Carl Anthony

Carl Anthony (February 8, 1939 – April 4, 2026) was an American social environmental justice leader, architect, regional planner, and author. He was the founding director of Urban Habitat which primarily focused on the environmental movement to confront issues of race and class structure. In addition, he was the founder and co-director of Breakthrough Communities, a project dedicated to building multiracial leadership for sustainable communities in California and the rest of the nation, and was the former President of the Earth Island Institute.

Carl Anthony was born in a predominantly African American neighborhood, Kingsessing, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents, Lewis Anthony (born William Edwards) and Mildred Anthony (née Cokine), sent Carl and his older brother Lewie to B.B. Comegys, an integrated elementary school in which only about a dozen of the 300 students were African American, rather than the neighborhood school called Alexander Wilson, which was only a block away from their home. They later went on to attend Dobbins Vocational School, where Anthony was enrolled in the carpentry and cabinet-making shop. His teachers were impressed by his drawings and suggested that he transfer to the architectural drafting homeroom, where he fostered his interest in architecture. thumb Carl Anthony studied and took inspiration from Dogon architecture in Africa.

Education Anthony received a professional degree in architecture at Columbia University in 1969 to gain an understanding of architecture and ways to implement projects. Upon his graduation, he was awarded the William Kinne Fellowship, a grant to enrich students' education through travel. Anthony visited traditional towns and villages in West Africa, studying the ways in which people utilized their few resources to shape their environments. He returned from Africa in 1971 where he was offered a position as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley College of Natural Resources where he resided for ten years. Alongside his colleague Luke Cole at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Anthony founded and published the Race, Poverty, and the Environmental Journal, which was the United States’ first environmental justice periodical. In 1989, Anthony founded Earth Island Institute's Urban Habitat Program with David Brower and Karl Linn, the mission of which is to combine education with advocacy and coalition building to advance environmental and social justice in low-income communities in the Bay Area. He served as the initiative's Executive Director until 2000. Anthony directed various projects of Urban Habitat which worked to promote environmental leadership in communities consisting of primarily people of color to challenge environmental stability throughout the lens of race and poverty.

Breakthrough Communities (2008–) In 2008, Anthony co-founded Breakthrough Communities, a project of Earth House Center, an advocacy nonprofit for regional equity and environmental and climate justice and served as the co-director. Anthony also founded Six Wins, an initiative in the Bay Area addressing the mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions.

The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race (2017) Anthony's memoir, The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race, is a mix of personal, historical, and political ideals. Anthony included personal experiences as an architect/planner, environmentalist, and Black American with urban history, racial justice, cosmology, and the challenge of healing the environment from past damages. The memoir includes personal stories from living in Philadelphia post World War 2, his time as a student and civil rights activist in the 1960s, being a traveling student of West African architecture and culture, and pioneering environmental justice advocacy. He also discusses his experiences during the Civil Rights movement and how he became focused on environmental movement and social justice. His main points of focus are on architecture, agriculture, black towns, and urban housing. The memoir also provides insight into his research on the African Slave trade, civil rights movement, environmental degradation, urban gentrification, and grassroots organizations.

Boards, commissions, and awards 1991–1997: President, Earth Island Institute 1993–1995: Founder, President, EDGE, Alliance of Ethnic and Environmental Organizations of California 1993–1996: Chair and Principal Administrative Officer, East Bay Conversion and Reinvestment Commission 1995: KQED, Honoree, Black History Month 1995: San Francisco Foundation, Humanitarian Award 1996: Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University 1996–1997: President, Board of Directors, Alameda Center for Environmental Technology 1997: Josephine and Frank Duveneck Humanitarian Award 1999–2001: Co-chair, Community Capital Initiative of the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development 2014: Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition by Congresswoman Barbara Lee 2015: UC Davis Community Engagement Award 2015: Trailblazer Award from the Sierra Club

Death Anthony died in Berkeley on April 4, 2026 at the age of 87.