A multiday conference on Taking Nature Black at the Silver Spring Civic Center featured speeches on reimaging the relationships between African Americans and the outdoors, building flood wise communities, exploring roots to the Eastern Shore and Black leadership in environmentalism and climate control.
The Reclamation and Resilience event was sponsored by Nature Forward of Chevy Chase.
Friday, keynote speaker Wawa Gatheru, founder and executive director of Black Girl Environmentalist, told the 300 conference participants how she went from a “budding environmentalist” to a leader of a national organization while still in her 20s.
Blacks are not well represented in the environmental movement, and yet they “are bearing the brunt” of environmental issues, she said.
She became an environmental justice activist while in college and continues to work to involve young people of color to the movement.
The climate crisis is pervasively made of white people, she said, adding, “Black people have been boxed out.”
Yet, she said, when African Americans were brought to this country as slaves, they worked the land and brought new crops including bananas and watermelons to the United States.
It is difficult to get young people of color to get involved, and it is even harder now under the President Donald Trump administration, she said.
Her organization has lost funding, because of its commitment to work in the Black community. “We are not really willing to pull back on the language of the people we serve,” Gatheru said.
However, she said, “We are finding others who are willing to step up.” Her group is “building stronger networks of care.”
Throughout the four-day conference, there has been an emphasis on indigenous people. Each day, the conference opened with a labor and land acknowledgment and what that means in the Black community.
Indigenous people, including Blacks and Native Americans, were “the original stewards of this land,” said Lydia Lawrence, one of the conference chairs. She noted that the Silver Spring Civic Center is located on the land of the Piscataway people.
People of color who came to America brought with them their indigenous traditions and practices, said speaker Hope Khodaei. “Our dream is to care for Mother Earth, because we only get one Mother Earth,” she said.
Montgomery County Council Vice President Will Jawando told the crowd that almost 45% of the county’s population is foreign born or second generation, adding, “That’s a good thing.”
He said the county steps up to equity challenges. “We don’t run away from them.”
The conference drew 46 sponsors, many of them nonprofits working in the environmental community. Most had tables full of literature about what their group does.
“I am, I am. I am, and I will always be Green. I’ve got Hallelujahs in my pocket and I am ready to sing.”
That was the beautiful close to a beautiful presentation given by Dr. Carolyn Finney on Day 2 of #TakingNatureBlack.
#BlackExcellence
— gonatureforward.bsky.social (@gonatureforward.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 5:13 PM
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