WASTE: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret
With a foreword by Bryan Stevenson
The MacArthur grant–winning “Erin Brockovich of Sewage” tells the riveting story of the environmental justice movement that is firing up rural America
MacArthur “genius”Catherine Coleman Flowers grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, a place that’s been called “Bloody Lowndes” because of its violent, racist history. Once the epicenter of the voting rights struggle, today it’s Ground Zero for a new movement that is Flowers’s life’s work. It’s a fight to ensure human dignity through a right most Americans take for granted: basic sanitation. Too many people, especially the rural poor, lack an affordable means of disposing cleanly of the waste from their toilets, and, as a consequence, live amid filth.
Flowers calls this America’s dirty secret. In this powerful book she tells the story of systemic class, racial, and geographic prejudice that foster Third World conditions, not just in Alabama, but across America, in Appalachia, Central California, coastal Florida, Alaska, the urban Midwest, and on Native American reservations in the West.
Flowers’s book is the inspiring story of the evolution of an activist, from country girl to student civil rights organizer to environmental justice champion at Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative. It shows how sanitation is becoming too big a problem to ignore as climate change brings sewage to more backyards, and not only those of poor minorities.
What They’re Saying
“I never imagined that a book about raw sewage would be a real page-turner but Catherine Flowers’s Waste is just that. When the United Nations considers access to sanitation a basic human right, it is shocking that in this wealthiest of nations the most challenged and forgotten people continue to be flushed and forgotten. This book is a stunning eye-opener.”
—Jane Fonda, actor, activist, and author
“Catherine Coleman Flowers’s important new book shows us how ordinary people can stand up, fight back, and build a government and an economy that works for all of us. Together, we can and we must guarantee clean water and sanitation as a right for all.”
—U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
“Catherine Coleman Flowers’s life story is a testament to the importance of sustained activism, a compassionate heart bound by justice, and a commitment to political clarity informed by the dark annals of history. If you care about environmental justice, racial justice, and class reckoning, this book is a lodestar.”
—Regina Hall, actor and environmental activist with The Solutions Project
“From the southern states, there have always been strong women who stood and fought for justice. To names like Fannie, Rosa, and Amelia, we must now add Catherine Flowers. Waste is the story of her work to organize communities against environmental racism. The fight is in her soul and because it is the truth, it will be exposed.”
—Rev. Dr. William Barber II
“Catherine Flowersdrops us headlong into areas in our country where descendants of slaves continue to be held captive by racial, environmental, and climate injustices. She uses her personal journey and her gift of storytelling to force us to open our eyes and see how Blackpeople in our country have been systemically and purposefully left behind to literally wallow in their own waste.”
—Gina McCarthy, former U.S. EPA administrator under President Obama and current president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council
“Embodying the spirit of my late father, Muhammad Ali, this story is life changing, transcends all boundaries, and streamlines what matters through Catherine Flowers’s powerful voice. Her passion and commitment to fight for sanitation for all is as inspirational as it is aspirational. Waste provides a guide to uplifting the voices of the forgotten.”
—Khaliah Ali Wertheimer
“This is a book about justice long overdue, and it’ s also a book for our pregnant moment, as movements combatting racism, inequality, and climate change converge to win a radically transformed future.”
—Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for the Green New Deal
“When you combine the ecological expertise of Rachel Carson, the dogged determination of Erin Brockovich, and the lifelong passion for equality of John Lewis, you get Catherine Flowers. Catherine’s story and her work in Lowndes County should motivate all of us to ensure that environmental injustice will no longer be America’s dirty secret.”
—John Kerry, 68th U.S. Secretary of State
“Combining careful research, a powerful personal story, and bringing to life the rich legacy and civil rights history of Lowndes County, Alabama, Waste is a gift and a must-read for any activist, educator, or individual on the path to transforming our country towards justice and equity for all. ”
—Varshini Prakash, Sunrise Movement
“Flowers exposes the true injustice of the situation and how it can be remedied, from both sides of the political spectrum. This is a powerful and moving book that deserves wide readership.”
—Booklist
“A useful primer on why America’s treatment of raw sewage doesn’t pass the smell test.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Catherine [Flowers] is a shining example of the power individuals have to make a measurable difference by educating, advocating, and acting on environmental issues . . . [and a] firm advocate for the poor, who recognizes that the climate crisis disproportionately affects the least wealthy and powerful among us.”