“To Love the Wind and the Rain”
African Americans and Environmental History

University of Pittsburg Press
Edited by Dianne D. Glave and Mark Stoll

African- American perceptions of the environment have largely been ignored by scholars.  Dianne Glave and Mark Stoll have put together a book that begins to correct this vast oversight.  “To Love the Wind and the Rain” is a groundbreaking and vivid analysis of the relationship between one race and its surroundings.  The book focuses on three major themes in connection to African Americans: the rural environment, the urban and suburban environments; and the notion of environmental justice.  Meticulous in their research, the contributors cover such subjects as slavery, hunting, gardening, religion, women, and politics.

The essays in this volume reveal how African Americans related to their environments for more than two hundred years as they faced racism, class bias and limitations to their authority over the landscape they farmed, neighborhoods in which they lived, and the spaces where they hunted, fished, swam, and enjoyed their leisure time.  In the foreword, Carolyn Merchant says, “The stories of African Americans in this volume must be read in the context of the enormity of this oppressive history and the struggles of individuals and communities to overcome its consequences.”