Bunyan I. Bryant Jr. is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan. In 1972, he became the first African American member of the School for Environment and Sustainability faculty at Michigan. He is considered a pioneer in the field of environmental justice.

In 1990, Bryant organized the first Michigan Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards and with several other prominent attendees formed what came to be known as the Michigan Coalition. Their advocacy efforts helped lead to the creation of the EPA's Work Group on Environmental Equity. With Paul Mohai, Bryant co-published Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards (1993), which was one of the first major scholarly books to explore the links between race, class, and environmental hazards. Bryant also established an environmental justice program at the University of Michigan which was the first in the country to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in the specialty.

Bryant’s work has been recognized with numerous academic and other honors, including the Environmental Justice Champion Award at the Flint Environmental Justice Summit on March 10, 2017.

“His many achievements inspire—many born out of his academic work at the University of Michigan—but this is so much more than an inventory of civil rights accomplishments. . . . Readers will be swept up in the intensity of this remarkable narrative. . . . A moving account of a lifelong fight to protect minorities from environmental injustice.”—Publishers Weekly BookLife

 

“An astute, affecting remembrance of an eventful life and time.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

“Bunyan Bryant was one of my early mentors. His work taught me that anecdotes alone are not science; that numbers and statistics contain power. And his work taught me that environmental work wasn’t just about science, it was also about action.”—From the Foreword by Mona Hanna-Attisha, C.C. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University college of Human Medicine and author of What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope

 

“Bunyan Bryant inspired his students to stand proudly and humbly in the struggle for justice. In his memoir, he tells a deeply personal story that weaves together the history of the civil rights and environmental movements—a history that he helped shape.”—Michael Garfield, Executive Director, The Ecology Center

 

“Bunyan Bryant is a remarkable individual who has been a role model to many. His personal history is also a firsthand history of racism in the U.S., related in this memoir with warmth, compassion, and humor.” – Paul Mohai, Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

 

“I have only praise for Bunyan Bryant’s inspiring memoir. The account of his innovative role in the environmental justice movement is essential reading for anyone interested in fomenting educational and social change through activism and scholarship.”—Lester P. Monts, Ph.D., Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Music, The University of Michigan

 

"This highly readable narrative makes clear why Bunyan Bryant’s many students, community collaborators, and colleagues—including me—have been challenged and inspired by his thoughts, his words, and, above all, his actions.”—Marie Lynn Miranda, Director, Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, University of Notre Dame

 

"Bunyan Bryant has been an inspiration to me. I'm excited that, through this memoir, others will experience his remarkable life journey as the father of the environmental justice movement and be moved by his dedication, passion, and determination to make our world a better place.”—Chris Kolb, former president and CEO of the Michigan Environmental Council