Milwaukee has become known for its segregation , the racial, ethnic and class dividing lines that keep people from living and interacting with each other. But what about spaces of integration? Do they exist and, if so, what can we learn from them? A few years back, Yale sociology professor Elijah Anderson spent time observing and interviewing people in Philadelphia's center city, a place that includes historical landmarks, cultural centers, park spaces and markets. He calls these areas of

Milwaukee is known as the most segregated city in America. But often, that designation raises more questions than it answers. Growing up in Milwaukee, Reggie Jackson saw the signs of segregation all around him, even when he didn't recognize them. Going to public schools in the city, Jackson says he didn't have class with any white students until he started commuting to high school, a subject-specific school on the south side of town. The school was part of a city-wide initiative to desegregate

While Milwaukee may be considered the United States’ most segregated city, our neighbors just south of us aren’t too much better. Chicago is consistently ranked as one of the most segregated cities in the U.S., and much like Milwaukee, its history is rooted in government sanctioned racism. For decades, racially restrictive covenants forced black Chicagoans to live in a designated area of the city known as the Black Belt. The use of these covenants was struck down by the Supreme Court in the late

Over the past several months, data has shown rising mortality rates among a surprising population - middle-age, largely rural white people. But many who study public health say focusing solely on that data ignores the historic disparities in other areas, such as the extraordinarily high maternal mortality rate among African-American women. That particular area is of interest to journalist Rita Henley Jensen . Jensen is the founder of The Jane Crow Project , which is exploring the causes for poor

A new study out from the Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council , with the Urban Institute , has quantified how segregation may affect a region’s economy. The Cost of Segregation looks at the impact of segregation on the Chicago area and compares it to the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, including Milwaukee. The report singles out three main indicators that would benefit from decreased segregation: income (personal and regional), education and safety. While some of the numbers are

Segregation in metro Milwaukee can be traced back, in part, to discriminatory housing practices like redlining and racial restrictive covenants. During the Civil Rights movement, there was large-scale pushback against such practices. The 1967 March on Milwaukee led by Father James Groppi and the NAACP Youth Council helped, in part, contribute to the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibits housing discrimination based on race, among other categories. Civil rights activist, poet

What can I do to help decrease segregation? What is being done to alleviate the problem? What can we do to change how segregated metro Milwaukee is? During WUWM's series, Project Milwaukee: Segregation Matters , the most common questions we received from YOU regarding segregation dealt with solutions. Solving this issue will not be easy. However, several ways to help reduce segregation in metro Milwaukee did emerge during our coverage. Dennis Walton was a panelist at the MilMag Live! / WUWM

It can be uncomfortable to discuss race relations. Discussions may be particularly minimal, in a region as segregated as metro Milwaukee. The group Ex Fabula relies on storytelling to make inroads. It invites its fellows to share personal tales about prejudice and misunderstandings. One of the fellows is Rochelle Fritsch, who is black. She tells audiences about a time she took her daughter to a sleepover in the suburbs, and got lost in a white neighborhood. Fritsch's GPS had given her bad

WUWM has been taking a comprehensive look at some of the many issues caused by segregation in Milwaukee through our series, ​Project Milwaukee: Segregation Matters . Between reports on WUWM news and interviews on Lake Effect , we have looked at how segregation can be quantified, how it's perpetuated, and its costs and effects on the community. To further investigate the issue, WUWM assembled a forum of experts on at Colectivo Coffee's Back Room on March 6 to talk about the nature of segregation,

Milwaukee Water Commons was created four years ago to educate the community about water - its rivers, streams and Lake Michigan - to cultivate informed stewards. “I came from a more traditional environmental effort, which was the Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition – working to make the river more beautiful, more accessible. There was already a ton of passion around that issue, but it was by and large a middle class and white group of people,” founder Ann Brummitt says. So in 2013, Brummitt and a