Looking in the mirror at Milwaukee's image

0 Comments | Milwaukee Journal, The, Apr 2, 1995 | by Rick Romell

Michael W. Grebe agrees.

"Milwaukeeans have a sense of our own history, and I think that lends some sense of stability to our culture," he said. "I think people in other communities look at Milwaukee and they also have that image of a city with great stability. Perhaps some would say conservative, but I guess I view it more in terms of stability and almost tranquillity."

As managing partner of Foley & Lardner, Milwaukee's oldest law firm, Grebe has a strong tie to the city's history. So does Millard Bates.

Bates, 62, is hardly among the area's civic leaders. He runs a modest barber shop at King Drive and Port Washington Ave. And he embodies a part of Milwaukee's past.

Bates came here in 1952 from Louisiana as part of the great postwar migration of blacks to the industrialized, job-rich North. His prior acquaintance with Milwaukee was minimal: He chose his destination by picking the name out of a dictionary.

"I wanted to be my own man," Bates said as he paused amid a remodeling project at his shop. "I didn't know anything about this place."

Bates rolled into town at 8 one night, got hired at Louis Allis by 10 the next morning and Leg 3 ends here punched in at 3 that afternoon. He made good money and worked his way up. Bates believes he was the first black milling machine operator in Wisconsin. Later, he launched his own business.

"Milwaukee's a nice place," Bates said. "I love it. Milwaukee's beautiful. But I think it's not what Milwaukee does for you, it's what you do for Milwaukee."

Bates also knows, however, that times have changed. Tens of thousands of high-wage manufacturing jobs have vanished, leaving far fewer opportunities than in 1952 for young men with a high school diploma and nothing more.

The change hit black Milwaukeeans particularly hard, and helped intensify the area's economic stratification. The 1990 census showed a large, widening gap between suburban income and that of residents of the city proper. * * *

"When I think of Milwaukee I see layers. And sections. I still don't see anything that resembles a whole. . . . Given the nature of the housing patterns, which are still clearly the most segregated of any city of this size in the country, we don't know each other very well, in great part because we don't choose, apparently, to meet each other."

Dan Ullrich, chairman of national Jobs With Peace

Leg 4 ends here Campaign * * *

That well-documented segregation actually applies to the metropolitan area as a whole, not the city per se. But the point remains, and race figures prominently in many residents' images of Milwaukee. The often-acknowledged slowness to change is particularly evident there, said Eric Von, morning talk-show host on black-oriented radio station WMCS-AM (1290).

"There are a lot of what appear to be superficial gestures toward improving race relations," he said, "but I think when you scratch and get below the surface of it all, it's really a lot of stuff being done to placate and pacify people, as opposed to true commitment to doing the right thing."