Texas Southern University has received a substantial grant to support its center for environmental and climate justice, named after an advocate that has been called the father of environmental justice. Get the full story from the TSU release below!
Texas Southern University (TSU) has been awarded $4 million from the Bezos Earth Fund to support the Robert D. Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. The Fund’s grant will continue groundbreaking environmental justice initiatives led by Dr. Robert Bullard, a distinguished TSU professor known as the “father of environmental justice.”
“TSU is proud to have our Bullard Center included in this critical environmental justice work and we are grateful for such generous support from the Bezos Earth Fund. Congratulations to Dr. Bullard and all of those who have received grant awards,” said Texas Southern University President Lesia L. Crumpton-Young.
Launched in 2020, the Bezos Earth Fund is a $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and private-sector entities that are taking critical action to combat the climate crisis, preserve and protect the natural world, and support climate justice.
“This grant will enhance the Bullard Center and our partners’ capacity to develop ‘roadmaps’ for directing much-needed Justice40 and infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities that historically have been left behind,” said Dr. Bullard, founder of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. “It will also create a rapid response team of experts and professionals to perform ‘quick-strike’ support to our most vulnerable and marginalized communities where structural inequality and systemic racism pose equal access challenges to Justice40 benefits, funding and investments.”
The Bezos Earth Fund has announced that it will commit $150 million in 2021 to environmental justice organizations to support the historic Justice40 initiative led by the Biden administration. Justice40 is a federal effort to ensure that government agencies work with states and local communities to deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities.
