WUWM: Race & Ethnicity Reporting

How important is it for a student to be taught by a teacher of the same race? That's something that's been on the mind of community member Ann Stanton, so she submitted a question to Beats Me — our series that allows you to ask questions about race, education, innovation and the environment.

“What is the ratio of black students to white teachers, and the black teacher makeup in MPS? What impact does that have on student achievement?”

One of the officers who was present at the January tasing and arrest of Sterling Brown of the Milwaukee Bucks has been fired, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales announced on Thursday.

But it wasn't the officer’s role in the arrest that led to his termination. It was his actions on social media afterward.

Since 2012, the Milwaukee Fellows Initiative has been helping young black men graduate from college, and encouraging them to return to Milwaukee to help strengthen the community afterward. What started as a scholarship program has evolved into a program that helps meet the needs of its fellows throughout their college journey. 

White privilege is a phrase that can be heard in many conversations surrounding social justice issues across the country. Now, it will be the subject of a new stage play coming to Marquette University that opens Labor Day weekend.

Malaina Moore is the mastermind behind the White Privilege stage play. She’s a junior theater major, also working on a minor in social justice and welfare.

Hip-hop has taken over Milwaukee. The popularity surrounding the genre is being used as a way to spark conversations about social issues through the city's inaugural Hip-Hop Week, which kicked off Monday at Miller High Life Theatre downtown.

In addition to performances by artists this week, hip-hop music has been incorporated into a series of events. They focus on things like financial literacy, health and employment opportunities.

The #CLOSEmsdf Coalition is calling for the closure of the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF) downtown.

Members of the campaign say the Wisconsin Department of Corrections facility is violating the human rights of those being held there and is unfairly incarcerating people for crimeless violations of supervision.

Murder in Milwaukee -- that’s the name of a new documentary from the BBC. The documentary chronicles the Milwaukee Police Department as they work to curb gun violence, and looks at the relationship between police and African Americans. But the depiction of Milwaukee as a “lawless” city has angered some community activists.

The late Lloyd Barbee is perhaps best known as the lawyer and state legislator who fought to desegregate Milwaukee’s public schools. A new book lays out just how broad Barbee’s fight for justice was.

Beyond education, Barbee pushed for open housing, women’s rights, and decolonization. He would often sign his letters with the quote - “Justice For All.” And that’s the title of the new book, Justice for All: Selected Writings of Lloyd A. Barbee.

The book is edited by his daughter -- another civil rights attorney -- Daphne Barbee-Wooten.

The 2017 Milwaukee Film Festival kicks off this week. Its centerpiece film takes us into a story familiar to many Milwaukeeans. In 2014 Dontre Hamilton was killed by a police officer in downtown Milwaukee.

The Blood is at the Doorstep, from director Erik Ljung, follows Hamilton’s family as they grieve, heal, and fight for change in their city.

If you were to witness someone being harassed would you know what to do? A group of Milwaukeeans is teaching people how to step in and calm potentially violent situations. 

Bystander intervention training is designed to build confidence so more people feel comfortable confronting racism, homophobia, and other kinds of harassment.

Race and Ethnicity Reporter Aisha Turner sat in on one of these trainings.

On a Friday night at the Riverwest Public House, facilitator Stephanie Roades gathers about 15 people for class: “We're gonna start with a basic warm up.”

It was 50 years ago that the open housing marches began in Milwaukee. For 200 nights civil rights activists marched from the mostly black northside over the 16th Street Bridge to city’s predominately white southside. They demanded a law to end discriminatory housing practices that prevented African Americans from living in white areas of the city.

A teenager named Prentice McKinney was at the center of those marches, leading the NAACP Youth Commandos.

On Saturday, Milwaukeeans rallied in response to the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. A large group spread out at the end of Wisconsin Avenue and chanted “white silence is violence” … “love trumps hate” … and “black lives matter.” 

They stood between the Northwestern Mutual Tower and the orange sunburst sculpture in O’Donnell Park. Some cars passing by honked in support.

Milwaukee has said goodbye to one of its prominent -- and outspoken -- faith leaders. For the last 10 years, Steve Jerbi was senior pastor at All Peoples Church on 2nd and Clarke.

He stood out as a white man leading a predominantly black congregation. He also became known for his passionate pursuit of racial and social justice.

This Sunday -- for the first time in a decade -- the congregation will gather without Jerbi, because he's moving to California to take a position with a church there.