$10M grant aims to provide environmental justice in Memphis and other parts of the South

Kayla Solomon, FOX13 Memphis Reporter
Published: Sep. 19, 2023

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – From air pollution to water and soil – parts of Memphis have long been neglected and the surrounding neighborhoods have suffered as a result.

FOX13 continues to look for solutions and this time, the solution involves the University of Memphis.

Earlier this year, the university’s School of Public Health announced a partnership with several other schools across the South as well as nonprofit organization RTI International.

This partnership includes a $10-million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dedicated to environmental justice.

If you ask public health professionals, both local and national, what environmental justice means, you’d get a similar response.

“The word ‘justice’ itself means equity for all. To me, that means people should have all the same resources, same opportunities, same kinds of landscapes where they can advance their health and well-being,” said Dr. Ashish Joshi, the dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Memphis.

James Harrington, a research chemist of RTI International, gave a similar answer: “Environmental justice means addressing the historical wrongs that have been done to, you know, minoritized and under-resourced communities.”

Historical wrongs are what both RTI International and the EPA are looking to fix.

This spring, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, awarded $10 million to North Carolina-based RTI International.

The project will serve communities throughout EPA Region 4, eight states including Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.

“So we intentionally reached out to a university in each state that had a rich history of community engagement and partnership, who can kind of act as the network’s hands and feet,” said Harrington.

Each university will head into communities affected by pollution to talk to neighbors and gather data.

RTI will then walk universities through the process of writing strong federal grant proposals to the EPA, helping them get funding for projects to help those neighborhoods.

Janelle Armstrong-Brown, along with Harrington, are the co-chairs of RTI’s project.

“My hope would be that communities, community members would be at the table making key decisions when it comes to things that are going to impact the neighborhoods that they are living in and that we will hopefully in 15 years have clean water, that some policies have been put in place, some regulations have been put in place in terms of what can be emitted into the atmosphere or not,” said Armstrong-Brown.

Dr. Ashish Joshi is the new dean of the University of Memphis School of Public Health.

“To me, the School of Public Health has an opportunity to be an impactful school, a community engaged school, and to be a solution-centered school and be anchored in the community,” said Joshi.

He acknowledges that pollution is a problem across Memphis, including South Memphis, where our FOX13 Contaminated Community investigations have shown you the impact of generations of pollution on neighborhoods like Boxtown and Alcy Ball.

One of the most contaminated sites includes the old Defense Depot where the U.S. Army dumped chemicals for decades.

“It was supposed to be a storage and distribution center for normal things like hats, gloves, and things that soldiers need, but in actuality, it was a landfill full of harmful chemicals that hurt people, plants, and pets,” said Marquita Bradshaw, an activist and the founder of Sowing Justice.

Joshi said when they get the go-ahead from RTI, students and staff of the school will start by going into these communities, speaking to neighbors, getting their hands dirty.

Then, they can assess the list of priorities and take guidance from RTI when it comes to preparing any grant proposals for the EPA.

The hope is to get the funding requested, however much that may be, and get to work.

Joshi says they’re up for the challenge.

“This is a stepping stone for something that’s needed in a very timely way and I hope that U of M and SPH can make its contribution towards advancing this good health and well-being of the people and the families and the communities that live in Memphis and beyond,” he said.

This project is still in the very early stages.

RTI International says they’ll decide how much of that $10 million goes where based on the assessed need.