The Story of Hazel Johnson

In 1969 Hazel Johnson, mother of seven, lost her 41-year-old husband John to lung cancer.  Observing the industrial emissions in the air of Altgeld Gardens, the public housing project in which she lived, Hazel began to wonder if the unhealthy environment contributed to her husband’s untimely death.  At that time, all she had was questions without answers. 

Over the year, Hazel began to ask her questions, hoping that somebody might be able to provide the answers.  This question-crusade lasted for more that thirteen years.  During that time, she conducted her own research on air pollution and other toxins; she talked to her neighbors; she documented the asthma, allergies, nosebleeds, headaches, dizziness, and fainting spells of her children  and she noticed similar illnesses in the neighborhood children.  Upon seeing a connection between health and the environment, Ms. Johnson attempted to contact authorities. She reflects that “After numerous phone calls and attempts to convince others that something was not quite right in this neighborhood, I spoke to city and state health official who eventually mailed me reports of long-standing environmental problems in the Altgeld community”. In addition to the reports received, Ms. Johnson also saw a television news report that said her neighborhood has the highest rate of cancer in Chicago.

The information sent confirmed Johnson’s suspicions that residents were being seriously harmed by pollution from manufacturers and surrounding disposal companies.  Among other things, it revealed that Altgeld Gardens was built on the Pullman Company dump and lay directly in the center of a 140-square mile ring of polluting companies stretching from Chicago’s Southeast Side to Northwest Indiana.  Due to location, residents of Altgeld Gardens were exposed daily to a slew of potentially toxic land usage such as a chemical incinerator, water and sewage treatment plant, steel mills, paint factories, scrap yards, three abandoned lagoons and more than 50 landfills.

Armed with and angered by this new information, in 1982, along with a group of other concerned residents, she founded People for Community Recovery, a community based organization that initially pressed for long overdue repair work in Altgeld Gardens.  The group soon turned its attention to the more serious problem of environmental pollutants in their community.  The conducted door-to-door surveys that found that approximately 90 percent of 10,000 residents suffered respiratory troubles, birth defects, cancer, skin rashes, asthma attack, burning eyes, and unexplained nose bleed, all ailments related to air pollution.  As a result, lead by Ms. Johnson, PCR convinced Chicago officials to turn down expansions of neighborhood landfills and reject the proposed construction of a new chemical waste incinerator.  Additionally, the group got a moratorium on new wasted dumps in the area.  They have since been able to block or postpone plans to build toxic waste dumps. 

For the past 16 years, PCR has stood toe-to-toe with waste disposal companies doing business on the Southeast Side.  Today, they continue to pressure corporate polluters to reduce toxic waste. Reflecting on the experience Hazel Johnson says “This entire process has been both painful and rewarding.  It’s taken a great deal of perseverance, determination and tenacity to accomplish our goals”.