The last time Virginia Rep.-elect Jennifer McClellan (D) saw Rep. Donald McEachin (D) before his death, it was for the unveiling of a new solar project, McClellan told the crowd at a tribute event for the late representative near the Hill on Tuesday.
McEachin, a longtime public servant who died in November, spent much of his time in public office fighting for environmental and climate justice.
“He understood the importance of environmental justice when no other members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus or the Congressional Black Caucus were talking about the environment,” McClellan said. “If he saw someone being discriminated against, if he saw injustice in any form, if he saw communities being marginalized, he would roar like a lion.”
Just a few weeks ago on Feb. 21, McClellan won a special election to succeed McEachin as a representative for Virginia’s 4th district, which includes Richmond. When she gets sworn in, the congresswoman-elect will become the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress.
McClellan spoke alongside Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D- Delaware), who served with McEachin on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Both women shared personal stories of their friend and political ally during the hourlong event, as did other leaders from environmental groups, such as Black Millennials 4 Flint’s LaTricea Adams and Dr. Rev. Ambrose Carroll of Green the Church.
Many speakers focused on faith and its impact on McEachin’s work. At his family’s request, the event’s hosts — Climate Action Campaign, Dream.Org and the Environmental Defense Fund — donated $3,000 to McEachin’s alma mater, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology of Virginia Union University in Richmond.
“The Black church is here today to honor one of our own: an ordained minister who loved the church, he had a theology that was not about pie in the sky, but about clean air and clean water here on a divinely ordered planet,” Carroll said.
During the event, two Virginia environmental activists also won the first-ever “Donald McEachin, Dream.Org Climate Action Award” for their work opposing two power plants in their community. La’Veesha Allen Rollins and Rev. Wayne Henley, who helped found the group C5-Concerned Citizens of Charles City County, received the award and $2,500 each.
In addition to honoring McEachin, speakers at the event pushed for further action on climate and environmental justice issues.
“I think what Donald McEachin would say is that all of us have a responsibility to stay strong,” said the Delaware congresswoman. “Because the fight is not over to protect this planet. The fight is not over to get clean air and clean drinking water in areas that deserve it in our environmental justice communities.”