VIDEO: Evanston's Verzell James On Environmental Racism

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*The following is a transcript of an interview with Verzell James. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.

My name is Verzell James. I’ve lived in Evanston for just over 27 years. I’m a graphic artist by trade and I have a line of hot sauces that I’ve been marketing for the last three years.

The sense of community is really strong here in Evanston. For probably 24 years we were just oblivious to how things really worked in Evanston, and that all changed about 3 years ago. Our alderman at that time came to our block club meeting and said that they were going to build a water pumping station. [They said] “We’re going to put a 320 gallon tank of sodium chloride -- chlorine -- highly-concentrated chlorine, in the ground next to you, 200 feet away. It was a done deal and there was nothing we could do about it. It’s called environmental racism; it happens in majority minority communities all over the United States, and it’s been happening for a very long time.

We went to City Hall and we protested during a council meeting, and at the same time we formed a task force. There were six of us and we just started researching. We talked to the Morton Grove water commission. We even talked to state representatives. Daniel Biss was one of them. They were so gung-ho about helping us, and then all of the sudden, nothing. Then Robyn Gable, Dan Biss and Laura Fine held a town hall meeting at the Ecology Center. I went there to ask them specifically, why they abandoned us. I asked them, “Why did you abandon us and leave us exposed to this environmental racism?” and Daniel Biss, while I was distracted, ran out of the building. I’ve been very upset about that. To promise to help, and when I call you on it, then you run? Lori wouldn’t have run.

Lori walked up to me, she said, “Hey my name is Lori Keenan, and I just want to tell you how much I admire what you did.” In my mind it wasn’t really much of a deal, but it just struck a nerve with some people, and Lori expressed that to me. Lori is cause-oriented and if there is something going on where she needs to step up and step into the fray, I have no doubt she will be there; and on the side of the people. I can’t reinforce that enough. I got her back because we fought in the trenches together and that’s important.

She’s for the people and not for the politics of it. She’s action-oriented, she’s not a politician or some guy that somehow scored a bunch of money and thinks they’re a big wig and wants to come in and run over people. Lori is “real people.”

Paid for by Friends of Lori Keenan.

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