Every year, it becomes more evident that Black communities in the U.S. are on the front lines of the climate crisis. Black communities, through decades of disinvestment and the residual effects of segregation, are at highest risk for flooding, most likely to be located next to polluting power plants, and least likely to retain housing […]
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environment reporter at Capital B. He can be reached by email at adam.mahoney@capitalbnews.org, on Bluesky, and on X at @AdamLMahoney.
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Meet the Trailblazing Black LGBTQ Official at ‘Ground Zero’ for Climate Justice
In 1969, a state-mandated consent decree desegregated the school system in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Forty years later, continuing conflict over that desegregation effort in the city — evenly split between Black and white residents — inspired a young Davante Lewis’ first foray into public service. His high school was strapped for cash and required much-needed […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
The Quiet Toll of Oil Drilling on Black Los Angeles
When Dominic Gibbs’ family moved to the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles in the 1990s, the young child had a lingering question for his mother: What is that massive 20-foot-tall pump next to our house? “I always think about when I first saw the pump, because I thought it was just something that happened […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
Addressing Seasonal Depression in Black Communities Impacted by Climate Change
For years, Black Twitter has affectionately named the gloomy, drawn-out winter months as “cuffing season,” made perfect by dropping temperatures and “cuddle weather.” It’s when you hole in with your chosen partner or community, binge-watch television, and, if you’re lucky, crank up the heater while darkness takes over outside. But the winter months are not […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Why So Many Black Candidates Struggled in the Midterm Elections
Several Black candidates made history on election night: Democrat Wes Moore became Maryland’s first Black governor. Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old progressive activist, won his bid to become the youngest member of Congress. And in Pennsylvania, voters elected their first Black U.S. representative, Democrat Summer Lee. But for many more — particularly those whose names topped […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
Black Voters Turn Out to Polls Despite Election Day Confusion
Black voters were at the center of legal disputes and polling-site confusion on Election Day, as voting rights advocates responded to allegations of intimidation at the polls and Republican interference in ballot counts. In Philadelphia, election officials made a last-minute change to the ballot-count process on Tuesday that could delay the vote tally for days, […]
Posted inElections, Politics & Policy
The Black Candidates to Watch on Election Day
The Nov. 8 elections have the potential to be historic, as a record number of candidates are running to become the first Black woman or Black man to hold their office. With diverse faces on ballots nationwide — from governorships to school board races — Tuesday’s midterms could increase Black political power across layers of […]
Posted inHousing, Money
Housing and Homelessness Are on the Ballot. Will Unhoused People Have a Say?
Most Americans across racial and ethnic groups say affordable housing is a serious problem where they live, according to an August 2022 poll. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates the nation has a shortage of 7 million affordable and accessible rental units, made worse in recent years by the convergence of the coronavirus pandemic […]
Posted inBlack Businesses, Money
Ye Can’t Sell ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirts Because Two Black Men Own the Trademark
The reason Ye — the artist formerly known as Kanye West — can’t legally sell his “White Lives Matter” T-shirts is not because the phrase is designated as hate speech by the Anti-Defamation League. It’s because two Black men own the legal trademark. Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, two Black radio hosts in Phoenix, Arizona, […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
How Natural Disasters Create Voting Crises
Voting has often been inconvenient for residents of Florida’s Dunbar community. For decades, they fought to get an early-voting site in their Gulf Coast neighborhood. It finally came to fruition ahead of the 2020 election, but now, just two years later, that polling site has shut down. The story is similar for many in this […]
