O'bama Chapter 3 THE ASBESTOS PIECE T H E W O R K M E N B E G A N appearing at Chicago Housing Authority buildings in the spring of 1986. Linda Randle, an organizer at the Ida B. Wells Homes, a weary complex of cruciform apartment houses on the Near South Side, first noticed the men in white jumpsuits and breathing masks when she came to work one morning. A big white machine sat in the weed-scored concrete courtyard, and a yellow tarp hung from a seven-story-high roof. Cascading pebbles struck Randle in the face. She walked over to a man wearing a hazmat suit, knocked on his mask, and asked what he was doing. “Removing asbestos,” he told her. But he was removing it from only the first floor, where the tenant service office was located. Every Tuesday, Randle met with her fellow organizers at the downtown offices of the Community Renewal Society, a nonprofit devoted to eliminating racism and poverty. At the next gathering, she began talking about the mysterious new project at Wells.
