Environmental Injustice in African American Ecopoetry in the Twentieth Century: An Ecocritical Study of Selected Poems

This article examines five poems of different African American poets from 1900 to 1999. Its main objective is to explore how each poet tackles African Americans' – and sometimes other minorities'- marginalization and persecution in the US, highlighting the eco-injustice practices conducted by the white authority. It also traces the established bond between African Americans and nature in the twentieth century through an ecocritical analysis of the selected poems. The article includes an examination of the reaction of African American schools developing from racial romanticism to resistance. To achieve this, the article identifies the differences between two basic terms that are usually used interchangeably: ecojustice and environmental justice. Then it identifies and illustrates four types of ecopoetry: nature poetry, environmental poetry, ecological poetry, reclamation ecopoetics/ecojustice poetry.