Before "Environmental Justice" Had a Name, CLIPI Was Fighting for It
Before "Environmental Justice" Had a Name, CLIPI Was Fighting for It
Before "Environmental Justice" Had a Name, CLIPI Was Fighting for It
At our recent UCLA event celebrating CLIPI's archive donation, former CLIPI attorney Joel Reynolds highlighted an important fact: "The term environmental justice didn't actually even exist, and yet the Center was doing the Century Freeway case."
He was right. We were linking environmental protection with social equity before there was a name for it.
The Century Freeway litigation began in 1972 and lasted 45 years—until Judge Harry Pregerson died with his boots on, as we used to say. The case became a blueprint for how environmental protection and social justice work together.
The settlement achieved something unprecedented:
- 5,000 units of affordable housing
- Childcare requirements for project workers
- Job opportunities for people from impacted communities
- The Green Line light rail system
- The Harbor Freeway Transitway
As Bob Wolfe noted: "Century Freeway started as a freeway litigation, but the settlement resulted in the light rail line and was really the springboard for the development of LA's public transit system."
We represented the poorest communities in Los Angeles—Watts, Willowbrook—neighborhoods that had no voice when wealthier areas successfully blocked freeways through their communities.
Linda Douglass, our paralegal, was 22 years old going door-to-door in Watts, documenting how people were being offered $700 for homes worth $20,000 to make way for the freeway.
We partnered with the Sierra Club and community leaders like Ted Watkins, proving that environmental protection and social justice aren't competing interests—they're inseparable.
This case taught us that public interest law isn't just about winning. It's about fundamentally changing how decisions get made and who gets heard in the process.
The full case is now preserved in 118 boxes at UCLA's Special Collections.
Before "Environmental Justice" Had a Name, CLIPI Was Fighting for It
At our recent UCLA event celebrating CLIPI's archive donation, former CLIPI attorney Joel Reynolds highlighted an important fact: "The term environmental justice didn't actually even exist, and yet the Center was doing the Century Freeway case."
He was right. We were linking environmental protection with social equity before there was a name for it.
The Century Freeway litigation began in 1972 and lasted 45 years—until Judge Harry Pregerson died with his boots on, as we used to say. The case became a blueprint for how environmental protection and social justice work together.
The settlement achieved something unprecedented:
- 5,000 units of affordable housing
- Childcare requirements for project workers
- Job opportunities for people from impacted communities
- The Green Line light rail system
- The Harbor Freeway Transitway
As Bob Wolfe noted: "Century Freeway started as a freeway litigation, but the settlement resulted in the light rail line and was really the springboard for the development of LA's public transit system."
We represented the poorest communities in Los Angeles—Watts, Willowbrook—neighborhoods that had no voice when wealthier areas successfully blocked freeways through their communities.
Linda Douglass, our paralegal, was 22 years old going door-to-door in Watts, documenting how people were being offered $700 for homes worth $20,000 to make way for the freeway.
We partnered with the Sierra Club and community leaders like Ted Watkins, proving that environmental protection and social justice aren't competing interests—they're inseparable.
This case taught us that public interest law isn't just about winning. It's about fundamentally changing how decisions get made and who gets heard in the process.
The full case is now preserved in 118 boxes at UCLA's Special Collections.
Category
News
Written by
Carlyle W. Hall Jr.
Co-Founder, CLIPI
Published
Category
News
Written by
Carlyle W. Hall Jr.
Co-Founder, CLIPI
Published
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