Asiaha Butler brings pride and access to an outcast community
Asiaha Butler (Photo courtesy of Tonika Johnson)
Black women like Asiaha Butler are key to improving the quality of life for Black individuals and families in communities across the nation. Much like other courageous Black women of the world, Butler is an activist and community advocate working to mobilize people and resources to create change in community and economic development, civic empowerment, education and youth engagement,
It’s a Herculean task, but Butler is building an oasis in an otherwise relatively challenged landscape of Engelwood in Chicago to make the neighborhood a more productive and conducive environment for housing and education opportunities. At its peak the population in Englewood was over 97,000 people in its approximately three square miles, but the neighborhood’s population has since dropped dramatically.