| As an ingenious merging of the civil rights movement and environmental movement,the American environmental justice movement that began in the 1980 s has been arousing academic and public concern.Nevertheless,while searching for and gathering foreign and domestic studies on the American environmental justice movement,the author has noticed that few of them concentrate on women,especially African-American women.For this reason,based on qualitative research into abundant historical materials,this thesis is dedicated to exploring middle and upper class African-American women’s participation in the American environmental justice movement from their motivations,strategies and influences in the light of Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought.Through analysis and research,the thesis contends that middle and upper class African-American women as the direct victims of environmental injustice,have energetically adopted various strategies to participate in this particular movement out of a variety of motivations,and exerted significant influences on American society.Middle and upper class African-American women’s unremitting and strenuous efforts in the American environmental justice movement have attracted wide-ranging attention to such problems as racial inequality and social injustice,which,no doubt,will be instrumental in establishing a more equal and impartial society. |
