Digital Commons Network^™

White Resistance To Public School Integration In Milwaukee, Wisconsin And Prince Edward County Virginia, Joseph Ryan Moore

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTWHITE RESISTANCE TO PUBLIC SCHOOL INTEGRATION IN MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN AND PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, VIRGINIA by Joseph Moore

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2022Under the supervision of Professor Amanda Seligman The white community demonstrated fierce resistance to the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The forms of resistance to integrated public schools varied by region, state, and locality. This study aims to compare the forms of resistance to integrated public schools that took place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Prince Edward County, Virginia between 1954-1976. I have used historical archival materials to permit comparisons between the types of resistance …

The City As A Poetic Object: An Ethnographic Approach To Milwaukee And Its Poets, Antonio Paniagua Guzmán

Theses and Dissertations

Poetry has historically been an important component of cities’ culture, urban life, and history. There is a mutual influence of poetry and the city; while the city and the way its history unfolds shape poetic production patterns and poets’ narratives, it is capable of illuminating diverse social and urban phenomena and shape diverse social groups’ cultural practices and urban experience. While scholars from social science and humanistic disciplines have investigated the relationship between poetry and the city by looking at how cities are represented poetically and how cities shape the production, distribution, and consumption of poetry, I turn to a …

A Beer For The People: Black Capitalism And The Brewing Industry In Civil Rights Era Wisconsin, John L. Harry

Theses and Dissertations

The term “Black Capitalism” was coined by Richard Nixon during the 1968 presidentialcampaign as a means of both quelling the unrest of the previous decade regarding the more volatile factions within the larger civil rights movement as well as helping African Americans enter the economic mainstream. Once president, Nixon’s rhetoric became a policy through the creation of the Office of Minority Business Enterprise and loans through the Small Business Administration. In 1970, a group of Black businessmen in Milwaukee took advantage of these programs to become the first Black brewery owners in Wisconsin when they purchased Peoples Brewing Company in …

The Spatial Prevalence And Associated Factors Of Opioid Overdose Mortality In Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Andrew Schendl

Theses and Dissertations

Mortality from opioid overdose has become the leading cause of non-natural death in Milwaukee County, WI in recent years. In order to better understand the opioid epidemic and formulate pro-active responses to the crisis at the local level, this study examines the spatial prevalence and associated factors of opioid overdoses that end in mortality in Milwaukee, WI using the spatial econometrics model. The social determinants of health framework is used to identify the potential related socioeconomic factors associated with opioid abuse. Using principal component analysis, 6 primary components were identified from the chosen social determinants and used as explanatory variables …

The Little Man With The Big Mouth Stands Up For Wisconsin: George Wallace And The Political And Constitutional Struggles Between Federalism And Equal Protection In Wisconsin Elections From 1964 To 1976, Ben Hubing

Theses and Dissertations

Alabama Governor George Wallace ran for the presidency four times between 1964 and 1976, bringing his candidacy north of the Mason-Dixon Line to Wisconsin. Wallace’s campaign in the Badger State fostered a debate among residents regarding constitutional principles and values. Wallace weaponized federalism and states’ rights, arguing that the federal government should stay out of school segregation, promote law and order, restrict forced busing, and reduce burdensome taxation. White working-class Wisconsinites armed themselves with Wallace’s rhetoric, pushing back on social and political changes that threatened the status quo. Civil rights activists and the black community in Wisconsin armed themselves with …

Milwaukee's Unequally Gendered Commemorative Street Names (1920-2021), Ayodeji Oladipo Obayomi

Theses and Dissertations

Urban commemorative spaces have consistently shown vast gender disparities through the domination of men at the expense of women; this is evident in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This thesis employed an archival research method to locate useful primary materials from the City of Milwaukee (which included the Common Council Proceedings) and from other sources. In addition, I employed a geographical information system to visualize gender disparity and also express the spatial distribution of the identified commemorative streets. The study argues (among other ideas) that commemorative street naming is problematically gendered.

Of the 233 commemorative street names given between 1920 and 2021 in …

Redistributing Resources: Henry Maier, The Wisconsin Alliance Of Cities, And The Movement To Modify Wisconsin's State Shared Revenues, Samantha J. Fleischman

Theses and Dissertations

During the 1960s, the City of Milwaukee was enduring fiscal distress. Mayor of Milwaukee, Henry Maier, turned to the State of Wisconsin to modify the state shared revenues formula as a method to increase funding for central cities. Maier created the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, which was comprised of mayors throughout the state, in order to gain the support needed to pass formula changes through legislation. This thesis examines how the Alliance of Cities was able to modify the state shared revenues formula. Although the Alliance faced rejection from the state legislature, two factors enabled a reform. First, the Alliance …

Intersectional Experiences Of Violence: Studying The Serial Murder Of 16 Men And Boys In Milwaukee, 1987-1991, Sally Svetic

Theses and Dissertations

Between the years of 1987 and 1991, 16 multiply-marginalized men and boys went missing in the City of Milwaukee; few other than their family and friends noticed. In 1991, it was discovered that they were murdered by Jeffrey Dahmer, a white man living on Milwaukee’s near west side. This paper argues that state power, racial capitalism, and white supremacy devalued the lives of Black, queer, young and poor people and created conditions that allowed Dahmer to commit 16 murders without detection by the Milwaukee Police Department. In this thesis, responses from Black, Lao, queer and Othered people are centered. In …

That Other Form Of Madness: A Multidisciplinary Study Of Infectious Disease Within The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery, Helen Marie Werner

Theses and Dissertations

Between the years of 1882 and 1925, the Milwaukee County Poor Farm buried several

thousand members of Milwaukee’s indigent population in what would later be designated

Cemetery II. In 1991 and early 1992, after discovery of the cemetery during construction of parts

of the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center, 1,649 burials were excavated. The graves had long

been abandoned and the headstones bulldozed, leaving a register of burials without any obvious

way of associating each individual with their identity. A copy of the register is curated at the

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Archaeological Research Laboratory. The Milwaukee

County Poor Farm was a …

"Buried...Like A Human Being" At The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery: A Bioarchaeological Approach To Defining Fetal And Infant Personhood Through Biological Development, Historical Discourse, And Diapering, Brianne Charles

Theses and Dissertations

The ambiguity of life is visible in the complex sets of beliefs that cultures develop around abortion, stillbirth, and neonatal death. This research grew out of ambiguities surrounding bioarchaeological methods of age estimation among fetal and infant remains and the need for additional lines of evidence to define what a prenatal or postnatal age contextually means, how these definitions were upheld or challenged, and what impact these definitions had on the mortuary treatment of these bodies.

Discernment between fetal and infant skeletal remains is important to forensic investigations and bioarchaeological questions of personhood, infant mortality, and maternal health. However, skeletal …

The Invisible Crisis: Framing The Remediation Of Milwaukee's Lead Laterals, Isabella Rieke

Theses and Dissertations

When Milwaukee’s municipal water system was developed in 1874, one-half-inch lead pipes were used to convey water from the mains in the street to a customer’s home; the City has since acknowledged that nearly 100,000 such lead pipes are still in use today, a revelation which has opened for debate whether or not these pipes pose a galvanizing public health risk with far-reaching policy and infrastructure implications. This study explores the community response to Milwaukee’s lead laterals through the efforts of the Freshwater for Life Action Coalition (FLAC). How do Milwaukeeans understand the risks posed by the lead laterals? In …

The Tale Of Two Cities: A Feminist Critique Of Economic Development & Neoliberal Multiculturalism In Milwaukee, Yui Hashimoto

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine how race articulates with economic development in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Drawing on two years of participant observation with the Milwaukee Fight for 15; participant observation of public meetings and days of action; semi-structured interviews with City officials, business leaders, non-profit professionals, and community organizers; and media and document analysis, I find that normative discourses of race underpin economic development in Milwaukee even as City officials and boosters give nominal recognition to racial inequality and purport to embrace diversity and colourblindness.

First, I trace historical and contemporary trajectories of economic development and segregation to show how the …

Measured Expectations: An Examination Of Urban Agriculture Development And Operations In Milwaukee, Wi, Jamison Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Urban agriculture has begun to shape urban spaces throughout the United States. Building from research on urban agriculture projects in Milwaukee I argue that in order for researchers to better understand urban agriculture, they must more thoroughly examine the various developmental and operational strategies that urban agriculture nonprofit organizations implement. The research questions that guides my thesis are the following: first, how do the developmental and operational strategies of urban agriculture projects differ? Second, how do different stakeholders perceive the implications of these approaches for creating positive and negative effects? To do this, I collected data through interviews and participant …

“We Were The Outsiders And Treated As Such:” Community Activism And The Intersections Of Ethnicity, Gender, Class, And Race Among Latinas In Milwaukee, Patricia Torres Nájera

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the activism of Latinas in Milwaukee during the 1970s and 1980s. I interviewed women involved in community organizing in that time and place; they shared with me their experiences, and their motivations related to community organizing campaigns. This dissertation explores how members of this group understood themselves to be outsiders, and how the shared outsider status among the Milwaukee Latinas and some white community organizers created solidarity to build Milwaukee’s Latin community. Drawing on in-depth interviews and archival research, I analyze the content of these stories, recognizing common issues of how each woman negotiated family, organizing campaigns, …

Configuring The Qualification Of Good Coffee An Ethnography On The Specialty Coffee Industry In Milwaukee, Yang Liu

Theses and Dissertations

I put qualification at the center of this research, because the intensive emphasis on coffee quality in the Third Wave Coffee Movement is the first thing that drew me to this research. When I talked with people in the specialty coffee industry in Milwaukee, they did not always admit they are part of the movement but they did highlight coffee quality as the core value of the specialty coffee market.

The concept of qualification comes from Michael Callon and his colleagues’ (2002) theoretical framework “the economy of qualities.” It refers to an economy in which tradable goods in the market …

Get A Lot For Less: Evaulation Of The $1 Vacant Lot Pilot Program In Milwaukee's 15th Aldermanic District, Sierra Starner-Heffron

Theses and Dissertations

Between July, 2014 and July, 2015, the city piloted a program in which City-owned vacant lots could be sold for $1 to adjacent homeowners exclusively in the 15th Aldermanic District. The focus of this research was to determine the effectiveness of the $1 lot program in revitalizing the neighborhoods within that District. Using a visual assessment, this research observed the condition of 26 vacant lots sold approximately one year prior to the assessment and scored them based on a unique set of factors including the presence of a fence (a proxy for defensible space) the presence of gardens, whether any …

Babies And Biomedicine: Knowledge System Negotiation In The Domain Of Infant Care, Maisie Buntin

Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, the city of Milwaukee launched a controversial public service campaign intended to minimize infant deaths by highlighting the dangers of cosleeping. In Wisconsin, about 28% of mothers bedshare with their infants, with the highest rates among women of color, averaging about 40% (Wisconsin Department of Health Services 2014). These data suggest that multiple knowledge systems might exist in the domain of infant care. This thesis proposes that Milwaukee’s current campaign is based in biomedicine, the predominant knowledge system surrounding infant care. Yet, its target demographic (cosleeping families) may not subscribe as strictly to a biomedical system of knowledge, …

Molecular Identification Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis In The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, Helen Marie Werner

Theses and Dissertations

The possibility of identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis in skeletal remains has been a debated topic for many years. This study utilizes the remains from the 1991 and 1992 excavations of the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, a collection of human skeletons ranging from 1882 to 1925, of various ages and sexes, to address that possibility. To test the utility of previously used methods of osteological identification of tuberculosis, the collection has been analyzed for the IS6110 repetitive element marker using molecular biological techniques, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Eighty-six skeletons from the collection have been analyzed, with nine of them …

The (Rail)Road Not Traveled: The Failure Of The Krm Commuter Rail Proposal In Greater Milwaukee, Wi, Neal A. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail (KRM) proposal was one of many passenger rail proposals studied for the greater Milwaukee area over the past few decades. The proposed line would have connected the cities of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee, as well as communities in northern Illinois, along already existing rail lines. An analysis of archival information, newspaper coverage, and interviews with key stakeholders were conducted to explore the influence of an auto-dominated culture, the role of politics, local and regional expectations, funding issues, and the legacy of earlier local debates to determine why the KRM commuter rail proposal failed. In the beginning, …

New Urbanism As Redevelopment Scheme: New Urbanism's Role In Revitalization Of Downtown Milwaukee, Leila Saboori

Theses and Dissertations

By the turn of the twentieth century persisting decay of many large American urban centers signaled the failure of redevelopment efforts to solve inner city problems and to stop destructive patterns of suburban sprawl. This serious concern persuaded many urban specialists to study the history of urban redevelopment in the United States in order to examine the urban problems and to discuss alternative solutions to the demise of U.S. cities. The past two decades have seen a growing turn toward New Urbanism in the revitalization of urban neighborhoods; as an alternative to conventional suburban development and social and environmental problems. …

Decadal Changes And Future Projections Of Precipitation In The Metropolitan Area Of Milwaukee, Anke Petra Maria Keuser

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated decadal changes and future projections of precipitation in the Metro Milwaukee and surrounding area, the largest urban area in Wisconsin. Spatial and temporal precipitation patterns derived for the Metro Milwaukee from the high-resolution gridded historical climatic dataset for Wisconsin were analyzed for 1950-2006. In addition, precipitation scenarios were generated via statistical downscaling of the Third Generation Coupled Global Climate Model (CGCM3) outputs. The delta method was chosen for the statistical downscaling of the CGCM3 output for the two future time periods, 2041-2070 (2050s) and 2071-2100 (2080s). The Mann-Kendall test and the Sen's slope test were applied to …