Desegregation and Civil Rights

African Americans in Wisconsin had been struggling for their civil rights for more than a century before the movement began to attract headlines in the 1960s. In 1866, for example, Milwaukee's Ezekiel Gillespie successfully sued for the right to vote, and in the 1930s, William Kelley of the Milwaukee Urban League began to fight for the rights of black teachers to work in the public schools. These early efforts were especially difficult because African Americans made up only a very small percentage of the state's residents before the middle of the 20th century. For information about early civil rights history... more...

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	African American housing conditions in Milwaukee in 1955
	The KKK parades through Madison in 1924
	Wisconsin voting and civil rights legislation, 1846-1929.
	A block-print wall hanging from the Milwaukee Handicraft Project
	A 1950 guide to African American businesses
	Milwaukee residents discuss the city's racial problems, 1965
	The effects of Milwaukee school desegregation efforts, 1992
	Wisconsin's African American population from statehood through 1910
	A survey of black families in rural Wisconsin, 1959
	Photograph of attorney Byron Paine, ca. 1860
	Fr. James Groppi leading Milwaukee civil rights demonstrations, 1966-1969.
	Milwaukee civil rights leader, Lloyd Barbee
	An African American woman describes her migration to Wisconsin in 1917
	A detailed look at Milwaukee's black community in 1946
	William Rasche advocates on behalf of African American workers
	Segregated company housing takes shape in Beloit

Primary Sources Available Elsewhere

	Wisconsin celebrates 50 years of black freedom, 1915
	Wisconsin Blue Books
	African American students describe their lives in Milwaukee, 2000
	Documents relating to the integration of Milwaukee Public Schools
	Explore 400 years of African American history and migration

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