Shashawnda Campbell, 23, member, South Baltimore Community Land Trust

“We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point.” Martin Luther King spoke these words in 1968 the night before he was assassinated as he addressed a group of Memphis sanitation workers who had decided to strike in the face of unsafe working conditions and exposure to toxic hazards.

Now, over 50 years later in Maryland, the wealthiest state in the wealthiest country on earth, sanitation workers still face unsafe working conditions while earning among the lowest wages within their sector in the nation. And in Baltimore, poor and Black people live amid a sea of toxic waste, including the air from BRESCO incinerator, the city’s worst air polluter.

I am committing 2021 to advancing environmental justice by building unity across labor and community to realize Baltimore’s answer to environmental injustice: Zero Waste.

I will work with the Zero Waste coalition to reach out to every community association and city council member in Baltimore. At the same time, I will work with students to leverage collective buying power to finance a new compost facility in our region to turn 80,000 tons of commercial food waste into healthy soil amendment, create new jobs and reduce methane emissions.

ABOUT THE SERIES: People from throughout the Baltimore region shared their thoughts with The Baltimore Sun about what needs to happen to move ahead after 2020’s racial reckoning. Each week in February, we will share some of their comments.

Online: Watch our Black History Month Voices videos and check out our resource list of organizations serving Black communities at https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/black-history/

COMING NEXT SUNDAY: Read more Black History Month essays