In Historical Black Milwaukee (1950-2022), the author illustrates how an African American community grew over time and the people, events, and institutions that shaped Black Milwaukee. He also shows the contributions that African Americans made to the City of Milwaukee's growth and its history. Bonds provides a detailed discussion on historical Black Milwaukee. He shows how a small Black population of 21,772 (3.41%) out of Milwaukee's population of 637,392 in 1950 grew to become the second-largest racial group in Milwaukee with a total population of 223.962 (38.8%), based on the City of Milwaukee's 2021 estimated population of 577,222. The author discusses the people (community leaders, Black elected officials at every level of government, and Black professionals in the public, private, and criminal justice sectors) who shaped historical Black Milwaukee. Moreover, he provides a detailed discussion of various institutions (Black businesses, schools, religion, media outlets (newspaper, radio stations, televisions, etc.), social service agencies, and more that shaped historical Black Milwaukee. And the book reveals the role of Black cultural institutions (museums, art galleries, bookstores, nightclubs, sports leagues, etc.), cultural events (festivals, art shows, and more), Black neighborhoods, and public landmarks (streets, buildings, murals, parks, etc.) named after Blacks who contributed to the growth of its community and the City of Milwaukee's history. This book discusses the challenges and opportunities that led to the integration of the Black population into the City of Milwaukee. Historical Black Milwaukee will become a book that can be updated regularly and can provide a one-stop reference book on Black Milwaukee for the period of 1950-2022. The book also discusses lessons learn from historical Black Milwaukee and their implications for other Black communities.

In Historical Black Milwaukee (1950-2022), the author illustrates how an African American community grew over time and the people, events, and institutions that shaped Black Milwaukee. He also shows the contributions that African Americans made to the City of Milwaukee's growth and its history. Bonds provides a detailed discussion on historical Black Milwaukee. He shows how a small Black population of 21,772 (3.41%) out of Milwaukee's population of 637,392 in 1950 grew to become the second-largest racial group in Milwaukee with a total population of 223.962 (38.8%), based on the City of Milwaukee's 2021 estimated population of 577,222. The author discusses the people (community leaders, Black elected officials at every level of government, and Black professionals in the public, private, and criminal justice sectors) who shaped historical Black Milwaukee. Moreover, he provides a detailed discussion of various institutions (Black businesses, schools, religion, media outlets (newspaper, radio stations, televisions, etc.), social service agencies, and more that shaped historical Black Milwaukee. And the book reveals the role of Black cultural institutions (museums, art galleries, bookstores, nightclubs, sports leagues, etc.), cultural events (festivals, art shows, and more), Black neighborhoods, and public landmarks (streets, buildings, murals, parks, etc.) named after Blacks who contributed to the growth of its community and the City of Milwaukee's history. This book discusses the challenges and opportunities that led to the integration of the Black population into the City of Milwaukee. Historical Black Milwaukee will become a book that can be updated regularly and can provide a one-stop reference book on Black Milwaukee for the period of 1950-2022. The book also discusses lessons learn from historical Black Milwaukee and their implications for other Black communities.

The Destruction of Black Milwaukee (1950-2022): A History of Racial Inequality and Injustice provides the most comprehensive study of Black Milwaukee since Joe Trotter's 1985 Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat 1915-45. In The Destruction of Black Milwaukee, the reader will learn how institutional racism, public policies, and individual racism contributed to racial inequality and injustices in the city of Milwaukee to the point where Milwaukee is considered the worst city for African Americans to live in the United States. The readers will learn how institutional racism, public policies, and individual racism perpetuated these practices over decades. As outlined in chapter 2 of The Destruction of Black Milwaukee, it shows that based on almost every major socioeconomic indicator (unemployment, poverty, income, welfare reform, and more), Blacks in Milwaukee rank at or near the bottom nationally. The Destruction of Black Milwaukee explores racial inequality in the areas of housing (redlining, racial covenants, home loan denial, refinance denials, gentrification, evictions, etc.), business (business loans denials, racist policies, lack of enforcement of policies, etc.), education (graduation rates, test scores, suspensions, etc.), limits of electoral politics, health disparities (infant mortalities, teen pregnancies, suicides, homicides, etc.) and hospital closings, and the criminal justice system (police killings of African Americans, rape, illegal frisks, brutality, etc.). The Destruction of Black Milwaukee also discusses the role that Black gangs, African American drug dealers, and Black-on-Black homicides contributed to the destruction of Milwaukee's Black community. Moreover, The Destruction of Black Milwaukee discusses the role of Black serial killers and White serial killers in causing deaths and chaos in Milwaukee's Black community during this period. The Destruction of Black Milwaukee concludes with a discussion on the outlook for African Americans in Milwaukee.

With the migration of African American sharecroppers to northern cities in the first half of the 20th century, the African American population of Milwaukee grew from fewer than 1,000 in 1900 to nearly 22,000 by 1950. Most settled around a 12-block area along Walnut Street that came to be known as Milwaukee's Bronzeville, a thriving residential, business, and entertainment community. Barbershops, restaurants, drugstores, and funeral homes were started with a little money saved from overtime pay at factory jobs or extra domestic work taken on by the women. Exotic nightclubs, taverns, and restaurants attracted a racially mixed clientele, and daytime social clubs sponsored "matinees" that were dress-up events featuring local bands catering to neighborhood residents. Bronzeville is remembered by African American elders as a good place to grow up--times were hard, but the community was tight.

Other historians have tended to treat black urban life mainly in relation to the ghetto experience, but in Black Milwaukee, Joe William Trotter Jr. offers a new perspective that complements yet also goes well beyond that approach. The blacks in Black Milwaukee were not only ghetto dwellers; they were also industrial workers. The process by which they achieved this status is the subject of Trotter's ground-breaking study. This second edition features a new preface and acknowledgments, an essay on African American urban history since 1985, a prologue on the antebellum and Civil War roots of Milwaukee's black community, and an epilogue on the post-World War II years and the impact of deindustrialization, all by the author. Brief essays by four of Trotter's colleagues--William P. Jones, Earl Lewis, Alison Isenberg, and Kimberly L. Phillips--assess the impact of the original Black Milwaukee on the study of African American urban history over the past twenty years.

"This book will take you back to the beginning of Black Milwaukee. Providing an overview of the rise in the area's population and historical particulars to raise awareness of that period. The author's interest in understanding the historical foundations of his community led to the conception of the Origins of an Urban Community. Milwaukee is where he was born and reared. This book explores the early history of Black Milwaukee, including the individuals, events, and influential institutions between 1830 and 1920. This book demonstrates how Milwaukee's Black population went from .4% in the 1830s to .5% in the 1920s, which is a very minor increase. It follows the historical progression of early Black institutions, including churches, social service agencies, and companies (newspaper, etc.). The author felt it was important for students, researchers, and academics to be able to get their hands on a book about early black Milwaukee. In addition, the author talks about early Black Milwaukee community leaders, and various forms of protest." -- Page 4 of cover.