Jill M. Baren, President, Lake Forest College | Lake Forest College
Jill M. Baren, President, Lake Forest College | Lake Forest College
Associate Professor and Chair of Environmental Studies Brian McCammack has been awarded a $60,000 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for his book project, "Black, Brown, and Green: The Origins of Environmental Justice in the 1970s."
The fellowship will allow McCammack to focus on writing his book, which aims to challenge conventional narratives about the origins of the environmental justice movement. His research highlights historically marginalized figures who spearheaded the movement: people of color advocating for their communities' safety and environmental protection.
"Environmental justice histories tend to begin in the 1980s, and most of the histories of the mainstream environmental movement tend to leave out people of color or ignore their multiple responses to the mainstream movement in late ’60s and early ’70s," McCammack said.
McCammack's research commenced in 2018 following his first book, "Landscapes of Hope: Nature and the Great Migration in Chicago. " He describes his new project as "a collective biography of environmentalists of color who have been lost to history. "
McCammack hopes that his work will help white allies recognize past failures so they can provide better support to peers of color moving forward, thereby advancing racial equity and environmental health.
"The stories that I am telling in the book are more or less about people of color in environmental groups who didn’t have allies and were hung out to dry, or they had allies who didn’t go to bat for them when they needed it," McCammack explained. "The stories I see in the archives are like historical lessons that help explain how and why the environmental movement continues to struggle with racial diversity. "
His book will include accounts from environmental activists and organizers of color whose contributions remain largely unrecognized by mainstream histories.
The NEH awarded a total of $22.6 million for 219 humanities projects nationwide. McCammack will begin his leave in 2026 to dedicate more time to this project.
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