Image is from the article: The Great Dismal Swamp was a refuge for the enslaved. Their descendants want to preserve it.

Programs Connecting Black Communities to Nature

• #BlackBirdersWeek
• Programs on Black Gardening.
• Resources on the Black Farming Movement.
• Black Girls Hike. (See more hiking groups for Black women here.)
• Black Girls Run.
• Black Kids Swim
• The Black Outdoors.
• Blackpackers.
• Diversity Outdoors.
• Melanin Base Camp: Diversity in the Outdoors.
• Outdoor Afro.
• Soul Trak Outdoors.
• Vibe Tribe Adventures.

Books

Kevin Dawson: Undercurrents of Power : Aquatic Culture in the African diaspora.

Alison Hawthorne Deming & Lauret E. Savoy (editors): The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World.

Camille T. Dungy: Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry.

Carolyn Finney: Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors.

Dianne D. Glave: Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage.

J. Drew Lanham: The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature.

Brian McCammack: Landscapes of Hope: Nature and the Great Migration in Chicago.

Paul Outka: Race and Nature from Transcendentalism to the Harlem Renaissance.

Lauret E. Savoy: Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape.

Articles: Historical

C.N.E. Corbin: The Rise of Green Spaces in Inner Cities.

Liesel Hamilton: At Francis Beidler Forest, Stories of the Formerly Enslaved Mingle with Nature: On Maroons Cultural Heritage Day, Audubon South Carolina transported visitors into the sanctuary’s past—when it was a refuge for runaways.

Celeste Henery:

• Contemplating Black Ecologies.
• Fire Suppression, the Carceral State, and Black Ecological Knowledge.
• Contemplating the Black Atlantic.
• Race and the Paradoxes of the Night.
• Black Swimmers and Diasporic Understandings of Water.

Justin Hosbey & J. T. Roane: Mapping Black Ecologies.

Allison Keyes: Harriet Tubman, an Unsung Naturalist, Used Owl Calls as a Signal on the Underground Railroad: The famed conductor traveled at night, employing deep knowledge of the region’s environment and wildlife to communicate, navigate, and survive.

Brian McCammack: The Great Migration and Black Environmental History (interview by J. T. Roane.)

Priscilla McCutcheon: Prophetic Black Ecologies: Liberatory Agriculture on Beulah Land Farms.

Roshad Demetrie Meeks: The Bond of Live Things Everywhere: What Black Nature Might Look Like.

Warren Milteer: Marronage and the Great Dismal Swamp.

James Padilioni Jr.:Cosmic Literacies and Black Fugitivity.

Tyler Parry:

• The Role of Water in African American History.
• A Meditation on Natural Light and the Use of Fire in United States Slavery.

Malini Ranganathan: The Environment as Freedom: A Decolonial Reimagining.

J. T. Roane:

• Tornado Groan: On Black (Blues) Ecologies.
• Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora.

Corryn Wetzel: Meet Charles Young, the First Black National Park Superintendent: A military leader and conservationist, Young made history at a time when the achievements of Black Americans were often erased from the record.

Julie West: North Star to Freedom: Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park.

Teona Williams: Nature and the Great Migration in Chicago.

Articles: Contemporary

Teresa Baker: Teresa Baker, Activist and Hiker, on Why Kids Are the Future of Our Public Lands: Instagram feeds and internships are encouraging young people of color to join the environmental movement. But we can do more.

Code Switch: Meet Alexis Nikole Nelson, The Wildly Popular ‘Black Forager’.

Carolyn Finney: Who Gets Left Out of the ‘Great Outdoors’ Story? You’ve heard of Davy Crockett. Now meet Lancelot Jones, Sylvia Stark and other Black outdoors pioneers who can redefine our notion of the natural world.

Meagan Flynn: The Great Dismal Swamp was a refuge for the enslaved. Their descendants want to preserve it.

Fushcia Hoover: A Black Girl’s Guide To Foraging.

Naima Green: These Are the Faces of Tranquility: A photographer aims to interrupt the predominant narratives about people of color surrounded by urban decay.

Cynthia Greenlee: How Black Foragers Find Freedom in the Natural World: Foraging has opened their eyes not just to the possibilities of new food sources, but to the legacy of land separation.

Tiya Miles: Black Bodies, Green Spaces: Why is the image of an environmentally conscious African-American still hard for us to picture?

Jillian Mock: The National Parks Have a Diversity Problem. This Couple Has Been Working for 20 Years to Fix It.

National Audubon Society: scroll down for roundup of articles on Black birders.

The New York Times:

• The Black Park Rangers Bringing History to Life.
• Tell Us What You Love About the Outdoors for Our Black History Series: For our series exploring pivotal moments and transformative figures in Black history, we want to hear stories about when you found your passion for nature.
• Black Gardeners Find Refuge in the Soil: Gardening boomed during the pandemic. Six Black writers share how it has helped them re-establish, and reimagine, a connection to cultivation and the land.

Sean O’Hagan: Photographer Donavon Smallwood: ‘What’s it like to be a black person in nature?’

Ebony Rosemond: This stereotype [that Black people don’t swim] is killing black children.

Purbita Saha: Do Communities of Color Really Feel Disconnected From Nature? Working with college STEM students, Dorceta Taylor debunks the cultural stereotypes that dominate diversity discussions.

Chandra Thomas Whitfield: Black Women’s Groups Find Health And Healing On Hikes, But Sometimes Racism, Too.