The World We Need celebrates America’s unsung grassroots environmental groups — often led by people of color and the poor — that defend communities against polluting industries and help them mitigate the impacts of climate change. This excerpt highlights Corinna Gould, an Ohlone woman and cofounder of Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, who is working to restore tribal land in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This post was produced in partnership with The New Press.
Corrina Gould stood on the corner of Shellmound Street and Ohlone Way in Emeryville, California, cordless microphone in hand and a crowd of about 200 circling around her. Some among the throng held aloft signs espousing the cause for which she had gathered them: “Save the shellmounds,” read one banner held taut behind Gould. “Protect All Sacred Sites. You can’t protect the living until you protect the dead.” Another: “Oakland is Ohlone.” A third: “You are walking on Ohlone graves.” This was the 20th Black Friday in a row that Gould, a squat and resolute Ohlone matriarch, had led a protest urging residents not to shop at Emeryville Bay Street, a mall on the eastern shoreline of San Francis... Read more