Diana Graham

Diana Graham has served as the president of the Lotus Neighbors for Action block club in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood for nearly two decades. After 55 years of walking her block at Madison and Lotus, Miss Graham has become a cornerstone in her community. Whether it’s connecting people on her block with jobs, paying out of pocket to take local kids on trips or mobilizing city leaders to shut down blighted homes, Miss Graham and her block club continue their mission of building up the community.

“I’m 82 years old. I’ve been living in the Austin area nearly 60 years now, but I was born in Bronzeville on the South Side of Chicago. I moved to Austin to get closer to the job that I was working at the time.”

“Once I retired, I needed something else to do so I started going to community meetings in 2003. That’s how I really got involved in the block clubs and when I decided that this is what I’m going to do until I leave here.”

“So that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve walked my community for 55 years and now everybody knows me in Austin. We have a strong block. It’s only six of us in the block club, but still, we’re six strong. We’re called Lotus Neighbors for Action.”

“I’ve been the president since 2006, and each year, I try to come up with something different to do for the kids and the seniors. I try to do bus trips for the kids to go downtown, or to amusement parks to get them off the block.”

“For the last three years, I’ve also been working with my goddaughter to send the kids to camp. Last year, we took over 80 kids with the staff and volunteers. We provide everything so it’s free for the families.”

“One of my main goals is to have enough finances because for years, I did this all out of my own pocket. But I tell everybody, whether I get the support or not, it’s not going to stop me from doing what I need to do.”

Miss Graham said working with the block club has helped her to reach far more families and connect hundreds of people in her community with jobs.

“I’ve connected hundreds of people in my community with jobs. Even when I was working downtown, I started recommending people, telling them to come in for interviews. That’s how I started.”

“I’m into trying to provide jobs for teens. I think that’s the goal, starting them all young so by the time they graduate high school, they’re ready to work somewhere. You’ve got to set the scene because a lot of our youth graduate high school and they just sit around or walk the streets because they don’t have a job to go to.”

“A lot of them participate in after school programs or volunteer, but I’m trying to find things that we could do in the community where they can get a stipend just to have something in their pocket.”

Miss Graham said she’s one of oldest seniors in her block club, but that hasn’t stopped her from trying to connect with and support the youth in her community.

“I’m one of the oldest seniors in the block club, but I’ve been getting really tapped into the conversation with the youth. I’ve got this thing about the teens that just hang out and carry guns. I talk to them a lot, and I say, ‘give me an idea what you want to do besides hurting each other.’”

“It’s all in just coming up with stuff to keep people involved in and keep their minds off crime. So my two new goals are to see if we can bring a roller rink and a bowling alley to the Austin community.”

“I’m very active as far as back to school too. One of my priorities is providing book bags and school supplies. I’m a member of World Vision, it’s a club that you join, and once a month, you’re able to bring a truck or van to come and pick up a load of stuff to pass out to your community. I do that 12 months out of the year.”

“I just try to take care of the community, and I use the grants to keep the community and the streets clean. I pay landscapers to come and clean my block and when we do, we have events where we shut the block down and we serve hot dogs and chips and water. I sit down and talk to them, and I have them fill out these forms about what they would like to see more of in the community.”

“I think about if I could have had that when I was coming up, so I’ve made it my goal that I am going to help every kid that I can. I don’t care what my situation is. If I have to get the money from my church, or take out a loan, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Miss Graham said many kids in her community grow up in difficult situations, so it’s important to help show them how having a dream and following it can set you up for success.

“It’s all about who you want to be. People living here say my mom didn’t do this, my dad didn’t do that. All of that stuff doesn’t have anything to do with you as a young person, what you want to be, who you want to be and what you want to do.”

“I was six years old when my dad died of tuberculosis. And the day he died, he said, ‘pumpkin, I want you to make me a promise. I need you to promise me that you’re going to graduate out of high school,’ because no one had ever graduated high school in our family. He died right then holding me in his arms.”

“My mom was a drug addict when we were young, and she got arrested for selling drugs and sent to a penitentiary when I was 12. Her mom took us in to keep us from going into the system. My mom did two years and a day in the penitentiary, and she came home when I was 14.”

“By that time, I was already taking care of my four siblings because my grandma had real bad diabetes. She was going blind, and she was an amputee, so I became head of the household when I was about 12.”

“Then my grandmother died when I was 16, and that really made me head of the household. I had my pastor help me do the funeral.”

“We stayed in that house she paid off and lived on Social Security checks until each one of us turned 18. It was a small check, but we lived off that $88.73 a month. I stayed in that house until each one of us graduated out of high school.”

“I graduated, then I went to Wright Junior College for two years. I dropped out because I ended up getting pregnant in my third year. But I went back to school at 42 and graduated at 43. I tell my story a lot to people to show them that you can be whoever you want to be.”

Miss Graham’s work helping drug dealers find full-time employment led her block club to mobilize city leaders to remove blight houses from her block. She said now her block has been drug free for 10 years.

“About 10 years ago, the community decided that we would deal with the 30 or 40 row houses that were affiliated with distributing drugs at that time. I had a big meeting in my home and I invited all the big boys from the city of Chicago.

“I invited former Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, who sent an aide from his office. I had our Congressmen Danny Davis, and I had the 28th, the 29th and the 37th ward aldermen. We got their help to close those houses. Now it’s a big parking lot and it’s been about ten years since we had drugs on the street.”

“A lady a couple of blocks over told me, ‘Miss Graham, all you did is chase them down here to our block’. I said you need to do the same thing I did. It takes one person to step up.”

Miss Graham said all it takes to start your own block club is for a few neighbors to come together, establish a vision for the future and stay strong. She welcomes other community leaders interested in building up their communities to reach out for help.

“Just being able to come together with two or three neighbors, that’s all it takes. Just figure out a way to make that block strong, and my block is strong. There’s no drugs, no hanging out, none of that. For other community leaders that want to come along and find out how they can start a block club and learn what they need to do, I’m here.”

“We started with a lot of people but many have since passed away. Right now, we have just six people. But like I said, it’s not about how many, with just two of us, we’re still going to continue to do what we do and serve the community.”

The work of Miss Graham and the Lotus Neighbors for Action block club has helped to transform the community at Madison and Lotus. You can support the volunteers at Lotus Neighbors for Action or learn more about starting your own block club by contacting Miss Graham.

Diana Graham
President of Lotus Neighbors for Action
Austin, Chicago