20th Street School Listed in the State Register of Historic Places
For Immediate Release
20th Street School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
March 4, 2020
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - The Wisconsin Historical Society placed the 20th Street School (Milwaukee, Milwaukee County) in the State Register of Historic Places on February 14, 2020. State Historic Preservation Officer Daina Penkiunas presents a certificate to Martha Brown.
State Historic Preservation Officer Daina Penkiunas presents certificate to Martha Brown.Twentieth Street School (historically also known as the Tenth District Primary School No. 2 and the Tenth District School No. 3; currently known as Phillis Wheatley School) is locally significant in the area of Social History for its associations with the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee. In 1964, the school was one of a small group of inner-core public schools strategically selected by civil rights advocates for the first public demonstrations protesting segregation within Milwaukee’s public school system. The school was the focus of continued protests through May 1965, which culminated in the filing of a landmark desegregation lawsuit against the school board in June 1965. The Twentieth Street School is a tangible reminder of this critical period in the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee, a short but intense period of direct action by prominent local civil rights groups and integration activists that helped to bring the issue of de facto segregation in the city to the attention of its citizens and to the nation.
The State Register is Wisconsin's official list of state properties determined to be significant to Wisconsin's heritage. The State Historic Preservation Office at the Wisconsin Historical Society administers both the State Register and National Register in Wisconsin.
To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.
About the Wisconsin Historical Society
The Wisconsin Historical Society, founded in 1846, ranks as one of the largest, most active and most diversified state historical societies in the nation. As both a state agency and a private membership organization, its mission is to help people connect to the past by collecting, preserving and sharing stories. The Wisconsin Historical Society serves millions of people every year through a wide range of sites, programs and services. For more information, visit wisconsinhistory.org.