Dr. Mildred McClain on Environmental Justice: A Lifetime Commitment

Chapters

00:00 Meet Dr. Mildred McClain

01:27 The History of Harambee House 

04:23 The Savannah River Site Spill That Sparked a Movement 

18:29 Climate Impacts Facing Savannah and the South Georgia Coast 

23:34 Building an Air Monitoring Program with Residents 

26:58 Savannah’s Network of Resiliency Hubs 

35:19 Harambee House’s International Work, from Tanzania to Senegal 

56:38 What’s Giving Dr. McClain Hope

Drawdown Georgia is honored to share a special Georgia Climate Digest video interview with environmental justice pioneer Dr. Mildred McClain.

Dr. McClain is the founder and executive director emeritus of Harambee House / Citizens for Environmental Justice and has spent five decades working in education, community empowerment, public health, environmental justice, and youth leadership development. In this edition of the Georgia Climate Digest interview series, she sits down with host and mentee Eriqah Vincent to talk about the beginnings of her environmental justice career, the radioactive disaster that led to the founding of Harambee House, current climate resiliency initiatives underway in Savannah, and what’s giving her hope.

How Did a Radioactive Spill Lead to the Founding of Harambee House?

Dr. McClain traces Harambee House back to a 1991 tritium spill at the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy nuclear weapons facility in Aiken, South Carolina. At the time, no organization was looking at how nuclear weapons production was affecting communities of color. Starting with a $2,500 grant, Dr. McClain and her community built what became one of the only Black-led organizations addressing radiation exposure at federal nuclear facilities nationwide.

What Climate Impacts Are Hitting Savannah Hardest?

Dr. McClain walks through the layered challenges facing coastal Georgia: worsening flooding, hotter summers, and a lack of robust emergency systems to help elderly, disabled, and sick residents evacuate safely. She connects these climate impacts directly to economic strain, describing families forced to choose between medicine and their electric bill as utility costs climb in poorly insulated, substandard housing.

What Do Savannah’s Resiliency Hubs Look Like in Practice?

Harambee House is building a network of resiliency hubs across eight West Side Savannah communities, transforming existing community centers with solar power, battery storage, and EV chargers. These hubs supported residents through COVID-19 and are designed to function around the clock, backed by trained Community Emergency Response Teams in churches and neighborhood associations across the city.

How Does Harambee House’s Work Extend Beyond Savannah?

Dr. McClain shares the story of her decades-long connection to Africa, from meeting Tanzania’s President Julius Nyerere in the 1970s to Harambee House’s newly approved partnership with the Senegalese government on reforestation, beach cleanup, and youth programs.

This wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation is a rare opportunity to hear directly from one of the movement’s most respected elders about what it really takes to sustain a lifetime commitment to justice.

What You’ll Learn

• How a 1991 radioactive spill at the Savannah River Site led to the founding of Harambee House.
• What climate impacts, from flooding to extreme heat, are hitting Savannah’s West Side hardest.
• How Harambee House’s air monitoring program puts data directly in residents’ hands.
• How Savannah’s resiliency hubs combine solar power, emergency response training, and workforce development.
• How Harambee House’s international work connects Georgia to Senegal, Tanzania, and beyond.
• Dr. McClain’s most important lessons for the next generation of environmental justice leaders.
• What’s giving Dr. Mildred McClain hope after five decades in the movement.

Continue reading in our companion blog to enjoy highlight clips from Eriqah’s full conversation with Dr. McClain, including her experience as a true pioneer of the environmental justice movement, and lessons from her decades of wisdom.

Download the Interview Transcript

Prefer to read the conversation instead? Download the complete PDF transcript of this interview with Dr. Mildred McClain to explore her insights on environmental justice, community resilience, and a lifetime of movement work.