Catherine Coleman Flowers | |
---|---|
Born | 1958 (age 66–67) Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
Alma mater | Cameron University University of Nebraska at Kearney |
Employer(s) | The Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice |
Known for | Environmental activism |
Awards | MacArthur Fellow (2020) |
Catherine Coleman Flowers (born 1958) is an American environmental health researcher, writer and the founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice. She was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2020. Her first book, Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret, explores the environmental justice movement in rural America. She is known for bringing attention to failing sewage treatment infrastructure in rural U.S communities, particularly in Lowndes County, Alabama. [1]
Flowers was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1958 as the oldest of five children to father J.C Coleman, a salesman and military veteran, and Mattie (née DeBardelaben) Coleman, a teacher’s aide. [2] Flowers and her family would relocate to Lowndes County in 1968. Flowers was inspired to pursue environmental activism by her parents, who were influential community activists during the American Civil Rights Movement. [1] Her upbringing was contextualized by a deep understanding of the political and cultural history of Lowndes County, particularly its history of racial violence. [3] On her father’s side, Flowers is descended from slaves living in Lowndes County during the 1800s. [3]
When Flowers was a teenager, her mother was sterilized without her consent after giving birth to Flowers’ fourth and final sibling, a boy. [2] When she was 16, Flowers became a Robert Kennedy Fellow and got involved in civic issues facing her high school and larger community. [3] Flowers learned that her principal, Robert Pierce, was allegedly involved in the death of a nine-year-old Black girl. [3] This encouraged her to expose the misconduct and poor conditions at her high school—which was segregated in practice—and was eventually successful in getting Pierce and the school board superintendent to resign. [2] These events in Flowers’ adolescence were instrumental in inspiring activism in her adulthood.
Flowers began her post-secondary education at Alabama State University, eventually taking a break to join the Air National Guard and the Air Force. She would spend three years in the air force before leaving due to experiencing sexual harassment. [2] After moving to Oklahoma with her husband, she earned her bachelor's degree at Cameron University in 1986. [4] Flowers started her professional life as a geography teacher in Detroit and an advocate for civil rights, being appointed as the executive director of the National Voting Rights Museum. [5] As Flowers became more involved with activism, she took on different roles, including leading the NAACP Voter Empowerment Program. She eventually returned to academia and joined the University of Nebraska at Kearney for a master's degree in history. [6]
In 2001, Flowers moved back to Alabama, where she concentrated on economic development as part of the Lowndes County Commission. [5] The population of Lowndes County is three-quarters Black. [7] By 2002, she had identified several failings of the local sanitation; including people being arrested for not paying for on-site septic systems and people who were paying for on-site sanitation not being provided adequate provisions. [5] [7] Flowers was surprised that the government was targeting the poorest members of society rather than the much wealthier corporate polluters. [7] This experience motivated her to focus on environmental justice and climate. [7] [8] She received federal approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to produce a plan to address raw sewage in Lowndes County. [9]
In 2011, Flowers worked with a UN Special Rapporteur to better understand poverty and its impacts on infrastructure in Lowndes County, Alabama. [4] Since 2015 Flowers has held a position as Senior Fellow at the Center for Earth Ethics. She spent 2017 as a Franklin Humanities Institute Practitioner in Residence at Duke University. [10] She founded the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice in 2019. [11]
Flowers and the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute investigated how structural inequalities impact access to sanitation and clean water. [12] She identified that marginalised, poverty-stricken rural communities were more likely to suffer from contaminated water and poor sanitation. [13] Together, these permit the spread of intestinal parasitic infections, including hookworm. [4] [14] In 2019, JoAnn Kamuf Ward and Flowers published, Flushed and Forgotten: Sanitation and Wastewater in Rural Communities in the United States , in which Flowers wrote, "In Lowndes County, Alabama, and many of the surrounding areas, lack of basic amenities that many Americans take for granted is a way of life,". [14] The report made a series of recommendations, including taking steps to improve accountability, ensuring participation of affected communities in any decision-making, and ensuring access to adequate sanitation on the basis of equality. [14]
In 2019, she delivered expert testimony to the United States Congress in which she urged the government to address the diseases associated with poverty in the United States. [4] [15] She was appointed to the Joe Biden Task Force on Climate Change, which is co-chaired by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. [16] Flowers is the only Black member of the task force. [16] In 2021 she was appointed a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. [17]
Flowers is married Thurgood Bunche Flowers and has one daughter with him. [2] She grew up in the Missionary Baptist faith. [18]
Lowndes County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 10,311. Its county seat is Hayneville. The county is named in honor of William Lowndes, a member of the United States Congress from South Carolina.
Hayneville is a town in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States and its county seat. At the 2010 census the population was 932, down from its record high of 1,177 in 2000. It is also part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area. It initially incorporated in 1831, but lapsed, finally reincorporating in 1967. Before 1970, the town appeared only twice on the U.S. Census: in 1850 and 1890. The 1850 estimate of 800 residents ranked it as the largest town in the county at the time.
Lowndesboro is a town in Lowndes County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 115, down from 140 in 2000. It is part of the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area. Although initially incorporated in 1856 by an act of the state legislature, it lapsed and was not reincorporated until 1962.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and provides approximately $260 million annually in grants and impact investments. It is based in Chicago, and in 2014 it was the 12th-largest private foundation in the United States. It has awarded more than US$8.27 billion since its first grants in 1978.
Jonathan Myrick Daniels was an Episcopal seminarian and civil rights activist. In 1965, he was killed by Tom Coleman, a highway worker and part-time deputy sheriff, in Hayneville, Alabama, while in the act of shielding 17-year-old Ruby Sales from a racist attack. He saved the life of the young Black civil rights activist. They were both working in the nonviolent civil rights movement in Lowndes County to integrate public places and register Black voters after passage of the Voting Rights Act that summer. Daniels' death generated further support for the civil rights movement.
Hookworm infection is an infection by a type of intestinal parasite known as a hookworm. Initially, itching and a rash may occur at the site of infection. Those only affected by a few worms may show no symptoms. Those infected by many worms may experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, and tiredness. The mental and physical development of children may be affected. Anemia may result.
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Grace Schneiders-Howard was a Surinamese social worker and politician. Initially beginning her career in civil service as an agent for immigrant workers, she later worked in the Hygiene Department to develop sanitation services in the country. When women were allowed to run for office, but without the right to vote, she ran as a candidate for the Estates of Suriname. Elected in 1938, she became the first woman to serve in the Surinamese legislature. A controversial and abrasive figure, Schneiders-Howard was convinced of her own racial and social superiority, using her work with migrants and the poor to propel her own aims and views of how society should be organized. A pioneer woman in many fields, she was condemned by her opponents, who questioned her morals, her motivations and even her sanity. Her lasting impact was upon bringing improved sanitation of the country.
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Central High School is a public high school in Lowndes County, Alabama, at 145 Main Street in Hayneville, Alabama. The school has about 260 students, the vast majority African American. Students are mostly from low income families. The school, which scored in the bottom 6% of Alabama schools in reading and math, was listed as a failing school in 2019 under the Alabama Accountability Act. Lions are the school mascot and green and yellow the school colors.