On January 9, 2017, my other group members Spencer, Jack A, Willem, and I were fortunate enough to get an interview with Jaqueline Patterson Head of Environmental Justice at NAACP. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial organization to advance justice for African Americans. We had previously tried again and again to get an interview with her but because of busy she was, we were unable to get a date to call her. Willem kept on talking with her and finally, she was able to call us.  We asked her many questions about her line of work and some current examples of Environmental Racism, one major example was a superfund site in Chicago that smelt lead. It went unaddressed for years until finally, someone brought it up. Nearby there is low-income housing mainly occupied by black people. They have had extreme and deadly amounts of lead in their blood. We also asked questions like why she was inspired to get into her line of work. I learned so much from this interview, it also helped me improve my skills with quick thinking. I had to think of quick questions and really listen to what she was saying during the interview to get the most out of it.  She taught us so much in such little amount of time and inspired me to go out and fight for Environmental Justice and more.

Jacqueline Patterson Director of Environmental Justice for the NAACP