Commemorating, Celebrating, and Rededicating to the Fight for Environmental Justice: National Environmental Justice Game Changers

On 13 February 2020, the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability held the Michigan Environmental Justice Summit 2020: Commemorating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Michigan's 1990 Conference on Race and the Environment and Looking Toward the Future. The Summit hosted a dynamic panel of national leaders, individuals who became game changers in the Environmental Justice movement. The panel featured Dr. Robert Bullard, known as the "Father of Environmental Justice"; Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Policy Director of New Consensus; Charles Lee, Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Regina Strong, Environmental Justice Public Advocate for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy; and Dr. Beverly Wright, Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. This article includes an edited transcript of the panel discussion. The panelists detail the history of the U.S. environmental justice movement and directions for its future.