Friday 6/19/26: Milwaukee's first Juneteenth, racial achievement gaps in Wisconsin schools, Oneida Pow Wow

David Lee: Support for WUWM Podcasts comes from Potawatomi Casino Hotel Milwaukee, home to 24/7 excitement, dining, and an on-site hotel at 1721 West Canal Street. More information at potawatomi.com.

Audrey Nowakowski: From 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR, this is Lake Effect. I'm Audrey Nowakowski. Today, we'll tell you about the racial achievement gap in Wisconsin schools and what's being done to try and solve it. Then we'll hear the story of the first Juneteenth celebration in Milwaukee 55 years ago.

Margaret Henningson: That's why we did Juneteenth. We were trying to get people to see that our community is not what they think it is – that it's good. We wanted all of our people, including the Black people, to see how wonderful we are.

Audrey Nowakowski: Plus, we'll tell you about the upcoming Oneida Powwow and what you can see and experience at the event.

Michelle Anderson Danforth: I can say without a doubt that we have one of the best powwows in the Midwest.

Audrey Nowakowski: All that's coming up on Lake Effect.

This is Like Effect on 89.7 WUWM Milwaukee's NPR. I'm Audrey Nowakowski. Thanks for joining us today.

In the last few decades, the gap between how white and Black students perform on tests has been narrowing on the national level. But here in Milwaukee, 2024 data shows that we had the largest racial achievement gap in the country. That year, Black fourth graders in Wisconsin scored 45 points lower than their white peers on national reading assessments. The gap was 39 points for eighth grade readers. A listener wrote into our Beats Me series to ask: is their political will to fix that gap? WUWM education reporter, Katherine Kokal, spoke with half a dozen education leaders and teachers about that question. Today, we're bringing you one of those conversations with Dr. Brenda Cassellius, the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools.

Katherine Kokal: We will start by posing the question that the listener asked WUWM to you. The listener asked us: Milwaukee has had the largest achievement gap between Black and white students in the United States. Is there political will to fix this issue? Where do you see political will in Milwaukee?

Brenda Cassellius: You know, I've been in Milwaukee now for about a year and a half, and there's been a tremendous outpouring of support for tackling the underachievement in Milwaukee public schools. So I absolutely believe there's a political will. I've seen it both in our civic leaders, the mayor and the city council, as well as our philanthropic community, who stepped up and provided an opportunity with some impact funding to be able to start on the governor's operational audit. I've seen it at the state level with the governor issuing an operational audit and an academic audit, which has given us a roadmap. And I've seen it within our teachers and our principals wanting to make a difference and just hungry for us to have coherence and be able drive the system forward. And I've also seen it at the school board level, who has supported me in making transformational changes in order to bring our district into good standing financially, as well as to support an academic agenda around literacy. So I'm more of an optimist about the political will that we are pulling together here with an all hands on deck across civic, across the state. And philanthropic and at our board level with our teachers and our principals as well.

Katherine Kokal: Thank you. I want to take a step back for a second to talk about why this achievement gap between Black and white students exists. For this story, I interviewed several people, from classroom teachers, book authors, school board directors, and education advocacy organization leaders. Although they represented very different points on the political spectrum, many of them pointed to poverty in Milwaukee as the root cause of this achievement gap. What do you make of that?

Brenda Cassellius: Well, I absolutely believe poverty makes it more challenging for children to achieve, particularly if they're unable to access early childhood opportunities. If a parent has been, a mother has been unable to access prenatal care and early parenting supports that have provided her support, that's where poverty can absolutely set a child up for getting behind. So I think that that matters. But we have seen an example over example where Black children, children who are poor, children who have language barriers, children who we have disabilities achieve at incredible levels when provided the right opportunity, the right scaffolding, and the adults creating the conditions in which they should succeed. And so I don't use poverty as an excuse. I think it can be done. I've seen it done. I've seen it both personally, and in my own professional experience I've seen it done, and I see school systems and schools in particular who have done it well and who have beaten the odds, against all odds when children have lacked opportunity early in their school career.

Katherine Kokal: Thank you. You talked about some of the general examples of programs that can work to help close this gap. Do you have any specific examples of what's being done in Milwaukee public schools right now to do that?

Brenda Cassellius: Well, Milwaukee Public Schools has three-year-old programs and four-year old programs, to which they're not fully refunded. So that gives children a good start. They do child find, which makes sure that children with early onset of disability were able to do and find those children and provide support with their pediatricians and with our school-based teams. So that's a really critical early piece. They used to have Head Start, and Head Start is a great wraparound program to provide also parenting and support training. We hope to get that program back into the schools. We don't have it right now. They have a strong recreation program, park and recreation program, that offers all kinds of supports to families and community and brings the community into our schools. And then, you know, when we get to the basics of what we do here in Milwaukee Public Schools on the academic side of the house, it's making sure that we have great principals, great teachers, strong curriculum, that we are providing for an academic demand and rigor within our course of study for students, particularly at the middle and high school ages, career pathway work for our high school students, launching them off into post-secondary school. So a number of things that our teams do to provide wraparound services, to provide direct academics, and then to engage the community in children's learning, whether it's tutoring, whether it in-kind supports of coming in and supporting families when they're in crisis, or when they need additional financial, or support for like clothing or some of their other basic needs – housing, etc. So those types of things can sometimes mitigate the challenges around poverty and help set children up to be successful.

Katherine Kokal: Dr. Brenda Cassellius is the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, and we're talking about the achievement gap between white and Black students. So MPS has several targeted programs to support students. We were just talking especially about some of the early childhood education programs, but I'm also thinking about, on the older end, there is the Black and Latino male achievement program. How does that impact a child or a teenager's test score? I mean, these achievement gaps are literally measured by test scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress. So how do these kind of social and emotional support systems impact the score that a child gets on a test?

Brenda Cassellius: So I think, one, we have to look at assessments very critically, in terms of the bias that they have and their accuracy statistically, in terms of what any individual student might be scoring. I think we use them to make more generalized assumptions about students' learning generally, and the overall implications of whether students in a large cohort are making or not making grade level standards. But when they're used to predict individual students, or used for high stakes, that's more inappropriate in terms of these assessments. And I don't think that most people know that. And so that's where the challenge comes in because, when you're trying to move the Black-white student achievement gap, you need to be looking individual by individual, school by school. It has to be that precise. And test scores aren't necessarily, and often aren't, the best measure of that performance. What's a better measure of that performance is actually that student’s work on course assessments that are given by the teacher, to really gage whether they're making progress toward grade level standards, rather than the once a year forward test, for instance, that's given to all students across the state, which is much more of an aggregate type of measure, or even a more difficult measure and even further removed from the individual, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which only samples some students and not all students within a district. And I don't think that the general public understands that as well.

Katherine Kokal: I want to go back real quick to the Black and Latino Male Achievement Program, because it's one of several that the district is actually restructuring into an equity department. Thirty-four positions will become eight after these budget cuts. What do you make of your commitment to serving these students, while also restructuring into a centralized equity department?

Brenda Cassellius: So we have probably the largest Black-white student gap across the nation. I know, certainly, our students are scoring, particularly our Black students are scoring in the zero percentile. So that strategy was not working for us. They would get into a handful of schools. We have 139 schools. We need them in every single school. So we moved to a district-wide team, a leadership team that then would drive support systems and strategies and build capacity at the school level. Just like I said earlier, you have to be at the individual student level, the individual school level in order to move the achievement gap. You can't just be in some schools to move to the whole district. You need to be in all of them. And so we're creating school-based teams. So we're actually increasing the capacity to be a more system-wide approach, rather than just an approach that is only getting, you know, some kids and not all kids.

Katherine Kokal: I wanted to talk to you, specifically, about this, not because these achievement gaps are just all laid at the feet of public schools in Milwaukee. We have almost as many students being educated out of public schools as we do in public schools in our city, so even these metrics referencing Milwaukee as a whole are happening in addition to MPS specific reports. I bring up that finding because 22 of the 50 lowest performing schools are on the North Side of Milwaukee. Not all of those are public schools. 17 of them are public schools. But I wanna share a quote from a conversation I had with Colleston Morgan of the pro-choice and charters City Forward Collective. He said that that metric of low-performing schools means that, quote, “We cannot solve these challenges just by looking to Milwaukee Public Schools, and we can't solve these challenge without Milwaukee Public Schools.” How do you respond to that?

Brenda Cassellius: I think it’s a great reflection of the reality on the ground. Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin has chosen to engage in a choice system for families, and unfortunately, that hasn't panned out the way that I think that they had hoped it would, which is like an incredible amount of higher achievement for Black children, or poor children, or children who are not yet mastering the English language, or children even with disabilities. And what we see is, I think, it has created more instability for families and children who move from one system to the other system, back and forth. I think also has diffused the revenue landscape to be able to concentrate services within one type of system. And I think that it has also provided for different types of opportunities for children and created greater disparity among the different types of schools. There just needs to be a much more coordinated effort around the children of Milwaukee, regardless of what type of system you go to now, since the city has chosen it, to ensure that their is a compelling political will, that there is, you know, instructional materials in all of our schools, that teachers are in our classrooms and they are permanently licensed, and that we are focusing on holding families accountable for sending their children to school so that their attendance is 95% or better, which is a huge problem to achievement. We can't educate children who aren't there. And then, as a city, wrapping ourselves around all of our nonprofit community, our philanthropic community, our civic community, to ensure that time out of school is well-spent, safe, and engaging for children.

Katherine Kokal: Dr. Brenda Cassellius, Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, thanks so much for speaking with me about this today. I appreciate it.

Brenda Cassellius: Thank you.

Audrey Nowakowski: Dr. Brenda Cassellius is the superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools. She spoke with our education reporter, Katherine Kokal, for our series, Beats Me.

Lake Effect is available as a podcast, so you can listen when you like. Find it wherever you get your podcasts, then subscribe, download, and hear us on demand.

Later in the show, we'll help you plan a trip to Oneida to see the annual powwow and dance competition there. But first, we'll examine the history of Juneteenth, and how Milwaukee began one of the earliest celebrations of the day in the entire nation. That's coming up on Lake Effect, on Milwaukee's NPR.

You're listening to Lake Effect on Milwaukee's NPR. I'm Audrey Nowakowski. Juneteenth is a holiday commemorating the day in 1865 that enslaved black Americans in Galveston, Texas, were told they had been freed. The announcement came two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, a document that freed slaves in all states. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021 and an official City of Milwaukee holiday in 2022. But Milwaukee has been celebrating long, long before then. In fact, we have one of the longest running Juneteenth celebrations in the country, and this year marks 55 years. WUWM's Race and Ethnicity reporter, Teran Powell, is joined by Dr. Robert Baker to talk about the history of Juneteenth.

Teran Powell: What do you know about how those early celebrations looked?

Robert Baker: Yeah, it was a celebration of food, singing and joy. I mean, obviously, a year after slavery, people weren't rolling up in their Harley Davidsons, or on their motorcycles, or coming out in super fancy clothes, but it was at a time of remembrance and hope. And so that first Juneteenth day, which is just “June” and “19th,” smashed together, that first Juneteenth day kicked off a cultural practice. That started in the South and really pushed throughout the South, throughout the North after the Great Migration. In 1971 in Milwaukee, we have our first Juneteenth celebration. So I could imagine it was a time of hope and love.

Teran Powell: And so you mentioned just that those celebrations traveling from the South to the North and Milwaukee has been one of the cities that I believe has one of the longest Juneteenth celebrations. What do you think that says about Milwaukee that this festival has been able to succeed this long?

Robert Baker: Yeah, I mean, the beautiful thing about Milwaukee is that we have a lot of love, hope, and pride, and connection to our Black culture. And even though African-Americans didn't start moving to Milwaukee until the late 50s, what you see by 1970 is an explosion of our Black community. And so as African-Americans were coming north, they settled. This was one of the best places in the country for Blacks to be. And so I think it was a celebration of hope, freedom, but also about Black success. So I think we still have a lot of successful, freedom-loving black people. And we're gonna show up on King Drive until we can't.

Teran Powell: Absolutely. So Juneteenth finally became a federally recognized holiday in 2021. Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. And you know, that was thanks to some Black women like Opal Lee and Lula Briggs Galloway and other supporters who just really advocated for years for that to become a reality. What do you think is the significance of this federal acknowledgement?

Robert Baker: Yeah, I mean, the last federal holiday was in 1993, and it was Martin Luther King Day. And so we fast forward over 30 years, and we have Juneteenth Day. And I think it's about a statement by the federal government that African Americans are just now finally getting acknowledged. Their history is just finally getting acknowledged, and while we're grateful to President Biden for passing this holiday, it shows that Black people in this country have to struggle to get acknowledged. It shouldn't have taken that long.

Teran Powell: And so why do you think it took until 2021 for Juneteenth to be federally recognized?

Robert Baker: I think it took so long for Juneteenth to be recognized because even though a lot of our population has moved on and has acknowledged that racism and racial oppression is something that still exists today, there are many leaders who want to hide from our past. And even today, we're seeing a lot of people sort of put down Black history and some of the critical thought that's connected to it. And so I think there's a resistance to acknowledge that African-Americans have a different history in the United States. On July 4th, 1776, many of us were still in bondage. At the end of slavery, four million black people are still enslaved. And so it was a resistance and the slow-moving nature of accepting our story. But you know, Black people, we turned up. And so we know what happened in 2021.

Teran Powell: Absolutely. And that's actually what my next question was. Those events of 2020, with George Floyd being killed, and the country having what some called a racial reckoning, do you think that helped push that effort for federal acknowledgement?

Robert Baker: Yeah, I think that if there had not been the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter moment and movement that took place after the death of George Floyd, I don't think President Biden would have set the federal holiday. And you know, Frederick Douglass, our great ancestor, said that there is no progress without struggle. And so I think every time Black people and our allies and people who are concerned about racism and oppression step up and use our voice in unison, that's when we get stuff done.

Teran Powell: So I'm really like harping on this federal acknowledgement. You know, as with any major holiday, you have companies, for example, that would try to capitalize off it, right? You have the sales, the slogans, social media messaging. Sometimes that really just looks like lip service to some people. Considering that, do you worry that the true meaning of the holiday might be lost because of things like that?

Robert Baker: Yes, I think that we're in this phase in which it's becoming apparent that corporate America is grabbing on to Juneteenth and sort of, what some people might say, commodifying it. And I do think we have a danger with any holiday with just using it as a time to sell goods or tell surface-level stories. So I do that we need to be concerned about that, but I do also believe it's a time for Black people to get in where we fit in. Over the last two years, I've been approached by corporate institutions and nonprofits that had never considered talking about Juneteenth, and they brought me in to talk to their staffs. And I know that I'm not the only historian doing that. I know there are a lot of leaders that are sort of being more thoughtful. And so, yeah, this is America. We like to sell products, but I do believe that more good will come from this than anything that's bad.

Teran Powell: Okay, okay. Well that's good to hear. If we have those companies like you're talking about and just people in general who are serious about acknowledging the day, you know, beyond a day off, how can they truly share that they care about this holiday, or care that the holiday commemorates Black people's liberation?

Robert Baker: Yeah. I mean, I believe that there will be a lot of people who would continually just get off, you know, and do their thing and not pay one second of attention to Juneteenth Day. But, you know, if you're an ally or a parent or someone that's concerned about the state of the country or the world, I really encourage you to check out the great books that are online about Juneteenth. There's great YouTube videos, important Wikipedia pages. And I would ask that you spend at least a moment reflecting with your children or your loved ones and tell a story about how a group of people who had been in bondage really turned up for the entire country. After slavery, former enslaved people started memorial days, they started private schools, they started public schools, they built roads and railroads. And so much of our history is taught through the lens that Black people have these pathologies or problems. But when we look get those formerly enslaved people, they showed up with joy and love. And so I feel like that's something that all of us need to do and need to reflect on.

Teran Powell: So I guess my final question: we talked about this nation really being, there being some resistance to acknowledging that Black folks have a different history in this country. There was the slow-moving nature to acknowledge Juneteenth as this holiday. What would appropriate recognition from America for Juneteenth look like to you?

Robert Baker: Yeah, I think the appropriate sort of recognition of Juneteenth would start with federal agencies and local governments sort of investing in the holiday, beyond just sort of slogans or putting up flags, but investing it in the same way we do July 4th, having park resources, neighborhood resources that allow people, Black people especially, to celebrate their connection to this American story. I feel like because there's been this slow recognition, many of us to this day don't feel like Americans fully. And so if black people are gonna be at the center of the conversation and not at the margins, we need to invest. And I feel there are states like California that are looking deeply at reparations and things like that. And I'm not sure where that conversation is gonna go, but I do know that there's a lot of heavy baggage that all of us feel because of slavery. And the more we look at it straight in the face and acknowledge it, the better our country will be.

Teran Powell: I want to leave space for you to share any final thoughts that you have.

Robert Baker: Yeah, I appreciate you putting a spotlight on Juneteenth. I think Milwaukee's Juneteenth day is especially important and magical. If you go to the Juneteenth Wikipedia page, a picture of Milwaukee will be there, because our Juneteente is so massive. And so I appreciate that. I appreciate anyone paying attention to Black history because it's American history. And we can never forget the path that this country has taken to get here today.

Teran Powell: Well, Dr. Baker, thank you so much for having this conversation with me. I really appreciate it.

Robert Baker: Appreciate it. Thank you.

Audrey Nowakowski: Dr. Robert Baker is the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at UW-Milwaukee. He spoke with WUWM's Race and Ethnicity Reporter, Teran Powell, in 2023.

Milwaukee's Juneteenth celebration is thanks in large part to community leader Margaret Henningsen and Northcott Neighborhood House, which put on the first Juneteenth celebration in 1971. Henningson says she learned about Juneteenth in a conversation with her grandmother during a family trip to Georgia when she was a teenager. Henningson shares how that led to the creation of Milwaukee's Juneteenth celebration with WUWM's race and ethnicity reporter, Teran Powell.

Margaret Henningson: So fast forward to 1971, I'm now working at Northcott as the head of their Head Start program and as a community organizer. I'm also serving on the board of Northcott Neighborhood House, and Northcott neighborhood house was part of a whole system around the country of neighborhood houses that were programs that were designed to help underserved communities. And the organization that ran all the neighborhood houses around the country was primarily people who were white. But there was a man named Lucius Walker who came here often. He was the first executive director of Northcott. He was amazing. I want to kind of say maybe he was one of my early role models and mentors. We were having a staff meeting. There were about 17 people in that room that worked at Northcott. And our executive director at that time was Jimmy Givings, who was like a mentee of Lucius Walkers. And he said, “It's a shame that we see all these people fleeing. Third Street used to be full of businesses.” Gimbels-Schuster's was there anchoring this one corner. And there were all kinds of other businesses. Anything you wanted, you went to Third Street first and you could find it. It was mostly white. Business people. The area around Third Street was all homeowners on both sides. And those people were fleeing the neighborhood in droves.

So Jimmy said, “What we need to discuss today is: what can we do to make Third Street a more vibrant street to engage our people in participating in what's here in the city of Milwaukee and continue our fight for what's rightfully ours?” All of the sudden, this incident with my grandmother just popped up in my head. So I said, “You know, my grandmother told me one time that there was some kind of document out there that said we were free and that people celebrate that. Does anybody in here know anything about Juneteenth?” Not one hand went up, not one, not even the two people who were from the South. I said, “Why don't we have a Juneteenth celebration?” So after I explained what it was, Jimmy said, “Wow, that's a great idea. He said, is it like a festival?” I said, “Well, I'm gonna have to do some research, because I haven't thought about this since I was 14, maybe 13 or 14 years old.” Isn’t that something? I'm getting goosebumps talking about this – how that just popped up in my head all of a sudden, “Why don't you have a Juneeteenth Celebration?”

And boy oh boy, was I shocked when I started looking it up. I asked my parents. Nope, they never heard of it. My grandparents? Nope, they never heard of it – from Tennessee of all places. And then I asked a friend of mine, she was living in Texas. She said, “Oh, Juneteenth.” She said, “Yeah.” She said, “Girl, in Galveston, they celebrate that every year.” I said, “Can you find me somebody from Galveston to talk to?” So I was trying to pull all this information together so I could go back to the next staff meeting and say this is what we have to do. So when I got back, I said there's only a very few cities that celebrate, and Galveston, Texas, probably celebrates it more than anybody else. So I said, “I figure I need about five or six of y'all to form this committee with me to try to have a Juneteenth celebration here in Milwaukee.” Silence, no hands went up. Finally, one of my close friends from North Carolina, Jan Kemp (?). She said, “Oh Margaret, where do you come up with all these crazy ideas?” But she said, “I'll help you. I'll volunteer.”

Teran Powell: What did your research look like?

Margaret Henningson: We could only find a few places we knew of that were actually outwardly celebrating Juneteenth. Some people from the South who were familiar with this said that a lot of Juneteenth celebrations were sort of incognito. You know, it was a “church picnic” – I'm making quotation marks – or a “family reunion.” But very few people who celebrated Juneteenth who were from the South actually said it was the celebration of their freedom. And I think it had a lot to do with the conversation I had with my grandmother where she said, “Black people down there knew they weren't free, but they weren't going to throw it in a white folks’ face,” you know. And I've often thought about her wishing she was still alive and could see how we've progressed, you know, that we overtly were not afraid anymore. We would march and demonstrate and do whatever we needed to do.

So the first year, it was all, and really the second year, it was 99% word of mouth and people donating stuff. And Jan's husband, he had a lot of contacts in the music industry. He reached out to people in Milwaukee and said, “On June 19th, can you come down on 3rd Street, bring your band or your singer or whatever?” So we had some entertainment, but it was all local. And when Northcott started doing this, we were on Third Street, which then became King Drive. We had to go to older people, which were almost all white, except for Ben Johnson. And the county, same thing. The mayor's office, same thing, trying to get them to understand the significance of Juneteenth and why we wanted to close Third Street so we could have this celebration undisturbed. So we met with those people and they all said they'd get back to us, right? By now, it's like five days before Juneteenth. We just kept going forward. We told people, “Yeah, come on, everything's good. Bring your tables, your chairs, your food.” People had grills the first couple of years. It was just grills. Their own grills and they brought their own food. And then there was two Black radio stations, and Dr. Bob was at one of them, and O.C. White was that the other one. Those are names that'll be familiar only to a few people that are listening to this. But anyway, they did come forward and help us. They reached out to some of the entertainers that they knew to see if they could get them. They couldn't, but the fact that they reached out to them was a good thing. So, on the first day, I'd say between 2,000 and 3,000 people showed up. That's all. And when we first got down there at about 6 o'clock in the morning, just Jan and I and a few other people from Northcott to help people get set up, it started raining. And I started crying and Jan said, “Don't cry Margaret.” She said the rain's going to stop. She got out in the middle of the street and started doing what she called the “no rain dance.” And she had no rhythm and Jan could not dance. She was one of the few Black people I knew who couldn't dance.

Teran Powell: Oh no!

Margaret Henningson: So she had fun there. And then about a half an hour later, it stopped raining. So we were going up to the corner, trying to put up these barriers, and a bus was coming down the street. So I ran up to bus, and I knocked on the window. He was at the stoplight. And I said, “You know, the street is closed.” He said, “No, it isn't.” He said, “We didn't get no orders the street was closed today.” I said, “Oh my God.” So I ran over to Jan and I said, “Jan, did your friend ever call you back about the street closures?” Because we gave assignments to people, and then we just let them run with it. We had to find Ben Johnson, bless his heart, and two other people we knew who were with the county board, and Ben was with Alderpeople, and say, “We need Third Street closed right now.” So we get through the day, and it went until midnight. They didn't change the time until there was some trouble. And when you stop and think about it, that festival's been there 55 years, and we've only had any kind of, what I would describe as ,bad trouble like the shooting we had, once or twice in 55 years. But mostly, at one time, the peak attendance was about 100,000 people.

Teran Powell: How do you think the event stuck with people?

Margaret Henningson: At the end of the day, it was probably about almost one o'clock in the morning. And me and Jan were sitting on the curb. I think we were in shock, you know, that everything had gone beautifully. There weren't a gazillion people there, but the people who were there were having so much fun. It was like a big family reunion. And so we were sitting in the curb talking, and Jan was looking down towards Walnut. It was about four or five young Black males coming down the street. I said, “Jan, nothing's gonna happen.” She said, “I hope not.” So they stopped at us. I was like, “Oh God, don't let me be wrong.” And one of them said, “Did y'all have anything to do with this event today?” Jan nodded her head, yes. And I said “Yes, we did. Why?” And he put his hand out and the guy who was standing next to him put his hand out for Jan, and they helped us stand up. He said, “We wanna hug you. “And the guy who started the conversation said, “Are you gonna do this again?” Jan was like shaking her head, no. And I said, “Yes.” I said, “Can I have your name and phone number because we need to put you on the committee for next year?”

When they start walking away, Jan looked at me and she said don't you start crying because them tears were just streaming down my face. I said, “Jan, I think we're onto something.” But at that point, I don't think either me or her felt like Juneteenth was going to happen anymore. But I could not stop thinking about it: what if we did this? What if did that? What if made this a bigger event? What if it was more informational, educational, more food, more sponsors? What if could raise money to help our kids go to college? We just started talking about all these different things. By the time we left that curb, it was about four o'clock in the morning. Me and her just sitting there brainstorming, having a ball. That's why we did Juneteenth. We were trying to get people to see that our community is not what they think it is, that it's good. We want all of our people, including the Black people, to see how wonderful we are. My heart, everything, my thanks goes to Northcott, because every executive director they had said “okay to continuing to make Juneteenth happen. That's how it got to be 55 years.

Teran Powell: What do you hope for the future of Juneteenth celebrations in Milwaukee or elsewhere?

Margaret Henningson: There's something everybody should know: not that we shouldn't celebrate the 4th of July – because I love the 4 of July, the fireworks and the camaraderie and all of that, but I also understand what it symbolizes – and I feel like Juneteenth is a better representation or symbol of what it means to be free. And I would like for the whole focus of Juneteenth to get larger and larger until Black people do feel like they're completely free.

Music: March down freedom highway...

Audrey Nowakowski: That was Margaret Henningson, a pioneer of the Juneteenth celebration here in Milwaukee. She spoke with WUWM Race and Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell.

We'll take one more break, and when we return, we'll tell you about the upcoming Oneida Powwow and help you plan a trip to see the dance competition. That's next on Lake Effect on WUWM.

Music: Made up my mind that I won't turn around...

Audrey Nowakowski: You're listening to Lake Effect on Milwaukee's NPR. I'm Audrey Nowakowski.

The annual Oneida Powwow is coming up at the end of June. The powwow draws 10,000 visitors to Oneida to experience traditional music and dancing. Visitors can soak in Oneida culture from native food and artist vendors at the three-day event. For this month's Wandering Wisconsin, Lake Effect's Becky Mortenson helps you plan a trip to the Oneida Powwow and learn what you can see and do there. She's joined by Oneida Nation's marketing and tourism director, Michelle Anderson Danforth and Amanda Weibel from Travel Wisconsin.

Becky Mortensen: So the 52nd annual Oneida Powwow is coming up at the end of June, but this tradition dates back a lot further than just 52 years. So, Michelle, can you talk about the origins of the Oneida powwow?

Michelle Anderson Danforth: Actually, I went back and did a little research, and the first powwow actually was in 1840. And we had a chief, his name was Daniel Bread, and he actually kind of adopted it as a celebration to celebrate Independence Day. And for a long time, they would do the celebration over the 4th of July weekend. It was a whole weekend event. And then it kind of went away for a while, and then the powwow ended up resurging in the 1970s. We actually would host it at our local civic center, and then eventually it moved up the road to the Norbert Hill Center, where it actually goes on today.

Becky Mortensen: All right, and this event will kick off with a grand entry. Can you describe what that will be like?

Michelle Anderson Danforth: Sure. Well, for the Oneida Powwow, which happens on the 26th, 27th, and 28th, on the Friday night, our grand entry is at seven. On Saturday, it's at one o'clock, and then seven o' clock, and then Sunday at noon. And basically, grand entry is this spectacular part of our powwow where all the dancers come into the dance arena. And they're led off by the veterans. We have our royalty. wW have lots of visiting royalty from different Native communities from across the country. And then all of the head dancers and all the dancers file in, and what's really spectacular is, we get over like 450, 500 dancers, and they're all in this central dance arena. So the people that come to visit. It's a great opportunity to see all the different style dancers, all the different style regalia that everyone wears, and it's a really great, great time to be there.

Becky Mortensen: So a few hundred people are participating in that grand entry. So talk a bit about what goes into the planning and preparation for this event each year.

Michelle Anderson Danforth: It takes a lot to really prepare for the entire year, because it's everything from the regalia that you wear, and if you get up close and personal to some of our dancers, like, the beadwork is just exquisite. And it is just these amazing designs and it's a lot of beadwork. So doing all the preparation for not only traveling to the powwows, but then also prepping yourself for being in competition, literally it's a year-long process. So on the tourism side, we literally start planning as soon as the powwow is over. So within two weeks, we're having a meeting on what can we do better? How can we improve our guest experience? It's everything, from the bleachers, to the giant LED screens, to all of our head staff. It's everything. And I can say without a doubt we have one of the best powwows in the Midwest.

Becky Mortensen: Absolutely. You mentioned the competition aspect of the powwow, with over $160,000 in prize money up for grabs. So can you share how that works?

Michelle Anderson Danforth: $160,000. It's a lot of money, but we have a lot of different types of dance categories. So what happens after grand entry, and then they'll do a few exhibitions so people can see the different styles of dance, is that we do break into these categories. So it may be men's traditional, men's grass, smoke dancing, fancy dancing. So we have all these different styles for both men and even the women. So there's different styles. And what we do is we break each of those categories apart. And so we may have where it's senior men's traditional. And you will only see them dance. And then it'll be just the men's grass or just the fancy dance. And what's really cool about it is that you really get to see each of the styles of dance while you're there hanging out, having some food or hanging out with your family. That part of it is really... It's pretty spectacular for visitors who want to come to the powwow.

Becky Mortensen: When people arrive at the powwow, there are vendors. Can you share a little bit more about what people can check out there?

Michelle Anderson Danforth: When a visitor actually comes to the powwow, what's really cool is that when they walk into the powwow grounds, there are over 40 crafts and jewelry, all different types of vendors. We also have a wide variety of food vendors also that people can eat at. Specifically, my favorite is, I love the jewelry. I can't go a year without buying some sort of piece of jewelry. So when I get on the grounds on the Friday, and of course we're working, but I'll go and do a quick peruse, but there's just so much to see and there's so much to walk through. I mean, even the food vendors, I love. I love the food vendors because, for us, we are running around like crazy, so you have to grab food when you can. My favorite though is the Indian taco. I love the Indian taco. I know I'm not supposed to eat the Indian tacos, but I still love it, and I will eat it during that weekend.

Becky Mortensen: Okay, besides Indian taco and jewelry, do you have a favorite part of the powwow?

Michelle Anderson Danforth: So, my favorite part of the powwow, honestly, is watching the people and the kids run around and everyone is so happy. For my entire life, I have gone to the powwow pretty much every single year. And so, on our grounds, we have a nice hill that you can sit on and bring your blanket and you can watch. So my grandmother, my aunt, you know, my dad. They all sat on the hill, and so for me, I'm excited about my role with the powwow, because I was like, “You know what? Someday I'm gonna be an older lady, and I'm going to be sitting on that hill watching.” And I'm excited, because I just don't think the powwows gonna... It's not gonna go anywhere. It's a staple in our community, and we support it a hundred percent.

Becky Mortensen: I love that. Okay, Amanda, I'm gonna turn to you. There are some other ways to experience and learn about native culture in the area. What else would you recommend people check out on a visit?

Amanda Weibel: Yes, there really are so many opportunities. It's gonna be easy to add one more. You'll likely want to add many more tribal tourism activities to your itinerary. Certainly one to check out is the Oneida Nation's new cultural center that opened just this June. The name in Oneida means precious waters, and Michelle was helping me with this, so we'll see how I can do. It's the Kahnekano·lú Cultural Center, which means “precious water” in Oneida.

Michelle Anderson Danforth: Kahnekano·lú, Kahnekano·lú. Say that 10 times.

Amanda Weibel: It's such a significant expansion from the previous museum. There's so much to check out, lots of new artifacts that are on display, amazing interactive exhibits where kids, or kids at heart, can touch and explore, and they also have a really beautiful community gathering space and fantastic gift shop. Another option if you want something hands-on, consider a visit to Ukwakhwa Farm. The owners, Becky and Steve Webster, are so welcoming, and they really. Started this farm from the ground up as a way to preserve and share traditional heirloom Haudenosaunee ingredients and foodways. They have a number of events planned for the summer, they've got great classes and skills like corn pounding and berry basket-making, and they have these open house community drop-in events, so check out their website and social media for lots more details. And if you're in the area on a Thursday, make sure you check out the Oneida Farmers Market. They have over 35 vendors and you can find a wide variety of produce, flowers, crafts, food. Michelle told me that the local honeykeeper and kettle corn can't be missed. So you might find her in line on those stops.

Becky Mortensen: Alright, Michelle, if someone has never attended a powwow before, what is something you'd want them to know about the Oneida Powwow?

Michelle Anderson Danforth: To come early. So if grand entry is at 7 p.m., you probably wanna get there about like six o'clock because there is traffic. We do get a large inflow of visitors that are coming, and definitely bring a blanket with you. We have a hill where you can throw your blanket down and sit and watch. And then we also have bleachers. So we have like a lot of seating. We've been working on that over the years, to make sure that there's ample seating for everyone who wants to come out. The other thing is, like, if you want to take a picture with a dancer, just ask them. That's one of the things that we do ask is that you're respectful for the dancers, but they love getting their pictures taken. The other things is during, right before Grand Entry, we always do this opening prayer, and they ask people to or honor songs, and they asked people not to record during those times, and to be very respectful because we always have elders who are giving us these great words of encouragement. And so we want we always want to be really mindful that we're being very respectful for them and not to be on our phone. But other than that, it's like come enjoy. There's food. There's lots of things to buy and experience, and it's just a really great experience – something that you'll remember for for many years to come

Becky Mortensen: All right, all very good advice. Well, Michelle and Amanda, thank you so much for joining me for Wandering Wisconsin.

Amanda Weibel: Thanks for having us.

Michelle Anderson Danforth: Thank you very much for having us, I appreciate this experience.

Audrey Nowakowski: Michelle Anderson Danforth is the marketing and tourism director for Oneida Nation. Amanda Weibel is the communications officer for Travel Wisconsin. They both joined Lake Effect's Becky Mortenson for this month's Wandering Wisconsin.

And that's Lake Effect for today. I'm Audrey Nowakowski. Joy Powers, Xcaret Nunez, and Sam Woods join me in producing Lake Effect each week, with help from Graham Thomas. Becky Mortensen is our executive producer. Emily Files helps edit the show. We also heard from Katherine Kokal, Susan Bence, and Teran Powell from the WUWM News team this week. Jason Rieve is our studio engineer. Valeria Navarro-Villegas is our digital operations manager. Trapper Schoepp wrote our theme music.

If you've missed any of Lake Effect this week, remember you can find all of our conversations at wuwm.com. If you'd like to take us on the go, just download the Lake Effect podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. Join us again on Monday at noon for a special edition of the show. We'll recap our series on Milwaukee's socialist mayors. Thank you so much for joining us today, right here on listener-supported 89.7 WUWM, Milwaukee's NPR.