Hazel M. Johnson (born as Washington; January 25, 1935 – January 12, 2011) was an American environmental activist who lived on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. After she spoke at the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership conference, she was considered to be the mother of environmental justice.

Early education and personal life

Hazel M. Johnson was born on January 25, 1935, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Mary (née Dunmore) and Clarence Washington. She cared deeply about her family and was closely connected to their health. As the oldest child in her family, she noticed problems with the environment that affected people’s health. Before she and her siblings turned one year old, her three younger brothers and sisters died. When she was 12 years old, she became an orphan and moved to live with her aunt in Los Angeles. She attended Jefferson High School for two years before returning to New Orleans to live with her grandmother.

She met her husband, John Johnson, in New Orleans, and they married. In 1955, they moved with their two children to Woodlawn, Chicago. Johnson was a Catholic. While raising her family, she worked several jobs, including recruiting members for an African American neighborhood association, sorting mail for the U.S. Postal Service, and working as an administrative assistant for Parents and Friends of Retarded Children. In 1962, the Johnsons moved to Altgeld Gardens Homes, a housing project on Chicago’s South Side managed by the Chicago Housing Authority.

Altgeld Gardens was originally built to house American war veterans, but the area was surrounded by landfills, industrial buildings, and sewage-treatment plants. For over 50 years, the George Pullman railroad company had dumped waste into the landfills, affecting more than 10,000 residents in Altgeld Gardens. After her husband died in 1969 from lung cancer and her seven children began experiencing health problems like skin and breathing issues, Johnson started looking into how the environment in Altgeld Gardens affected people’s health. She recorded the many health problems in the community to understand how pollution in the air and water was harming residents.

Johnson discovered that Altgeld Gardens was located in the center of a 14-square-mile area filled with pollution from Chicago’s Southeast Side to Northwest Indiana. This led her to call the neighborhood “The Toxic Doughnut.” Residents were exposed to dangerous fumes from nearby factories and asbestos used during construction. They also drank water that was contaminated, and Altgeld Gardens had the highest cancer rate in the city.

Johnson became more aware of how environmental dangers affected people’s health. She began fighting for the Chicago Housing Authority to fix these problems. She pushed for the authority to take responsibility for poor building conditions and ignored environmental dangers. In 1970, she was elected to the Altgeld Gardens Local Advisory Council, a position she held until 1979. After that, she founded the People for Community Recovery (PCR), an organization that worked to improve environmental justice in Chicago. PCR fought for the people of Altgeld Gardens.

In 1979, Johnson started PCR to help residents of Chicago with housing issues. The group became a not-for-profit organization in 1982 and focused on fighting environmental racism in Altgeld Gardens. One of their early successes was convincing the city of Chicago to test the drinking water in Maryland Manor, which showed dangerous toxins, including cyanide, in the water. In 1984, this led to the installation of water and sewer lines in the area.

In the mid-1980s, Johnson found that Altgeld Gardens was built using asbestos, and the Chicago Housing Authority had dumped PCB waste on the site. PCR directly challenged companies that caused pollution, such as Waste Management. In 1987, hundreds of people blocked the gate of Waste Management to stop dump trucks from adding waste to the landfill. For her work, Johnson is known as the mother of the environmental justice movement.

The area around Altgeld Gardens, called “The Toxic Doughnut,” was filled with waste from Waste Management. In 1988, Johnson studied the pollution from landfills and the health problems in the South Side. She found that 68% of the 800 residents who left Altgeld Gardens saw improvements in their health. However, she discovered that Waste Management had hidden information about penalties they were given for pollution, and these penalties were never fixed or shared with the community. Johnson met with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control to address these issues.

In 1994, Johnson wrote a book titled “A Personal Story,” sharing her experiences living in Chicago’s South Side. She described protests with her neighbors at the Calumet Industrial Development, where eight communities held sit-ins. However, she faced challenges when protesting on Waste Management’s property. This led her and her neighbors to continue their protests by holding signs and honking their cars. Johnson learned that Waste Management and the city of Chicago had offered money to keep using the landfills, but she refused these offers and kept fighting for environmental justice.

In 1979, Johnson founded PCR to help residents with housing problems in Chicago. The group became a not-for-profit in 1982 and focused on fighting environmental racism in Altgeld Gardens. One of their early successes was convincing the city of Chicago to test the drinking water in Maryland Manor, which showed dangerous toxins, including cyanide, in the water. In 1984, this led to the installation of water and sewer lines in the area.

In 1985, Johnson led environmental bus tours for DePaul University students to learn about the problems in Altgeld Gardens.

PCR, which continues to operate today under the leadership of Johnson’s daughter, Cheryl, conducted surveys showing that the South Side of Chicago had unusually high rates of respiratory, lung, and skin diseases, as well as high infant death rates and cancer. Records from PCR’s work from 1935 to 2007 were donated to the Chicago Public Library in 2009 for public use.

Cheryl Johnson became the executive director of PCR. In 2021, Cheryl helped pass the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which created job opportunities for people of color in Chicago. The PCR website honors Hazel M. Johnson’s work and includes a timeline of her efforts. It also shows how Cheryl and her team have kept Johnson’s legacy alive, educated communities about environmental issues, and supported safe and proper housing.

Recognition

Hazel Johnson helped college students and young activists who became important leaders in the environmental justice movement. She guided Barack Obama, who was a community organizer at the time, in efforts to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens. Her daughter, Cheryl Johnson, worked with her mother when the People for Community Recovery (PCR) was starting and later became the organization’s executive director.

In 1991, Johnson was invited to the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. At the event, she was honored as the “Mother of the Environmental Justice Movement.” She worked with community organizers from across the United States to create 17 Principles of Environmental Justice.

In 1994, President Clinton invited Johnson to watch the signing of Executive Order 12898. This order required federal agencies to identify and address environmental effects on minority and low-income communities. Her presence at this event showed her important role in shaping federal environmental policies through local efforts.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton named the People for Community Recovery as one of the top 100 environmental organizations in the country.

Johnson received the 1992 President’s Environment and Conservation Challenge award for her work in environmental justice. In 2004, sociologist David Naguib Pellow said Johnson and PCR helped bring attention to the South Side of Chicago for activists and policymakers concerned about environmental racism. Johnson once said, “It’s all very well to embrace saving the rain forests and conserving endangered animal species, but such global initiatives don’t even begin to impact communities inhabited by people of color.”

On January 12, 2011, the Illinois General Assembly passed a resolution to name a section of 130th Street in Chicago “Hazel Johnson EJ Way.” The street was officially named during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 15, 2016.

Although she knew about the harmful chemicals in her neighborhood, Johnson lived in Altgeld Gardens for her entire life. She died on January 12, 2011, due to complications from congestive heart failure.

Legacy

Hazel Johnson developed a story about herself through her work with the environmental movement, which in the 1970s was mainly led by white, middle-class people. She became well-known across the nation for encouraging new organizations to fight against harmful laws affecting their communities. She taught college students and young activists, who now lead the environmental justice movement. She also helped former President Barack Obama, who was a community organizer at the time, work to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens. Her daughter, Cheryl Johnson, worked with her when PCR was first created and now serves as its executive director.

In 1991, Johnson was invited to the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., where she was called the “Mother of the Environmental Justice Movement.” She described this event as a dream she did not know she had until it happened. At the summit, she worked with others to create 17 Principals of Environmental Justice, which are still used today.

In 1994, President Clinton invited Johnson to watch the signing of Executive Order 12898, which required federal actions to address environmental justice for minority and low-income communities. This was a major moment in environmental history because of Johnson’s work.

In 1992, Johnson received the President’s Environment and Conservation Challenge award for her environmental justice efforts. In 2004, sociologist David Naguib Pellow credited Johnson and PCR with bringing attention to environmental racism on Chicago’s South Side. Johnson said, “It’s all very well to save rainforests and protect endangered animals, but these efforts do not help communities of color.”

On January 12, 2011, the Illinois General Assembly named a section of 130th Street in Chicago the “Hazel Johnson EJ Way.” The naming was officially celebrated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 15, 2016.

Hazel M. Johnson’s legacy continues through PCR, now led by her daughter, Cheryl Johnson. Her work helped make environmental justice a recognized movement, leading to future laws and community activism. In 2021, U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush introduced a bill to name April “Hazel Johnson Environmental Justice Month” and posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her life’s work. Her efforts helped change the environmental movement into a broader fight for racial and economic fairness, and her story remains an important part of environmental justice history in the United States.