Who We Are
PURPOSE
The Black Hive exists to convene Black climate and environmental justice (CEJ) leaders, so we can invest in equitable climate solutions and alternatives that center on the concerns of Black communities and that protect Black lives.
The Black Hive is at the heart of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) climate and environmental justice efforts. We are a cohort of Black CEJ experts who use our collective experience and knowledge to assess how climate change and ecological destruction impact Black communities in the U.S. and across the Global Black Diaspora. Together, we organize for cleaner, better, and safer futures for Black lives.
The Black Hive is a collective of more than 200 organizations and individuals representing Black CEJ expertise, ranging from organizers, cultural workers, advocates, and activists, to data scientists, engineers, technologists, and strategists.
The Black Hive serves Black communities that bear the brunt of climate disaster and extreme weather events, and whose experiences are exacerbated by other socioeconomic factors, such as poverty and systemic racism. The Black Hive proposes pro-Black climate policies and practices; builds alternatives to current harmful systems; and offers resources, data and technology, communications, and disaster-response support to local communities and Black-led organizations.
OUR HISTORY
In 2021, M4BL launched the Red, Black, and Green New Deal, which has now expanded beyond this policy platform into the newly launched CEJ collective, the Black Hive. The Red, Black, and Green New Deal is our blueprint for a sustainable, renewable future in defense of Black lives, and promotes rigorous and urgent legislative action toward CEJ, in addition to holding policy makers accountable.
In 2022, the Black Hive recently set forth an updated Black Climate Mandate, which protects not only Black communities but all communities in the U.S., and outlines the urgency and need for us to take action before we are locked into 1.5℃ climate change and its devastating and deadly impacts. Our mandate calls for dismantling the status quo and investing NGO and government resources in transformative climate-change strategies that protect the most marginalized in society.
Jemez Principles
Why does the Black Hive @ M4BL align with the Jemez Principles?
As the Black Hive @M4BL prepares to launch our Black Climate Mandate, we have agreed to adopt the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing. The Jemez Principles will guide how we work with each other, with ally formations, and with potential new partners, to ensure that Black lives are at the center of the CEJ fight and that the plan for climate resilience ensures Black futures. This commitment also allows us to pay homage to the Black elders and ancestors who have paved the way for our movement. We believe that establishing shared principles, or shared values, is a first step/priority in community work, because they set the table for our collaborations and how we make decisions. As we work with each other, and independently, across issues, an agreed-upon set of principles ensures that why we do the work is aligned with how we do the work.