Matt Lassiter Publishes Essay in Washington Post on the 1970 U-M Teach-In on the Environment (March 11, 2020)

Matt Lassiter, the director of the Environmental Justice HistoryLab, has published an essay on the history and legacies of ENACT’s 1970 Teach-In on the Environment in the Washington Post‘s “Made by History” section on March 11, 2020, the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the four-day U-M teach-in.  Read the article here.

The essay, subtitled “the forgotten environmental action that pointed the way forward for the left,” emphasizes the legacies of environmental sustainability and justice and includes quotations from five of the former Environmental Action for Survival leaders and Earth Day 1970 organizers who have returned to U-M campus for two panel discussions on the Teach-In on the Environment and campus activism.

Lassiter’s article draws from the archival research and interviews conducted by the eight undergraduate students who created the “Give Earth a Chance: Environmental Activism in Michigan” exhibit published January 2018.  This is a prominent example of Why Environmental History Matters and of the power of faculty-student research collaborations that utilize digital and multimedia platforms for public impact, the mission of the U-M HistoryLabs program.

Leave a Reply