From Fall 2024 to Spring 2026, the Environmental Justice Oral History Project (EJOHP) partnered with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to create the Mothers of the Movement collection — an oral history and storytelling archive centering the women organizers and leaders who have carried the environmental justice movement forward.

This op-ed series, produced by UNC students in partnership with EJOHP and NPQ, draws directly on the insights, hopes, and visions shared by the women in that collection to craft calls to action for the stakeholder groups – local, state, and federal government, the private sector, journalists and researchers, and the large environmental nonprofits – who interact with, and bear responsibility toward, environmental justice communities.

To explore the full collection, including our oral histories, illustrative magazine, story map, and more, click here.

This series is edited and curated by Cameron Oglesby, Founder of the Environmental Justice Oral History Project, Dr. Shorna Allred, Susan R. Wolf Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Iris M. Crawford-Maskell, an NPQ Senior Editor and board member of the Environmental Justice Oral History Project.