Josephine Dorothy Butler was born in Brandywine, MD, raised on a tobacco farm, to sharecropper parents, and enslaved grandparents. After graduating from college, she moved to Washington, DC, in 1934. Known as Jo, she became involved in local politics when working as a laundrywoman, organizing America’s first-ever black female union of laundry workers. Butler grew up to be a prominent activist and community leader caring for the rights of the people and the environment, as a member of several local committees, representative of World Council of Peace, and the founding of the DC Statehood Party Committee to engage in the act for enabling the DC residents to gain their full rights to be represented in congress. She also worked to integrate the all-white and all-black schools in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in DC, and lectured in schools about pollution (after recovering from tuberculosis at the age of 40), nature, and health, a long time before environmental awareness and activism movements arise. Butler died at 77, survived by her mother and five siblings. Her passion and enthusiasm set many things on the right course, from civil-right to health, environment, nature, and world peace. Read more...