From:           SHAFFERM@UNCWIL.EDU
Date sent:      Wed, 13 Mar 1996 09:22:45 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:        African American Women and Environment

I have a student who is interested in doing an extended research project on African American women and the environment. She is currently trying to focus her topic. I am familiar with some of the work that has been done on women and the environment, but not much beyond that. I would greatly appreciate any citations relating to work that has been done or is currently being done on African American women and the environment. Also, any suggestions concerning relevant collections of primary sources would be helpful. Thanks in advance for the help.

Peggy Shaffer
Dept. of History
UNCW
shafferm@uncwil.edu

Date sent: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 13:39:34 -0600 (CST)
From: Laura Dassow Walls <wallsl@lafvax.lafayette.edu>
Subject: RE: African American Women and the Environment

I don't know if this would help, but African American women were working in the southern forest industries at times, especially during labor shortages. Although I don't have any references on hand, there did seem to be some involvement with naval stores, and during WWI at least they were working with (and sometimes competing against) African American men for logging jobs (see Edward Munns, "Women in Southern Lumbering Operations" J. of Forestry V.17, Feb. 1919). I also suspect there was some involvement in the 1930s-50s when many African American families assumed entrepreneurial roles cutting pulp wood in the South. The Forest History Society in Durham, NC, might have some leads, original material, etc. It strikes me that this possible legacy, along with involvement with small landholders owning "tree farms" for profit, might make an interesting, and certainly unique paper.

Bob Walls
Lafayette College
wallsl@lafayette.edu

Date sent:      Wed, 13 Mar 1996 12:23:50 -0600 (CST)
From:           "Jonathan R. Smith" <jon@Ra.MsState.Edu>
Subject:        Re: African American Women and Environment

Alice Walker wrote about the MOVE bombing as industrial white capitalism's response to African-American environmentalism; the short piece oversentimentalizes its object, like everything Walker writes, but it may be a useful starting point. It's reproduced in a Routledge anthology called, I believe, _Green History_; I forget the editor's name.

Date sent:      Wed, 13 Mar 1996 12:03:41 -0600 (CST)
From:           BLEND@ALPHA.NSULA.EDU
Subject:        Re: African American Women and Environment

You might want to look at Vera Norwood, *Made from this Earth*, there is a chapter that deals with the literary as well as political issues ivolved. In several anthologies of ecofeminist essays published recently there have been entries by African American women dealing with environmental racism. If you want the titles please e-mail me directly. Good luck,
Benay Blend
blend@alpha.nsula.edu

Date sent:      Wed, 13 Mar 1996 10:00:44 -0800
From:           Alair MacLean <alair@igc.apc.org>
Subject:        Re:  African American Women and Environment

You should definitely check into the Web pages maintained by Mike Meuser and Andrew Szasz at UC Santa Cruz. In addition to the overview of their work on environmental justice issues, they maintain a very extensive bibliography of sources, including primary sources, related to your student's topic. You can access the pages at:

http://www.cruzio.com/~meuser/EI/index.html

Good luck,
Alair MacLean
EcoJustice Project Director
Institute for Global Communications

 From:           SHAFFERM@UNCWIL.EDU
 Date sent:      Wed, 13 Mar 1996 09:22:45 -0400 (EDT)
 Subject:        African American Women and Environment

I have a student who is interested in doing an extended research project on African American women and the environment. She is currently trying to focus her topic. I am familiar with some of the work that has been done on women and the environment, but not much beyond that. I would greatly appreciate any citations relating to work that has been done or is currently being done on African American women and the environment. Also, any suggestions concerning relevant collections of primary sources would be helpful. Thanks in advance for the help.

Peggy Shaffer
Dept. of History
UNCW
> shafferm@uncwil.edu

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