From the Come Hell or High Water newsletter – please read  & subscribe.

Dear friends,

I’m delighted to tell you Rose Johnson has been named the first recipient of the Sierra Club’s Robert Bullard Environmental Justice Award.

Rose is an important voice in Come Hell or High Water. She has been a tireless leader protecting the watershed and the communities of North Gulfport and Turkey Creek. I first met Rose in 2003, when Robin Mann of the Sierra Club visited Gulfport to join an environmental justice tour of the creek and surrounding communities. I was tagging along with my videocamera, following my friend Derrick Evans as he was introduced to Rose and the work she was doing to protect the creek where she had been baptized and where Derrick’s ancestors had settled in the 1860s. Local news coverage of that event is what drove the mayor to call opponents to his development plans for the city “dumb bastards.” And the rest is history.

Dr. Bullard will present Rose with the award in San Francisco on November 21st and I’m thrilled that I’ll be able to join the celebration with Leslie Fields (Sierra Club director of Environmental Justice) and the other awardees. I hope you can celebrate Rose by spreading the word about the upcoming encore broadcast of Come Hell or High Water on Tuesday and other events.

You can learn more about Rose in these articles:

• “Delta Defender” (2004)
• “Environmental Justice Activist Rose Johnson” (2012)

All my best,
Leah