As the feature film Selma contends for the Best Picture Oscar at this month's Academy Awards ceremony, it is a good time to also remember Milwaukee's civil rights history. In the mid- to late 1960s, Milwaukee was a hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement, earning the nickname that gave rise to the book titled The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee, by…
Read moreCelebrate Black History Month by watching the new documentary on Vel Phillips, Dream Big Dreams, which will debut on television February 16th.
Read moreThe Milwaukee Bears weren't exactly bad news for their opponents (In fact, they were literally the worst team in the league), but that doesn't exclude them from being an important part of Milwaukee history.
Read moreWhen most people think of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, they think of Martin Luther King Junior, the crowds, the 'I Have a Dream' speech, and all with good reason. Yet one of the chief organizers of the event, Bayard Rustin, remained carefully and pointedly out of the spotlight. Why? Why was a man who was so integral to the nonviolent resistance…
Read moreHe was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, better known as W.E.B Du Bois, was all these things and more. He helped found both the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, was the first African American to receive a Ph. D from Harvard, served as chairman of the Peace Information Center, and…
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