AP investigative race writer Kat Stafford worked sources on her newly expanded beat to land an exclusive on the launch of a climate justice campaign.
The effort by the group Donors of Color Network would shift millions in funding toward environmental and justice groups led by Black Americans, other people of color and Indigenous people and came on the heels of President Joe Biden pledging to make environmental justice central to White House efforts to fight climate change.
Ashindi Maxton, co-founder of the Donors of Color Network, poses for a photo in Baltimore, Feb. 3, 2021.
AP Photo / Julio Cortez
Stafford brought the story to life by taking readers on a tour of neighborhoods in Detroit’s 48217 ZIP code, where residents live against the backdrop of heavy industrial sites that have long been a major concern in the nation’s largest Black-majority city. Baltimore-based photographer Julio Cortez’s photos of Donors of Color co-founder Ashindi Maxton, the story’s lead character, rounded out the package.