Bunyan Bryant grew up in a poor neighborhood in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the streets were unpaved and where Blacks like him had to step aside when a white person walked by. By the time he was in high school, his family had moved to Flint, Michigan, where the racism was less overt but the schooling was, if anything, a little worse for a bright but alienated Black teenager.
Bryant fled a soul-killing job at the local Buick plant by enrolling in college—despite his belief that a Black kid could never get a fair shake from a white teacher, let alone a white society still grappling with Jim Crow. College changed Bryant’s life forever. He ended up earning two graduate degrees and helping to found one of today’s most important social science disciplines—the field of environmental justice.
Educator and Activist is Bunyan Bryant’s story—a vivid account of his journey as an educator and activist in the movements for civil rights, students’ rights, women’s rights, international peace, and a healthy environment for all.
As a young professor, Bryant was chosen to launch the University of Michigan’s pioneering Environmental Advocacy Program. Through U-M’s Environmental Justice Initiative, which he directed, Bryant and his students helped poor communities across America fight dangerous practices like strip mining and demand fair treatment from businesses and government. Bryant went on to travel the world, studying and supporting battles for environmental and social justice. He pushed agencies like the EPA to take the problem of environmental equity seriously, and he mentored a generation of passionate young advocates that are carrying on his work today.
“Things have changed,” Bunyan Bryant has said, “but for me, they haven’t changed enough.” Educator and Activistcaptures a life dedicating to making change happen—from college classrooms and legislative chambers to communities around America and the world.
EDUCATOR AND ACTIVIST by Bunyan Bryant, Jr.
“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