For Black History Month, we want to highlight the pioneering sociological work of Dr. Robert D. Bullard, "the father of environmental justice."
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Robert and his wife, Linda McKeever Bullard, brought attention to environmental racism in 1978 in a landmark legal case. After noting a disparity in exposure to toxic waste between Black and white Houston neighborhoods, a class-action lawsuit was filed to block a new landfill.

Linda, an attorney, represented Margaret Bean in suing the waste management corporation that had planned the new landfill.

Robert testified as an expert witness just two years after obtaining his Ph.D. in Sociology at Iowa State University, launching his long academic career.

Since then, Bullard has taught sociology at Tennessee, California (Berkeley), Clark-Atlanta (a Historically Black University), and Texas Southern, where he currently serves as Dean of the School of Public Affairs. He has received awards from the National Wildlife Association, ...

... the American Bar Association, and the Sierra Club, and has published a number of books about environmental equity. He sees his work as a merging of the Black civil rights movement and the environmental movement that both gained widespread attention in the 60s and 70s.