What Catherine Coleman Flowers Tells us About Coalition Building and Activism

by Jaimie B., Caroline H., Bianca C. 

Most quarters, a group of students at WWU gathers to discuss a recent book or set of podcasts about environmental justice. This post reflects our discussion of Cathrine Flowers’: Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, in Spring 2022. 

Catherine Coleman Flowers’ book, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, narrates Flowers’ life in activism around wastewater and the issues with poorly maintained infrastructure in America. Flowers traces issues with wastewater from poor, and majority Black, Lowndes County, and makes connections to an ongoing failure of the U.S. government to account for basic sanitary needs and neglect of rural counties and people of color. This neglect is often reframed to criminalize the same people who are forced to buy into these systems. She discusses her growth as a civil rights activist and her return to Lowndes County, where she was raised, to address the continuing issues of systemic racism and lack of infrastructure, such as sewage management.  

In her work, Flowers utilizes coalition-building strategies to garner action and visibility for politically and socially neglected rural, poor, predominantly Black neighborhoods. Coalition building is the strategy of networking and organizing different interested parties to share resources in pursuit of a common goal (or creating interest if there is none). In Flowers’ work, she brings together parties from seemingly opposing sides of the political spectrum to share common ground to fight for improvements to rural septic infrastructure. As Flowers’ work shows, “coalition building is an art. More than anything else, it requires individuals and groups to be willing to rise above their feelings of separateness and to actively collaborate in a spirit of mutual understanding, patience, and flexibility” (Coalition-Building Primer, n.d., pg. 1).  

Throughout her book, Flowers offers readers clear guidance for building coalitions and becoming strong activists against environmental injustices. One example of this guidance is Flowers’ ongoing recommendation to create connections with people in positions of power or platforms to amplify messaging and action. Flowers states, “It was clear that rural people lacked pull when it came to influencing policy or obtaining federal or state funding” (p. 105). Knowing this, Flowers connects directly with politicians to help bolster issue visibility and action around sanitation and waste. Flowers explains, “It’s vital for those who can influence policy to be proximate to the situation–to see things in person, as they are. One obstacle to finding sustainable solutions to rural problems is that policymakers and other influential people usually lack experience in the sorts of communities that need their help” (p. 154). Flowers brings politicians and other people with large public platforms to Lowndes County homes with the guidance of “local guides with credibility and trust in their communities” (p. 154) so they can personally witness and comprehend the dreadful living conditions among raw sewage. Her work helps to close the distance between policymakers and the communities their decisions affect. 

Furthermore, Flowers shares the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice’s vision to educate policymakers, academics, activists, and the public about the infrastructure needs of all communities, but especially communities that lack infrastructure the most. Relatedly, Flowers urges people to “promote research in rural communities to expose health issues…and engage college students in real-life situations, away from the classroom, developing a new generation of human-rights leaders” (p. 196).  

Beyond education, however, Flowers strongly emphasizes the importance of seeking local input in solving environmental justice crises. Describing a “just narrative” vision, the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice uses “human rights and environmental justice principles to create a new framework of language and strategies that embrace the rural lexicon and increase awareness of air, water, and soil contamination issues in marginalized rural communities” (CREEJ, n.d.). 

Catherine Coleman Flowers’ experience as an activist and organizer can tell us a lot about what it means to establish strong and healthy connections around daunting and complex environmental justice issues. In essence, coalition building and activism rely on actions such as deep listening to communities that are most impacted, research and education of the issues at hand, and thoughtful solicitation to those in leadership positions.    

References 

Photograph by Nicole Geri, free to use under the Unsplash License: https://unsplash.com/photos/usTHGOdvQjU  

Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ). (n.d.). How we work. https://www.creej.org/how-we-work (accessed on 5/24/2022) 

Flowers, C., & Stevenson, Bryan. (2020). Waste: One woman’s fight against America’s dirty secret. New York; London: The New Press. 

Oak Ridge Associated Universities. (n.d.). Coalition-Building Primer. https://www.orau.gov/hsc/cdcynergy30/ba/Content/activeinformation/resources/Coalition_Building_Primer.pdf (accessed on 5/24/2022)