Flint, Michigan’s experience with government mismanagement and pollution has propelled it to the forefront of many environmental justice conversations. Flint, a majority black city north of Detroit, experienced dangerous decreases in water quality after policymakers took the city’s water system off of Detroit’s grid and instead pulled water from the Flint River. Residents drank heavily polluted water for nearly 18 months, with many residents suffering from rashes, hair loss, and elevated lead levels in their blood. The people of Flint routinely raised their water concerns with local and state officials, but the residents were ignored in what Michigan’s Civil Rights Commission called a serious example of “systemic racism”. The government’s serious failures in Flint propelled a national wave of environmental activists calling for environmental justice.