Despite the world wide impact and interest in climate change and the environmental movement, African-Americans haven’t really been visible in the effort. Nor have been there been visible African-Americans at the forefront nationally in the fight to improve and clean up the environment. Jerome Ringo is the exception. Ringo is one of the most visible African-Americans in the environmental movement in America and worldwide. The former past Chairman of the National Wildlife federation, Ringo was the first Black to chair a major environmental organization.
Jerome Ringo
Ringo worked over two decades in the petrochemical industry. Then moved to work towards cleaning up that and other polluting industries through his world wide work with a number of environmental organizations. During a visit to Purdue University in West Lafayette and to Indianapolis, Ringo sat down with Afternoons with Amos to talk about the environmental movement and why the African-American community needs to be concerned and engaged. Ringo said in part it was an issue of redevelopment. Many African-American communities have pollution hazards that hold back redevelopment of those neighborhoods and the development of jobs. Ringo also contends that cleaning up the environment and creating alternative energy sources can create jobs in minority communities, especially inner cities. In the interview Ringo was joined by Jim Posyer of Earth Charter Indiana and Denise Abdul-Rahman of the Indiana NAACP Environmental Action Committee. Click the Media Player to hear the Afternoons with Amos Interview with Black Environmental Activist Jerome Ringo. Runs 23 Minutes ©2014 WTLC/Radio One.
