By David Benac, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Western Michigan University
The sustainability movement strives to meet cultural, economic, and environmental needs for the long term. Michigan demonstrated the power of this complex movement before the term existed. In the late 1960s, Berrien County challenged the use of DDT when the insecticide threatened the culture and economy of Southwest Michigan. At the same time, Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers (UAW) created the Black Lake Conference Center launching one of the most significant efforts in US history to connect environmental health, civil rights, and workers’ rights into a single movement. This presentation explores the ways Michiganders created a blueprint for sustainability that we’re still trying to match today.
David Benac is an associate professor of history at Western Michigan University. He teaches and advises graduate students in environmental and public history, including cultural resources management, environmental movements, heritage tourism, historic preservation, and oral history. His research investigates how individuals and communities develop cultural ties to environments (built, natural, and landscape) and how these connections emerge in grassroots activism. His current major work is a forthcoming book titled Voices of Ecological Truth Tellers: The Rainforest Action Network and Grassroots Organizing.
