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 As we near the end of Black History Month, your Department of the Environment takes another look at the achievements and contributions of African Americans to Prince George's County and beyond!
Check out important days in Black history, celebrate Black culture with curated lists of books and movies, and read about regional Black environmental leaders. For more, visit bit.ly/doeBHM2022.
#BlackHistoryMonth2022
This Day in Black History
Enjoy this calendar highlighting facts and contributions that African Americans have made to this country, including events and fun facts, for every day in February!
To view/download the full calendar, click here or the image below.
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Black History Moment
As part of its Black History Month celebration, DoE is spotlighting an outstanding employee Esther V. Mitchell, who is committed to building healthy, sustainable, and beautiful communities to make Prince George’s County proud!
Esther Mitchell
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Esther Mitchell has worked at DoE for over 12 years and is also a Master Gardener, who serves as the University of Maryland Extension’s Master Gardener Coordinator. As a Master Gardener, she teaches new gardening skills, how to solve garden problems, and sustainable horticulture techniques.
In her spare time, she loves to garden and has a passion for teaching young students the gift of planting their vegetables and maintaining a beautiful and healthy garden.
Listen to some helpful gardening techniques in this video with Esther - youtu.be/2Oi6_j9_FPE..
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Mitchell has been married to her wonderful husband Ernest Mitchell for over 24 years. Mr. Mitchell is a piano and choral arts teacher at Charles H. Flowers High School.
Before the pandemic, Mitchell would celebrate Black History Month by attending concerts, art exhibits, and cultural events. Even though the in-person dynamics may have changed, she still participates in virtual BHM activities.
DoE also features African American Environmentalists from the Washington region during this year’s Black History Month. Read this list of game-changers whose advocacy and accomplishments have made a tremendous environmental impact in our community.
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Josephine Butler
Josephine Butler was born on January 24, 1920, in Brandywine, Maryland, where her parents were sharecroppers, and her grandparents were enslaved. She attended Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro and Strayer College. Butler suffered from typhoid and her family moved from Brandywine to Washington, D.C. so she could receive better medical treatment. She would remain in D.C. and became a leader in environmental activism. Butler served as a community health educator for the American Lung Association in D.C., where she educated thousands of children about air pollution before the movement for environmental justice and change existed.
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Leslie Fields
Leslie Fields, Esq. has over 30 years of experience in federal, state, and local environmental justice and policy. She is a graduate of Cornell University and the Georgetown University Law Center and is the current Sierra Club’s National Director of Policy Advocacy, and Legal. She is the former international director of Friends of the Earth-US in Washington, D.C., and is currently an adjunct law professor at Howard University School of Law.
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Christopher Bradshaw
Christopher Bradshaw is an African American social justice entrepreneur whose expertise is using social innovation through the food system to grow meaningful community economic development within marginalized communities. Bradshaw is also the founder of Dreaming Out Loud, a social enterprise created to produce economic opportunities for the Washington, D.C. metro region’s marginalized communities through building a healthy and equitable food system.
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Rue Mapp
Rue Mapp is the Founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, a national not-for-profit organization with offices in Oakland, CA, and Washington, D.C. Rue oversees a carefully selected and trained national volunteer leadership team of more than 100 men and women who represent 56 cities around the US, and shares opportunities to build a broader community and leadership and nurture a community of black outdoor enthusiasts.
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