Nine historical markers commemorating the 1967-1968 Fair Housing Marches in Milwaukee are going up around the Milwaukee area.
One has already been installed at North Division High School on West Clarke Street and North 11th Street, the former site of St. Boniface Catholic Church.
This spring, three more will be built at the 16th Street Viaduct, James W. Beckum Park, the site of the 5th Street Freedom House, and King Park, the site of the 15th Street Freedom House.
The Fair Housing Marches brought together Alderwoman Vel Phillips, the NAACP Youth Council and Commandos, and Father James Groppi. From children to community elders, folks gathered for more than 200 consecutive nights of marching to end housing discrimination.
The William F. Pomeroy Foundation awarded the marker grant to the Wisconsin Historical Society in partnership with March On, Milwaukee. March On, Milwaukee is a grassroots group of former NAACP Youth Council members and Commandos, community organizers, historians, and more. The group's mission is to recognize and reignite the activist spirit of the 1967-68 Open Housing Marches, and their efforts have grown out of work around the 40th and 50th anniversaries of the movement.
Interns from Marquette University's Center for Urban Research, Teaching, and Outreach and America's Black Holocaust Museum helped arrange research and draft marker text, working with the original history-makers.
Commandos Fred Reed and Joseph Baring and NAACP Junior Youth Council member Pamela Jo Sargent discuss the significance of the markers becoming a reality.
