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From brownfields to diesel fumes, Camden's residents deal with environmental problems daily. Using environmental justice as a framework, this program, sponsored by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and Rutgers School of Law-Camden, examined the condition of Camden's environment and explored possibilities for the future through the lenses of history, law, ethics and public policy.
Welcoming Remarks:
Rayman Solomon - Dean, Rutgers School of Law-Camden
Event Moderator:
Howard Gillette - Professor, History Department, Rutgers University- Camden
Panelists:
Mark Doorley - Director of the Ethics Program in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Villanova University
Olga Pomar - Managing Attorney, community development unit at South Jersey Legal Services, Camden, NJ
Henry Rose - Statewide Coordinator for the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
  Rayman Solomon, Dean of Rutgers Law School Moderator Howard Gillette with panelists
provided opening remarks for the event. Mark Doorley,Olga Pomar, and Henry Rose
 
Camden Resident Lula Williams with Lori Braunstein, Panelist Olga Pomar
Founder and Executive Director of Sustainable Cherry Hill
 
Retired Camden County Health Officer Dr. John H. Cho Local Camden artist Susan Sherbine
displayed her work at the event reception
Learn More:
- What is environmental justice?
- The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as:
"the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work."
For more information on environmental justice in Camden and New Jersey:
Justice
This program is part of NJCH's Justice theme, which uses the humanities to consider questions about the meaning and implementation of justice throughout history and in contemporary society. NJCH has incorporated Justice into its activities in several ways, including:
- A Conversation with Annette Gordon-Reed and James M. McPherson: History and the Meaning of Justice moderated by Dr. Clement A. Price at the NJCH 2009 Awards Event
- Justice: A Dialogue Through Film which uses documentary film to spur conversations about race and justice at public libraries around the state
- New programs about justice, ranging from the role of the Supreme Court to insuring equity in education, for the Horizon Speakers Bureau
- A preferred category for major and mini grants on Justice
Presenters:
| Rayman L. Solomon became Dean and Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law-Camden on July 1, 1998. Prior to coming to Rutgers-Camden Dean Solomon was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Curriculum at Northwestern University School of Law (1989-1998). Before that he was Associate Director and a Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation (1980-1989). While there he was also the editor of the American Bar Foundation Research Journal (now Law & Social Inquiry). Dean Solomon graduated with a B.A. from Wesleyan University (1968) and has a J.D. (1976) and a Ph.D. (1986) in American Legal History from the University of Chicago. |
Howard Gillette specializes in modern U.S. history, with a special interest in urban and regional development. His book, Camden After the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-Industrial City, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in the fall of 2006. His work in public history has included a role as a founder and first director of the Center for Washington Area Studies at the George Washington University and as editor of Washington History, the journal of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and the Journal of Planning History. He is a past president of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History and a former board member of the Historical Society of Washington and the Camden County Historical Society. He is the author, among other works, of Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995). |
Mark Doorley is the Director of the Ethics Program in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Villanova University. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College in 1994 and a Masters in Divinity from the Washington Theological Union in 1988. He has been at Villanova since 1996. He is also the President of the Board of Trustees for the Center for Environmental Transformation, a non-profit which began in 2007 in the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden, NJ, dedicated to educating people of faith on their responsibility to the earth and to sponsoring alternative and sustainable means of living from the bounty of the earth. He lives in Cherry Hill, NJ. |
Olga Pomar is the managing attorney of the community development unit at South Jersey Legal Services in Camden, NJ, where she represents low-income community groups and non-profit organizations, providing legal assistance in both transactional matters and assistance with advocacy regarding a range of community issues. She has been involved in various environmental justice initiatives, ranging from Title VI litigation to permitting, enforcement, brownfields clean-up, contaminated drinking water, open space and parks development, and public health issues. She has also represented numerous resident councils and civic associations, and most recently has litigated several cases challenging redevelopment plans that threaten low-income residents with loss of their homes through eminent domain and forcible displacement from their communities. She has worked in legal services since 1984, having spent 10 years as a housing specialist at the Legal Aid Society in Trenton, NJ before coming to Camden. She also spent two years in private practice, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1982. |
Henry D. Rose has more than twenty years of experience working in various aspects of human services and human rights. He is currently the statewide coordinator for the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, as well as an associate fellow at the John C. Watson School of Public Policy at Thomas Edison State College. Mr. Rose was lead organizer for SEIU 1199 New Jersey. In that capacity he ran union recognition elections, developed political and community based campaigns, and negotiated contracts. For more than ten years, Mr. Rose worked with T.R.A.C.E.S Institute, a training, research, and community educational services. Mr. Rose is chair and founder of Blacks for Social Justice, the publisher of Chin Check newsletter, and a member of People’s Organization for Progress. Mr. Rose cofounded Genesis Shule ( a community school in Newark). He has lectured on a variety of civil rights, human rights, and community based issues. |
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