African-American leaders must defend our heritage

The new Pullman National Monument that President Obama protected in February brings the National Park System to Chicago’s South Side. We welcome the inclusion of our community and the designation of this part of our history as being significant to the entire nation. As founder and CEO of Blacks in Green, or BIG, a national green community economic development network launched on the South Side in 2007, the protection of this national park site helps augment our efforts by underscoring the invaluable contributions that African-Americans have made in the evolution of our country.

In addition to industrial history, the monument commemorates the nation’s first African-American labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Union President A. Philip Randolph, as eloquently explained on the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum website, “utilized the power of the labor union and the unity that it represented to demand significant social changes for African-Americans nationally. … This story is one of ordinary men who did extraordinary things.”

{mosads}As members of Congress and local advocates have noted, this site helped spark the black middle class and lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement of the mid-20th century. Now, it will help us revitalize the community and offer school children and families a place of learning and pride. “I look forward to welcoming all the new visitors to my district to see the national treasure that is Pullman,” Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) said.

I am thankful that Obama is so focused on conserving our great outdoors and places that honor the history and contributions of all Americans. I wholeheartedly support programs such as the administration’s new Find Your Park initiative, which guarantees free entry to all of our parks and public lands for all fourth-graders in America — and their families.

As our new Pullman National Monument proves, African-Americans and Americans of every ethnic group have played pivotal roles in the development of our country, whether or not they are recognized in their time. It is going to take all of our voices, from entrepreneurs like me who see economic opportunity in conservation to school teachers, historians, pastors and parents, to advocate for their legacy.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), too, should highlight its positive position on conservation and support for funding for our parks and public lands as an essential part of its policy platform. Members of the CBC enjoy among the highest pro-environmental voting records of any bloc in Congress. According to the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the median record nears 80 percent, and many long-term members enjoy lifetime scores above 90 percent. This information needs to be highlighted in the public discourse so that everyone realizes the high stakes we all have in protecting our country’s natural and cultural resources.

Why? Because the new majority in Congress is pushing hard for the weakening or removal of protections for our clean air, clean water and our public lands. Just last month Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) — who, despite an abysmal 20 percent LCV score, is chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources — led an effort to take some public lands out of federal protection and turn them over to state control and special interests. This free-for-all could see our precious national treasures sold off to the highest bidder and forever lost to this and future generations.

I applaud the president for his actions and ask that he continue to do his great work in protecting the parks and monuments that we hold dear, that we depend on for our families’ and communities’ health and that, in turn, define us as Americans. Together, we must conserve the diversity and totality of America’s special landscapes and waterways, and protect our historic and cultural legacy for the benefit of this and future generations.

Davis is an urban theorist, attorney, activist and proud granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers. She is the founder and CEO of Blacks in Green, or BIG, a national green community economic development network launched in 2007 and based in Chicago. She is a member of the Diverse Environmental Leaders National Speakers Bureau.