Black History Month

Terrance Sims has been teaching at the MPS school Milwaukee College Prep for about six years. Each February for the last four years, he's been using photography to actively engage and celebrate Black History Month with his students.

If you scroll through Sims' Instagram, you can find photos he's taken, recreating images of influential black figures. They might be from the civil rights era, academia or the entertainment industry.

All Zeddie Hyler wanted to do in 1955 was build a home in Wauwatosa, Wis. But that wasn’t easy for a black man to do at the time. 

Hyler had to overcome many obstacles — like angry neighbors concerned about property values, and vandals. He even had to get a white friend to buy the property for him before he could even begin to build. Once the building began that’s when the vandals and arsonists hit.     

But his persistence paid off: Hyler became the first black man to build a home in Wauwatosa. When he died in 2004 he left the home to his nephew, Gerald Williamson.