VCU ‘takes a stand’ for climate justice on Earth Day

Molly Manning, Contributing Writer

The VCU chapter of the NAACP, VCU Green Action Club, Students for Justice in Palestine and Sunrise RVA organized an Earth Day protest and march in Monroe Park on April 22.

Carolyn Hindle, Green Action co-president, began the protest by addressing the crowd through a megaphone. Hindle called on VCU to include specific carbon emission benchmarks in their sustainability plan and work toward climate initiatives instead of spending $240 million on a new athletic village.

“Something needs to be done now, but in the face of such a huge problem like climate change, it might feel like a small institution like VCU doesn’t really have power and I firmly disagree with that,” Hindle said. “VCU has a huge amount of power in the city, we are the number one property owner, we are one of the number one employers, and we owe it to our community to do better.”

Green Action is a student-led organization focused on environmental advocacy and climate justice, according to their letter of demands. This isn’t the first time they’ve organized an Earth Day protest — in April 2023, a group of protestors organized by the club delivered a model of the Earth in a coffin to the same office, as reported by The Commonwealth Times.

The march in 2023 was focused on the petition the group created, urging the university to declare a climate emergency, which has over 2,000 signatures. There was also an action day last Earth Day in 2024 centered around VCU’s lack of concrete demands in their sustainability plan, according to Caroline May, Green Action’s co-president. This year, the protest was a reiteration of both of those previous themes.

“Now this is encompassing both, but really pushing for more action on the sustainability plan,” May said. “Right now they’ve closed the implementation phase of the plan, however, I think one of the big things that’s an issue is the really really slow progress and lack of action on the sustainability plan.”

Participants added their names with Sharpies to a banner which said in large, green letters, “Take a stand — we support equity and sustainability at VCU.” This banner was delivered to the VCU Office of the President at 910 W. Franklin Street. Hand-painted t-shirts with the message “take a stand” in green letters were also distributed to attendees.

During the march from Monroe Park and back, protesters sang songs and chanted phrases such as “We want clean air, not another billionaire,” and “Tell Michael Rao: climate justice now.”

After the marchers returned to the park, John Henry Williams, an organizer for Sunrise RVA, addressed the crowd with remarks about climate change and climate justice. Sunrise RVA is a local branch of the nationwide Sunrise Movement, a movement of young people fighting against the climate crisis and for a Green New Deal to be passed, according to the Sunrise Movement website.

Ashley Brown, president of the VCU NAACP chapter, followed Williams in speaking to the demonstrators about climate and racial justice.

“As many of you probably know, climate justice is directly linked to racial justice and there’s a little concept called environmental racism, where companies, governments, organizations and institutions purposefully put pollutants and things that damage people’s lungs, ability to breathe, health concerns, they put these things in neighborhoods of people of color,” Brown said.