Odd Wisconsin

Odd Wisconsin Archive

Civil Rights in Wisconsin

When the residents of Wisconsin decided they were ready to govern themselves, they chose delegates to write a set of laws. It was the fall of 1846 and Madison, where the lawmakers assembled, was a tiny village well off the beaten track. The 124 elected delegates argued for ten weeks before finally agreeing on a draft in December. Their constitution would have allowed immigrants who applied for citizenship to vote, granted married women the right to own property, and made the question of black suffrage subject to popular referendum.

Debates raged throughout the following months over these utopian ideas about civil rights. What ultimately doomed the 1846 constitution, however, was an additional provision, in the wake of widespread financial panic a few years before, that prohibited privately owned banks. In April 1847 voters rejected the idealistic vision and sent another flock of delegates back to Madison. In December, using the results of the April vote to guide them, they prepared a less controversial document that omitted any mention of women’s property rights, restricted voting rights, allowed for commercial banks, and set up a referendum on black suffrage. It didn't please everyone, but voters approved it by a margin of 16,799 to 6,384 in March and Wisconsin became the 30th state on May 29, 1848.

A special election was held in 1849 on whether black residents should be allowed to vote and on certain other issues, and the specific question of black suffrage passed 5,625 to 4,075. But because 5,625 was not a majority of all the votes cast on all the questions that day, opponents of suffrage succeeded in denying voting rights to African Americans. Ezekiel Gillespie, a black Milwaukee resident, nevertheless attempted to register to vote in every election and when he was rejected year after year, he finally in 1865 sued the city for violating his civil rights. Gillespie's attorney was Byron Paine, who had been deeply involved in the Joshua Glover case over the Fugitive Slave Law a decade before, and Paine succeeded in persuading the Wisconsin Supreme Court that the 1849 referendum had in fact given black residents the right to vote. Local officials who disagreed, however, continued to intimidate black voters until the Wisconsin legislature ratified the 15th amendment to the U.S. constitution in 1869, and the voting rights of African American men were finally assured. Black women, like all women, were denied the right to vote until 1920. Wisconsin Indians were only guaranteed the right to vote in 1924 with pasage of the federal Indian Citizenship Act.

Suffrage is not the only civil right, of course, and Wisconsin remained a deeply racist state. The Negro Business Directory of the State of Wisconsin, 1950-1951 included a section on U.S. hotels where African Americans could "enjoy your vacation without humiliation" -- there were none in Wisconsin. Milwaukee, where most of Wisconsin's people of color have lived, grew into one of the nation's most racially segregated cities. A 1946 survey found that 90% of subdivisions platted in the city since 1910 prohibited the sale of property to African Americans, and there were widespread 'gentlemen's agreements' not to sell or rent to black citizens "except within the area bounded by W. North, W. Juneau, N. 3rd, and N. 12th Streets." Segregated neighborhoods led to segregated schools: a 1960 survey found that schools in Milwaukee’s central city were 90% black. On August 28, 1963, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Milwaukee organized the first civil rights demonstration in the city, and throughout the 1960s and 1970s activists such as Vel Phillips, Lloyd Barbee, and Father James Groppi led thousands of citizens in efforts to create equality of opportunity in housing, schools and jobs.

On Monday, as our kids enjoy a day off school, it's important to recall the people from Ezekiel Gillespie to Vel Phillips who risked their reputations and livelihoods (and often their personal safety) to make a reality out of those words with which our kids start each day -- "liberty and justice for all."

Did You Know?

The Wisconsin Historical Museum is currently featuring Odd Wisconsin objects in the latest exhibit: Odd Wisconsin. And don't miss the Odd Wisconsin book by author Erika Janik published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.