In celebration of National Poetry Month, four writers who have called Chicago home are remembering the legacy of Hazel M. Johnson, the woman considered the mother of the modern environmental justice movement. Through
original poems commissioned by NRDC, the writers honor the monumental strides Johnson made in the fight for justice—while grappling with the work still left to be done.
By now, her story is well-known: In the 1950s, Johnson moved to the predominantly Black community of Altgeld Gardens on Chicago’s Far South Side. The public housing complex sat inside a “toxic doughnut” of industrial facilities—surrounded by everything from polluting sewage treatment plants to chemical factories. Soon, Johnson noticed that her children and neighbors were getting seriously ill. When her husband died of cancer at age 41, Johnson took action.
In 1979, Johnson founded the environmental and tenants’ rights advocacy group
People for Community Recovery, among the first to bring attention to the fact that environmental hazards were intentionally concentrated in low-income communities and communities of color. Her mission ignited a movement, one that lawmakers are now pushing the federal government to recognize by designating April as Hazel M. Johnson Environmental Justice Month.
Read the first piece in our poetry series from writer and Southeast Side resident Tarnynon (Ty-Yuh-Nuh) Onumonu, then check out
the other works here.