Status Pending

The road to modern segregation has been a long one. "There's been 350 years of segregation in our country that was perpetuated by the government as well as by the social norms, based on race in particular," says David Pate . Pate studies the complex causes, effects and potential solutions of segregation in his role as an associate professor of social work at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at UW-Milwaukee. He says that after centuries of segregation, it's become normalized. "Many

It’s widely understood that Milwaukee is a segregated metropolitan area. But what’s less-appreciated is how segregation connects to other social issues the area faces. Soon-to-be-released research by UW-Milwaukee professor Marc Levine links segregation to a key factor that overlays it – poverty. Levine is the director of UWM’s Center for Economic Development . READ: Measuring Black/White Segregation in Metro Milwaukee “The overlap is very strong between the level of segregation in any

Poverty is entrenched in some of Milwaukee's mainly black neighborhoods. People studying the issue say financial struggles piled up as employers left. So they say change only will come when more people are put to work, in family-supporting jobs. Decades of racist policies and attitudes have led to entrenched segregation in metro Milwaukee. African-Americans remain concentrated in the city, including in its poorest neighborhoods. History helps explain the relationship between poverty and

Segregation impacts many different areas of our lives in metro Milwaukee. One that may not be top of mind is its connection to environmental health and justice. WUWM found an intricate tapestry of challenge and hope -- starting with Antoine Carter. His childhood started on East Chambers in Milwaukee. “I remember drugs and gangs and outdoor football and people getting jumped and all sorts of stuff. Just living in this area in the 1990s, I was a little too young to understand everything that was

For clergyman Joseph Ellwanger, the battle to end racial injustices across the U.S. involved overseeing the desegregation of the pews of his church. Ellwanger is pastor emeritus of the Cross Lutheran Church in Milwaukee . During his stewardship, from 1967 to 2001, Cross Lutheran evolved from a predominately white congregation to an integrated one. He explains the decision to integrate as a move motivated by scripture. "Separation is not of God," Ellwanger says, bluntly. "Togetherness and unity

Segregation is connected to issues ranging from education to housing to health. So, it’s no coincidence that evictions disproportionately affects certain neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Writer and researcher Matthew Desmond chronicled the issue of eviction and its impact in Milwaukee last year in the landmark book, Evicted . LISTEN: 'Evicted' Book Paints a Heartbreaking Picture of a Milwaukee Under Stress In the wake of that book, an effort is now underway in Milwaukee to help level the legal

Segregation is connected to issues ranging from education to housing to health. So, it’s no coincidence that evictions disproportionately affects certain neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Writer and researcher Matthew Desmond chronicled the issue of eviction and its impact in Milwaukee last year in the landmark book, Evicted . LISTEN: 'Evicted' Book Paints a Heartbreaking Picture of a Milwaukee Under Stress In the wake of that book, an effort is now underway in Milwaukee to help level the legal

Metro Milwaukee has a segregation problem -- not least, within area schools. Over time, racial lines have been created here , dividing the area into distinct black, white and Latino neighborhoods. As a result, many local schools have also become segregated -- or re-segregated, according to researcher Marc Levine . “The rate of black students attending what some education researchers call ‘near apartheid schools’ - 90 percent minority schools - in Milwaukee, is exactly the same as it was in the

UWM students Sydney Lee and Dwayne Lee – not related, are both black and grew up on Milwaukee’s North Side. “I think growing up it becomes normalized because you have like the South Side that’s supposed to be Latino, and then the North Side is supposed to be black and the East Side is supposed to be white. So when you grow up with it, it becomes normalized so you don’t really question it until you get older when you’re like ‘well, that’s kind of weird that we look at it that way’. So it wasn’t

There's a common misconception that many, or most, Latinos in Milwaukee are actually immigrants; however, Hispanic people have been living in the area since the 1920s. There were relatively few Latinos in our community for decades. "The big numbers start in the late '70s and '80s and '90s is really when the large influx of Latinos come to Milwaukee," says Enrique Figueroa, the former longtime director of the Roberto Hernandez Center and an associate professor at UW-Milwaukee. At that time, many