This collection is comprised of interviews with members of Environmental Action for Survival (ENACT), the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, and other environmental justice activists. Broadly, the interviews cover environmental justice in Michigan. In 2017, student interviewers spoke to members of ENACT who organized the 1970 Teach-In on the Environment, as well as activists who organized the first Earth Day. In the 2019-2021 partnership with the Ecology Center that followed, the Environmental Justice HistoryLab conducted interviews with current and former members and collaborators of the Ecology Center on all aspects of local environmental activism, including waste management, toxics disposal, energy programs, and environmental policy in the state.
The collection is organized into three series: Environmental Activism in Michigan, the Ecology Center, and Digital Exhibitions. These series are based on the project that the recorded interviews and clips were associated with, as well as which groups sponsored the interviews. Digital Exhibitions contains links to the final digital exhibits associated with each project, where available. While the interviews do not currently have transcripts, most of the recordings have an associated timestamped index.
In March 1970, students in Environmental Action for Survival (ENACT) organized a four-day Teach-In on the Environment at the University of Michigan, the precursor of the national Earth Day demonstration that mobilized twenty million participants on April 22, 1970. Students began planning a teach-in on the environment in 1969. The event relied on current students, alumni, and environmental activists across the country and was the first and largest of hundreds of Earth Day events held across the United States that year. The Ecology Center of Ann Arbor was formed in May 1970 by ENACT activists and a group of community volunteers. They founded the Center as an independent, non-profit organization for the promotion of environmental awareness, education, and advocacy.
These oral histories began as a public history exhibit, "Give the World a Chance", created by Matthew Lassiter and students from History 399: "Environmental Activism in Michigan." The exhibit was created with support from the "Michigan in the World: Local and Global Stories" project, a public history collaboration between the University of Michigan Department of History, the Bentley Historical Library, and the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. Following that exhibit, the Department of History created the Environmental Justice HistoryLab - a group of faculty, students, and graduate students - to continue research documenting the history of environmental activism, justice, and sustainability in Michigan and beyond. The HistoryLab partnered with the Ecology Center of Ann Arbor to conduct further interviews and panels to document the history of the Center, as well as its past and current projects. Matthew Lassiter remained the faculty sponsor for the HistoryLab oral history projects.
