Hazel Johnson (1935-2011) is considered by many to be the mother of environmental justice. For more than 30 years, she pressed local officials and corporations to clean up toxic waste and pollution in her southeast Chicago community of Altgeld Gardens. (Courtesy of People for Community Recovery)
She was a community activist.
She was an ambassador of Altgeld Gardens.
She was an early mentor to Barack Obama.
She was a thorn in the side of the Chicago waste industry.
She was a wife and mother of seven children.
She is the mother of the environmental justice movement.
For more than 30 years, Hazel Johnson worked to clean up her corner of Chicago s southeast side. Her relentless advocacy made her a fixture in local news, and her story has been told in profiles and books and kept alive among her peers in the struggle for environmental justice. But one aspect of her life that s been less explored is her faith.