us on Instagram.
