Help Enviro Justice Leader Melanie Meade Defend Her Home

Melanie Meade is a warrior for environmental justice, a lifelong resident of Clairton, PA, and an unyielding advocate for her community’s health and safety. Living in the shadow of the US Steel Coke Works Plant—one of the worst sources of cancer-causing industrial air pollution in the nation—she has spent years demanding accountability from industry and government alike.

An outspoken activist in a place ravaged by economic disinvestment and environmental racism, Melanie is no stranger to the structural barriers that make it difficult for communities like hers to thrive. Recently, these challenges have landed at her doorstep.

On Christmas Eve, a sheriff served Melanie papers at her home. She faces a potential eviction from the land her family has stewarded for generations, due to claims of unpaid taxes and fees. While these claims are disputed, the outcome could jeopardize her ability to remain in her home and with the community she so tirelessly fights for.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

EJ leaders like Melanie often bear an outsized share of the burdens they fight to eliminate. When their stability is threatened, it has a ripple effect, weakening the resilience of the communities they uplift.

We are raising funds to help Melanie confront the legal and financial pressures she’s facing, ensuring she can remain rooted in her community as a powerful voice for justice.

This is more than a campaign to save a home. It is a way to show Melanie––a fearless and much-loved voice in the movement––that she is not alone, that we are standing with her in solidarity.

MELANIE'S FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT

This is also about taking a stand for environmental justice and against the systemic forces that silence the Davids fighting the Goliaths.

For years, Melanie Meade has championed justice for Clairton. She has installed pollution monitors on her property, spoken at public hearings and protests, and shared her story with the press.

Last fall, Melanie became host to the first permanently installed "Externality” monument, a seven-foot-tall sculpture hand-carved from a tree killed by climate-fueled wildfires. Planted on her property overlooking US Steel’s coal-processing plant, the monument stands as a beacon of resistance and resilience. At its dedication ceremony, Melanie shared this call to action:

“I buried my father in 2013, my mother six months later, my sister in 2015, my baby brother in 2020. I am now the last living, immediate relative of this family. I will not let them take my land. I will not let them tell my story, and I will not let them take my history. We refuse to die.”

Together, we can help Melanie hold her ground—literally and figuratively—and ensure she can keep fighting—for Clairton, for her ancestors, and for the generations yet to come.

Your contribution—no matter the size—sends a powerful message: that Melanie’s fight is our fight, that we stand with her in her time of need, and that we too refuse to die .

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THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT & SOLIDARITY

* Donations will be collected on Melanie Meade’s behalf by The Natural History Museum (NHM) through our parent organization, Not An Alternative, which is fully committed to transparency. All funds received (after any GoFundMe platform fees) will be transferred directly to Melanie Meade or used to address her legal and financial needs, supporting our mission to uplift environmental justice leaders and strengthen frontline community resilience.

To learn more about NHM’s work with Melanie and other environmental justice leaders, visit We Refuse To Die and The Natural History Museum