The Enduring Legacy of Hazel Johnson
Environmental history is Black history, and environmental justice leaders played a key role in connecting industrial pollutants to health issues caused by pollution in the air, water, and land. This February, we recognize and celebrate Hazel Johnson’s key role as the mother of the environmental justice movement.
Residents of Altgeld Gardens watch 1960s parade.
Hazel Johnson was born in New Orleans and moved to Chicago in 1955 with her husband, John. In 1962, Hazel moved with her young family to Altgeld Gardens on Chicago’s far South Side. The Johnson family was attracted to the public housing development for its neighborhood character and natural qualities, with a proximity to water and open green spaces where deer and coyotes roamed. This vibrant and predominantly Black neighborhood was tight-knit, with Hazel quickly earning the nickname “Mama Johnson” for her role in coordinating block parties for kids in the neighborhood and in organizing for high-quality housing conditions. However, environmental hazards lurked beneath the surface of Altgeld Gardens’ idyllic community life.
Hazel first suspected that her neighborhood had health hazards beyond the norm when her husband, John, died of lung cancer at the young age of 41, just seven years after their move to Altgeld Gardens. Through neighbors, Hazel learned that cancer and respiratory illness were unusually common in the area; a later survey Hazel conducted found that almost all Altgeld residents knew someone who had contracted cancer between the ages of 35 and 55. Hazel decided to investigate what could have caused these conditions, telling the Chicago Tribune, “I was stunned and angry. I decided to make it my mission not only to find out what was really going on but to do something about it.”
Hazel Johnson with her map of the ‘toxic doughnut’ conditions near Altgeld Gardens.
She learned that Altgeld Gardens was surrounded on all sides by toxic polluters, including 50 documented landfills and 382 point sources of harmful emissions into the air, water, and ground, and that Altgeld Gardens had the highest cancer rates of any community in Chicago. The housing development itself was built atop a former dump site for industrial waste, and Hazel coined the term “toxic doughnut” to describe the contaminated conditions around the site. Already serving as a community leader on housing issues with People for Community Recovery (PCR), Hazel dedicated herself to fighting against the toxic doughnut’s impacts.
Led by Hazel, People for Community Recovery became a fierce advocate for environmental justice. PCR led protests against the siting of new landfills and incinerators in the region, fought to revoke permits for dump sites, and navigated byzantine bureaucracy to file formal complaints to the state and federal Environmental Protection Agencies. The heart of her advocacy remained in Altgeld Gardens, where she educated residents on how to recognize health hazards, provided environmental education to the neighborhood’s youth, and tested for pollutants and other environmental toxins like lead. Hazel’s passionate organizing elevated Altgeld Gardens to the national stage, and she worked alongside other low-income communities of color to build power in environmental justice coalitions. Hazel and PCR joined other organizations in urging President Bill Clinton to sign the Environmental Justice Executive Order requiring federal agencies to analyze environmental and health hazards in low-income or minority communities and address cumulative harms. In recognition of her leadership at local and national levels, she joined Clinton at the signing of this order.
Hazel Johnson to the right of Vice President Al Gore and Rep. John Lewis
Hazel advocated for environmental justice for Black communities tirelessly until her death in 2011, and the priorities of federal programs like Justice 40 bear Hazel’s fingerprints.
Hazel’s advocacy brought sweeping benefits to all Americans, particularly low-income and disadvantaged Black and brown communities. The framework of environmental justice she championed fundamentally reshaped decades of government policy and asserted that all of us have a right to clean air, fresh water, and healthy environments. The fight for environmental justice persists and has never been more threatened. In its first weeks, the Trump administration has revoked the landmark 1994 executive order that Hazel and PCR fought for, and is attempting to dismantle the hard-won environmental justice victories of the past thirty years. We must rededicate ourselves to protecting Hazel’s legacy by prioritizing environmental justice and fighting efforts to erase the achievements of community leaders who fought for our health and well-being.
RCC National Environment Leadership Fellow – Cassie Varrige – University of Illinois Chicago
Cassie is a second-year graduate student in the University of Illinois Chicago’s Master of Urban Planning and Policy Program, concentrating in environmental planning and spatial planning. She is a proud Midwesterner and passionate about planning cities that support the well-being of people and the planet. Cassie is a teaching assistant with UIC’s Urban Data Visualization Lab, supporting undergraduate and graduate-level courses in GIS and spatial analysis.
