Mapping Racism and Resistance - in-person

5655 North Lake Drive,Whitefish Bay WI 53217

27 April, 2022

Description

Learn about racial covenants in our city/suburbs & action steps to formally repudiate them. Panel Presents the Map of Racism in Real Estate in Milwaukee County To honor the anniversary of the Fair Housing Law in Milwaukee, an expert panel will present the contours of racism in real estate being mapped in Milwaukee County. “Mapping Racism and Resistance in Milwaukee County: Struggles over Racism and Real Estate in the Urban North” April 27, 2022, at 7 p.m. Christ Church Episcopal 5655 N. Lake Dr., Whitefish Bay On April 30, 1968, two weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, the Milwaukee Common Council passed the Fair Housing Law. Introduced and led by Alderwoman Vel Phillips, this ordinance gave all people the right to live where they wanted. Yet, racially discriminatory covenants still persist on homeowners’ deeds. What is the shape of racial covenants that historically have prevented people of color from purchasing homes in Milwaukee County? What has been the resistance of such covenants by members of the Black community? And despite fair housing laws, how pervasive are such covenants in existing deeds? Presenters include Anne Bonds, associate professor, UWM Department of Geography and a lead on the mapping project; Derek Handley, assistant professor, UWM Department of English, also a lead on the project; Reggie Jackson, journalist and educator/consultant, Nurturing Diversity Partners, LLC; and Lawrence Hoffman, GIS program manager at Groundwork Milwaukee. Professors Bonds and Handley are visually depicting the presence of racial housing covenants and resistance to them by the Black community in Milwaukee County. The digital humanities project, with the help of the University of Minnesota’s Mapping Prejudice team, has examined these covenants through GIS mapping, archival research, and rhetorical analysis. Questions and answers will follow the presentations. The event will also include information on how the homeowners can repudiate racial covenants and discriminatory wording that may still exist in local deeds. People interested in helping project leaders with the mapping project will have the opportunity to sign up for training. The event is sponsored by the Housing Committee of Bay Bridge and UWM, together with Nurturing Diversity Partners and Groundwork Milwaukee. Bay Bridge is a non-partisan, volunteer-led organization raising awareness of racial and cultural bias in Whitefish Bay. Nurturing Diversity Partners fosters diversity, equity and inclusion within institutions and communities by educating groups about history, sociocultural dynamics, personal and interpersonal skills, and organizational practices that build an equitable society. Groundwork Milwaukee brings about the sustained regeneration, improvement and management of the physical environment by developing community-based partnerships that empower people, businesses and organizations to promote environmental, economic and social well-being. Other sponsors include the religious groups Christ Church Episcopal, Whitefish Bay; Congregation Shalom, Fox Point; Congregation Sinai, Fox Point; Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee; From the Same Dust, A Baha’i Group in Milwaukee; Jewish Community Relations Council; MICAH, Milwaukee Innercity Congregations Allied for Hope; Tikkun Ha-Ir, Repairing Milwaukee; and United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay. Other sponsoring organizations include Divided By Design of Milwaukee; Hummingbird, MKE; Milwaukee County; Milwaukee Metropolitan Fair Housing Council; People Advocating for Greendale Equity (PAGE); Greendale; and other groups and congregations as they sign on. Radio Milwaukee 88.9 will be the media sponsor.