Driving through Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood can tell you a lot about the history of the city. It’s one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, but many of the buildings that once stood there were torn down during the 1960s as part of the nationwide "urban renewal" movement.
Although "urban renewal" was promoted as an effort to revitalize aging and "blighted" neighborhoods in American cities, the reality was much different.
"In order to have access to the federal dollars [set aside for urban renewal,] these cities had to use the word 'blight' on specific neighborhoods... Now the problem with that: there might've been some buildings that could've been refurbished or torn down, but there were a lot of buildings that were not 'blighted.' I mean, there were churches that were torn down, there were businesses," says Derek Handley, an associate professor at UW-Milwaukee and author of Struggle for the City: Citizenship and Resistance in the Black Freedom Movement.
The book explores the impact urban renewal projects had on communities, but more specifically, how communities organized to fight against these projects. Although most of these projects used race-neutral language, the effects disproportionately impacted Black neighborhoods.
In his book, Handley explores how different neighborhoods responded to the urban renewal projects through organizing and activism.
He explains, "These were critical events that has resonance within the community today. People were reacting and they were organizing and they were trying to do everything they could to save their communities."
In Bronzeville, this meant activism through established organizations like the Urban League and the NAACP, as well as the creation of new community groups. Although their success at delaying or stopping these projects was limited, Handley says the impact has extended into activist movements today.
"People were reacting and they were organizing and they were trying to do everything they could to save their communities."
"In Milwaukee [there were] these leadership programs from the 50s and 60s, and one of the classes was public speaking," says Handley. "Later on when you look at the Black Lives Matter movement, on their website there were seminars on things like how to talk to the media, public speaking."
Handley will continue the conversation at Boswell Book Company on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The event is free and you can RSVP here.
