Pearl Walker is an energy justice advocate, writer, and public speaker based in Memphis, Tennessee. A longtime champion for energy justice, Walker served as Chair of the Environmental Justice Committee of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP and was elected to the Memphis City Council to represent District 3 in Tennessee, beginning January 2024.
Walker’s longtime leadership on SACE’s “Memphis Has the Power” campaign has helped advance affordable and equitable access to clean energy for Memphians. Working alongside Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) and other community leaders, Walker helped successfully fight the Byhalia crude oil pipeline. She has also been instrumental in demanding accountability from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on their legacy coal ash pollution and lack of accountability to the people of the Tennessee Valley.
Walker is inspired by many who have worked on justice issues before her, including Cornelia Crenshaw, an energy equity and justice advocate and Memphian whose protest efforts in the 1960s and 1970s led local utility, Memphis Light Gas & Water, to allow its customers to make partial payments on their bills. Having witnessed Memphis communities, especially Black and Brown, struggle with energy unaffordability, high electric bills, coal ash pollution, and lack of access to safe and affordable clean energy options like solar, Walker has long been committed to mobilizing concerned citizens and elevating their awareness, understanding, and conversation around the dangers of climate change and the importance of clean energy choices.