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March on Milwaukee 50th: History Harvest
08/05/2017 @ 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
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SHARE YOUR STORY!! At the first History Harvest!!
Record your memories of the city’s Civil Rights Movement at our Listening Posts, and contribute to a future where African American History isn’t anonymous. Professional conservators will also be on hand to offer practical advice for preserving your memorabilia.
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In July 1967, local civil rights groups organized several “listening posts” around Milwaukee’s Near North Side to record Black accounts of police neglect, harassment and brutality. The listening posts were intended to document Black stories of police violence at a time when the city’s civilian review board, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, was only authorized to hear complaints from “freeholders,” or property owners—not renters, youth, students, transient laborers and other visitors regularly encountering law enforcement. In addition to recording evidence of police abuse, the Wisconsin Civil Liberties Union volunteered practical legal advice for aggrieved citizens looking to navigate the justice system. That civil rights organizations even saw a need for the listening posts suggests that only certain people’s stories mattered to city officials, particularly when it came to addressing issues of racial injustice in the 1960s.
Taking inspiration from this concept, the March on Milwaukee 50th Oral History Committee is organizing four “History Harvests” throughout “200 Nights of Freedom.” The Harvests are designed to unearth local stories from Milwaukee’s civil rights movement and preserve them for posterity. We are taking a two-pronged approach, setting up our own listening post stations—where oral historians will record people’s memories of the era—and offering practical conservation advice for community members eager to safeguard or better maintain their personal artifacts from the period.
So come in, and share your story about civil rights in Milwaukee, or bring in a material object or record that you want to better protect as time marches on…
