Women of Color Consciousness and the Global Environmental Movement
Grace Lee Boggs and Wangari Maathai were central figures in the development of the global environmental movement. Their work as activist intellectuals represents the centrality of women of color consciousness in the larger project that is environmentalism. Women of color are routinely overlooked as architects within this global phenomenon; yet, much of environmental thought is informed by an intersectional approach to empowerment that first appeared in the writings of Black women. Maathai and Boggs come out of a long tradition of women of color consciousness that showed a concern for the environment long before white women and girls became the face of global environmentalism. The two are selected here for comparison to demonstrate the long history of women of color and their engagement with environmental activism.
Source: African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS)
