Celebrating Freedom: Why Juneteenth Day commemorates the end of slavery in the United States
Juneteenth is considered the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. It was originally celebrated on June 19, the day that Union soldiers in 1865 told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War had...
Megan O’Halloran: Wisconsin has a golden opportunity to meet the unprecedented needs of our students
I joked in 2020 that I longed for the “precedented.” Nearly everything about 2020 was unprecedented and not in a good way. However, I was recently filled with hope when I read that the projections for state tax collections have been revised upward by an unprecedented...
Equity Principles: Elmbrook School District’s plan to address inclusivity sparks backlash from parents
In the year of reckoning following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, conversations about race, equity and belonging have gained momentum in some Wisconsin school districts. In several, that meant reassessing the presence of school...
Dual Pandemics: Milwaukee schools continue to fight the coronavirus and inequality
June 1 was the day the city of Milwaukee lifted its mask mandates, but you would not know it watching the Milwaukee school board meeting that same night. On camera, all board members were in different rooms with masks. Superintendent Keith Posley and his staff sat in...
On speaking the truth: The Freedom Struggle will not be deterred by lies
“It is probably true to say that there would be no crisis in race relations if the Negro continued to think of himself in inferior terms and patiently accepted injustice and exploitation. But it is at this very point that the change has come. For many years, the Negro...
Wisconsin’s response to the pandemic foreshadows the national battle against vaccine hesitancy
The fight against the coronavirus hit a milestone in the United States when the Biden administration announcing more than half of adult Americans are now fully vaccinated. But big issues remain and perhaps few states illustrate the struggles ahead better than...
A world of disinformation: How countries used COVID-19 as an excuse to crackdown on press freedom
By Sara Torsner, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield; and Jackie Harrison, Professor of Public Communication, Centre for Freedom of the Media, University of Sheffield A government’s fear of scrutiny and criticism...
MCTS East-West BRT: Construction begins on new rapid transit corridor to facilitate economic equity
Federal, state, and local officials joined business leaders and members of the community at a special a groundbreaking ceremony on June 10, to kick off construction on the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS)’s East-West Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project at the corner...
ACLU accuses state lawmakers of discrimination after voting to slash Milwaukee’s public transit funding
The state Legislature’s budget committee voted to cut funding for public transit in Milwaukee and Madison by 50 percent over the next two years. The transportation plan was approved on June 8 11-4 along party lines, with all Republicans voting in favor and all...
Stimulus plan for pandemic-stricken mass transit would be a down payment on reviving American cities
By Ruth Steiner, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida Congress now has control over what kind of commute… good, bad, awful, that workers returning to offices in the United States will have. President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan,...
Standing United: How Milwaukee’s March with Pride for #BlackLivesMatter changed the LGBTQ+ community
By Montell Infiniti Ross • Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service With June being the official month of Pride, I reflect on the experience of being not just a gay man, but a BLACK gay man. I can’t help but think about the similarities between being Black and gay. You...
Works of Tsukioka Kogyo and Toko Shinoda featured in new exhibit covering a century of Japanese art
The work of some of Japan’s most important artists of the last 100 years will be on display in Milwaukee at Art Japan: 2021-1921, a new exhibition drawn from the collection of The Warehouse that will run from July 9 until September 24. With over 80 works in the...
