She was determined to end the mistreatment of vulnerable residents and expel corrupt politicians from West Hammond now Calumet City —an Illinois town that overlapped into Indiana. Brooks did this by delivering speeches in barrooms, confronting law enforcement officials, and founding her own publication. Brooks was in her early 20s and studying music in Chicago when she received a notification that drew her to West Hammond.
Virginia was stunned by the dilapidated condition of the village and prevalence of casinos and barrooms.
Thus, began her reform work. In early , West Hammond was on the precipice of becoming a city, pending a special municipal election. However, Brooks, with the help of her mother, mounted a campaign to maintain its status as a village.
Should the area become a city, vice would essentially be institutionalized and corruption amplified. Virginia Brooks has set in motion the levers that work mighty changes. And if that, too, is useless, she will take the law in her own hands. On election day, she appealed to voters until the moment they stepped into the voting booth, which was monitored by two deputies Brooks had summoned to prevent fraud.
Brooks was far from alone in her convictions, however. Following the election, Brooks leveraged another tool in her fight—the media. She established a semi-weekly publication called the Searchlight. In addition to leveraging the press, Brooks engaged in physical confrontation as a means to effect change. With municipal contract in hand, Brooks and her squadron—equipped with mops, rolling pins, and brooms—sat on piles of bricks, refusing to move for hours.
