Research Guides: Environmental Inequality in Postwar America: Home

The Craft of Research

"The Forgotten Guinea Pigs:" A Report on Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation Sustained as Result of the Nuclear Weapons Testing Program Conducted by the United States Government: Report Prepared for the Use of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, United States House of Representatives and Its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1980.

Environmental Justice Atlas: United States of America: Click on map to find linked information and data on social conflict around environmental issues in the U.S.

Emporis Database: Good source of basic technical data as well as images of specific buildings.

Siting of Hazardous Waste Landfills and Their Correlation With Racial and Economic Status of Surrounding Communities: In 1983, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined the correlation between the location of hazardous waste landfills and the racial and economic status of the surrounding communities in eight southeastern states. The GAO found that African Americans made up the majority of the population in three of the four communities where the region's four offsite hazardous waste landfills were located. At least 26 percent of the population in these communities had an income below the poverty level.

Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites: United Church of Christ, Commission for Racial Justice, 1987.; Documented that three out of five African Americans live in communities with abandoned toxic waste sites. Available?

Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States: Found that 20 years after the release of the original Toxic Wastes report, significant racial and socioeconomic disparities persist in the distribution of commercial hazardous waste facilities. Available?

The Principles of Environmental Justice (EJ): Principles developed by delegates at the First National People Of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, held in Washington, DC, in October of 1991.

Failed Promises: Evaluating the Federal Government's Response to Environmental Justice: David M. Konisky, editor. Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 2015.; Chapters focus on federal environmental justice policy as it has been carried out over the past two decades, with an emphasis on the performance of the Environmental Protection Agency. Rutgers-restricted access

Federal Highway Administration: Environmental Justice: History, legislation, data tools, etc.

U.S. Department of Transportation Environmental Justice Strategy: November 15, 2016.

Assessing and Managing the Ecological Impacts of Paved Roads: National Research Council, Committee on Ecological Impacts of Road Density, 2005. Rutgers-restricted access

Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis: Guidelines from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Pied Piper of the Ghetto: Lyndon Johnson, Environmental Justice, and the Politics of Rat Control: Malcolm McLaughlin. Journal of Urban History 37(4), July 2011, pp 541-561.; "This article focuses on the issue of rat infestation to explore the conditions of “urban blight” that disproportionately afflicted ghetto communities in the United States during the 1960s and that represented a form of environmental inequality linked to racial marginalization and poverty." Rutgers-restricted Access

New Jersey Environmental Digital Library (NJEDL): Literature and multimedia relating to the New Jersey environment. The collection includes documents and reports, scientific studies, photographs, videos, maps, and more.

EPA Region 2: Region 2 of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency includes New York and New Jersey as well as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and eight tribal nations. The Lower Passaic River Restoration Project has been identified as a key issue by Region 2.

Ironbound Environmental Justice History and Resource Center: A project of the Ironbound Community Corporation of Newark, the IEJHRC is housed at the Van Buren Branch of the Newark Public Library (140 Van Buren Street) and is open to the public.

New Jersey State Publications Digital Library: Department of Environmental Protection

New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute: Legislative Links: Links to relevant New Jersey, Federal, and International agencies.

Highlands Act: Sierra Club Annual Report Card: 2013 Report Card; 2012 Report Card; 2011 Report Card

Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting: "470 interview excerpts and 3882 photographs from the Working in Paterson Folklife Project of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The four-month study of occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey, was conducted in 1994."

MERI Library Research Guide 3: History of the Meadowlands: List of publications and online resources containing information on or related to the history of the New Jersey Meadowlands. Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute. Revised 2009.

The Hackensack Meadowlands in the Imagery: History of a Deep Social and Environmental Transformation: March, 2013.

Garbage Governmentalities and Environmental Justice In New Jersey: Raysa Martinez Kruger. (Ph.D. Thesis) Rutgers University, May 2017.; "Using the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark and Essex County as a case study area, this dissertation examines how conditions of environmental injustice in the Ironbound are produced and perpetuated by the collective enactment of our governmental approaches to the problem of increasing garbage production in New Jersey since the 1870s."