The Evolution of Black Milwaukee

Posted on by

From the turn of the century to the 1970s, there was a mass exodus of Black Americans from the South. Driven from the South due to racist legislation and the ever-present threat of racial violence, they moved northward. Many of these migrants settled in industrial cities in the North, like Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. This mass migration of Black Americans would come to be known as The Great Migration. 

“There were two causes: the pull and the push for The Great Migration,” said Dr. Robert Baker, a professor at UW-Milwaukee’s African and African Diaspora Studies department. “The push was sharecropping, racial terror, terrible farming conditions and Jim Crow. The pull was World War Two jobs, industrialism, better pay rates and better living conditions.” 

Many of the migrants were previously sharecroppers, meaning they worked on someone else’s land in exchange for living arrangements and a share of the profits. Many sharecroppers were mistreated, receiving substandard living quarters and consistently being shorted by the white landowners they worked for. The allure of industrial jobs in the North drove many sharecroppers to leave the South in search of better opportunities.  

In Milwaukee, the Black migrants were drawn to the city because of its many manufacturing plants, which offered jobs that paid significantly more than the opportunities afforded to them in the South. While many cities experienced an influx of migrants in the 30’s and 40’s, Milwaukee experienced a “Late Great Migration” as well, with its Black population growing from 22,000 in 1950 to 105,000 in 1970, according to the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee.

“One of the best examples of industry driving migration was A.O Smith, which had military contracts and was big player in the automobile industry,” said Baker. “Allis Chalmers too, which had a big plant where my father worked in ‘60s and ‘70s.” 

Due to discriminatory housing practices, the majority of the Black migrants settled in the city’s “Inner Core” which spanned from Keefe. Ave to Juneau Ave. North to South, and Holton St. To 20th St., East to West. These discriminatory housing practices were outlawed in 1968, but this area remains mostly segregated. 

“That mentality was stuck until 1968 with the Fair Housing Act,” said Baker. “So, there was de jure segregation until 1968, where people were locked in because of housing contracts and mortgages, and those policies have stuck in people’s hearts. People are less likely to sell or move out of certain neighborhoods.” 

These discriminatory housing practices continue to have effects on the city’s black population. According to Reggie Jackson, a researcher at UWM who focuses on racial inequality, Milwaukee has the lowest black homeownership rate in the country at 25%, compared to the national average of around 44%.  

“A narrative has developed over time that refuses to accept the role that white people played in the change of conditions for Blacks in the city,” said Jackson. “As a result, our local media doesn’t do a good job of covering the Black community, and so those folks that disappear don’t become stories. We’re a forgotten group of people in many ways.” 

Despite being forced into less desirable neighborhoods, the ability to easily find industrial jobs allowed for the creation of a thriving Black middle class. While racism was still rampant, Milwaukee’s Black population was ahead of those in other cities. In 1970, the average Black family’s income in Milwaukee was 19 percent higher than the national average, according to Kalena Thomhave of The American Prospect.  

“Black people in Milwaukee in 1970 had one of the highest standards of living of Black people in the country,” said Jackson. “Black people could come to Milwaukee and know that they may be discriminated against in housing, but they could make some damn good money compared to what they were making in the south.” 

Unfortunately, this thriving middle class began to shrink as job opportunities began to dwindle. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, from 1979 to 2000, the city lost 47% of its manufacturing jobs. The impact of these job losses was disastrous for the Black population because many skilled workers now had no opportunity to use their skills. 

“Because people came to Milwaukee exclusively for hot and dirty jobs,” said Baker. “After they left, there were no options for them.” 

Baker said this created an “underground economy” where people engage in criminal behavior just to get the money to survive. He added that schools were also resistant to Black children, meaning that they had less opportunity to learn the skills and information that would help them advance. 

“Because jobs were no longer plentiful,” said Jackson in a story for the Milwaukee Independent. “Milwaukee saw a drastic change in its black communities. Crack cocaine crippled the lives of many. Our local, state, and national leaders decided to deal with the healthcare crisis of addiction in the black community by locking people up.” 

These decades of disenfranchisement have led to Black people, specifically Black men having a perceived lack of value in society. This can explain some of the reasons why many missing Black people receive next to no media coverage. 

“If you’re a working class or lower-class Black man, your value that you provide to society is almost nothing,” said Baker. “If you can’t work and don’t have kids, you’re not providing anything. And so, it allows men to be permanently homeless, no IDs and never apply for jobs.” 

The issues facing Black Milwaukee have been systemically ignored for years, leading to the decline of the standard of living and lack of upward mobility that we see today. This ignorance bleeds into the media, leading to many stories, including those of missing Black people, being untold.  

This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into missing people’s cases in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available here.