The Center for Environmental Justice at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum

What is the Center for Environmental Justice?

For decades, those furthest from justice living in communities along the Anacostia River, in the D.C. region, and across the world have been fighting these inequities in their very own neighborhoods. Respecting this legacy of community-based, environmental action, the Smithsonian's Center for Environmental Justice at the Anacostia Community Museum will draw on the museum’s mission of collective power and history of environmental justice work to serve as a catalyst for social change. The Center for Environmental Justice (CEJ) is a research hub that centers community, raises awareness of systemic injustice, crafts community-driven solutions for environmental issues, and encourages others to see their own power in creating a more equitable, healthy, and just environment. 

The CEJ envisions a future where environmentalism is a cornerstone of civic engagement. Civic action includes addressing environmental issues affecting communities and advocating for a healthy, equitable, and just world. The Center will activate the latest research on environmental practices and reflect the museum’s decades-long commitment to civic engagement, community-centered practices, and environmental justice work. Placing environmental advocacy in the context of community life and ongoing justice movements, the Center will convene community experts, researchers, and Pan-Smithsonian teams to document histories of environmental justice work and develop solution-based models by and for the people most affected by environmental injustices. 

Launched on Earth Day 2023, the Center is guided by the Anacostia Community Museum’s mission and vision to work with local communities and amplify collective power for a more equitable future. To create long-lasting and actionable change, solutions must be community-based, inclusive, and just. Thus, CEJ will discuss the racial and discriminatory roots that shape our environments. Moving away from traditional environmental movements, which focus on the natural world, CEJ will embrace a humanities-led, community engagement practice to mobilize research, break down silos, and activate research outside of institutional walls.

What is Environmental Justice?
Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Kids are joyfully smiling at the camera while riding a boat down the river The Origins of the Center

For more than fifty years, ACM has continued to pioneer community-centered practices and
engage in critical environmental justice conversations–from organizing garden clubs and community forums to creating water testing kits and organizing citizen science opportunities. Find out more about the storied history that led to the Center's launch. 
A group of women in discussion at the 2023 WEL Summit Women's Environmental Leadership Summit

Launched in 2018 to build capacity for the next generation of environmental leadership, Women’s Environmental Leadership (WEL) engages a multigenerational network of women whose environmental efforts at local, national, and international levels are shaped by a justice and humanities-based framework. 
A pair of hands holds plants in the ACM garden bed Growing Community

Growing Community is the longstanding community gardening program at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum. Through garden programming, residents of all ages can engage with the beauty of the natural world, a healthy food system, and their cultural past. We welcome the community to participate in our monthly workshops, taking place throughout the growing and harvesting seasons. 
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