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Bryan Stevenson: An unspoken history of lynching African-American veterans

“It is impossible to create a dual personality which will be on the one hand a fighting man toward the enemy, and on the other, a craven who will accept treatment as less than a man at home.” [1] The end of the Civil War marked a new era of racial terror and violence directed at black people in the United States that has not been adequately acknowledged or addressed in this country. Following emancipation in 1865, thousands of freed black men, women, and children were killed by white mobs, former slave owners, and members of the Confederacy who...

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A look back at “March on Milwaukee” after half century

Early in the evening of Monday, August 28, 1967, over one hundred members of the Milwaukee Youth Council of the NAACP gathered at their headquarters at 1316 North 15th Street, picked up signs hand-lettered with slogans like “We Need Fair Housing,” and, led by Father James E. Groppi, a white Roman Catholic priest who served as their adviser, headed toward the 16th Street viaduct. At about 6:30 p.m. they were greeted at the north end of the viaduct by almost another one hundred supporters and crossed over the viaduct to the nearly all-white south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There...

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Milwaukee Film Festival calls for 2017 Entries

Milwaukee Film began accepting entries for the 9th annual Milwaukee Film Festival on February 28. The festival is in its sixth year of offering free submission for all films and, for the third consecutive year, Milwaukee Film will offer to pay for all work that is screened in the festival. The event runs from September 28 to October 12, 2017. Works of all genres, forms, and lengths will be considered. The deadline for all entries is June 12. Milwaukee Film’s Artistic and Executive Director Jonathan Jackson said, “It’s been four months since our festival ended, and we’re ready to...

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Milwaukee Notebook: A river made for recreation

Canoes crowd the Milwaukee River at Gordon Park on a fine summer day in the early 1900s, as spectators line the railing of the Folsom bridge, now Locust. The North Avenue dam, built in 1843, divided the Milwaukee River into an industrialized lower river through downtown to the harbor and a relatively untouched upper river, which became a center for recreation for the growing city. Here, from the late 1800s to World War I, you could take a steamboat from North Avenue up the river to visit a beer garden or an amusement park. For the more energetic, there...

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Challenged neighborhoods must benefit from city development boom

As the city enters a development boom valued at more than $3 billion, which will include a number of large projects downtown, city leaders said struggling central city residents must benefit from those projects as well. “As much as I love being a cheerleader for all the great things that are going on in the City of Milwaukee, when I lie awake at night, it’s about the challenges that we face,” said Mayor Tom Barrett. “At the end of the day, if you don’t have permanent jobs, you are going to have permanent problems.” The comments came at a...

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By the Numbers: 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival

The 8th Annual Milwaukee Film Festival, presented by Associated Bank, released a preliminary list of guests for this year’s festival. The current list of guests includes filmmakers, actors, and documentary subjects as well as industry members who will serve as jurors and panelists. Headliners include Academy Award-winner John Ridley, Emmy Award-winner Sam Pollard, The Blind Side actor Quinton Aaron, Silicon Valley actor Martin Starr, and Arrested Development actor Mae Whitman “One of the key things that sets the festival experience above all other moviegoing experiences is the ability for the audience to have one-of-a-kind interactions with creators and subjects...

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