Status Pending

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

Milwaukee native Davita Flowers-Shanklin brings a unique experience to the discussion of segregation, and its ripple effects. “I remember being in high school and being really into science and biology. I was the co-director of Camp Everytown , which is a diversity camp for teenagers," Flowers-Shanklin says. "So my work even as a teenager was around anti-oppression." But, Flowers-Shanklin was just as passionate about science and the environment. “It seemed silly not to try and not do them

Segregation comes with borders, whether they are manmade - 124 th Street, the dividing line between Milwaukee and Waukesha counties, or natural - the Milwaukee River. Today, WUWM reports on one particular border, and how some people feel about crossing it. “There’s still that sort of almost invisible, but known barrier," Lynne Woehrle says. She’s a sociologist and a founding member of the group Tosa Together . The invisible barrier she’s talking about is 60 th Street around North Avenue—the

Segregation can impact a person's body, mind and health. Not everyone has the same opportunity to be healthy in a city like Milwaukee. Dr. Julie Schuller says the lack of access to quality healthcare and environmental factors inhibit segregated African-American and Latino populations from living healthy lifestyles. She is the executive vice president of the Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers , as well as the organization's vice president of clinical affairs. Sixteenth Street's health