Community-Driven Approaches to Safeguarding Coastal Futures

Founded during the Reconstruction era in the late 1860s, Louisiana’s Freedpeople’s communities have been sites of collective resilience and inclusive development for a century and a half. Collective resources like benevolent associations, schools, and churches were community infrastructures for surviving and thriving amidst waves of post-Reconstruction racial exclusion. These institutions notably gave rise to the grassroots environmental justice movement in the mid to late twentieth century.

Today, residents in these communities draw on these institutions and cultural traditions to articulate a vision of inclusive resilience planning for protection in the present and future.

Theo Hilton is an environmental protection specialist at U.S. EPA’s Gulf of Mexico Division. He earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Tulane University with a dissertation titled “Reconstructing the Future: Race, Heritage, and Coastal Planning in Southeast Louisiana.” His current research focuses on community-led approaches to coastal resilience, water quality improvement, habitat restoration, and environmental education.

October 23, 12:00-1:00 PDT/3:00-4:00 EDT

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