Wayne Campbell: So, do you come to Milwaukee often?

Alice Cooper: Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.

Pete: Hey, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name?

Alice Cooper: Yes, Pete, it is. In fact, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."

“Wayne’s World”

This much, most of us know. We also know about beer, manufacturing and German roots. But what most Milwaukee-dwellers don’t know about this city of ours could fill books — and has.

A city founded on land ceded from the American Indian tribes who subsisted on the fish, fowl and wild rice that flourished here, Milwaukee as we know it has evolved over several hundred years of migration and immigration.

The first settlers were French fur traders, who were followed by migrants who traveled via the Great Lakes and rivers. These migrants were joined — throughout the last 170 years — by European immigrants, black and Latino migrants, Hmong and Southeast Asian refugees and immigrants, and others from across the globe who chose Milwaukee as their home.

Milwaukee’s economy has seen transformations as diverse as its population. After the fur trade diminished, mercantilism and shipping took over for a brief time before the industrial revolution hit — and railroad construction made Chicago better-positioned for the transportation of goods, food and materials. Industry ruled for over 100 years until deindustrialization shifted the economy to the service sector.

There is no adequate way to fully express Milwaukee’s rich history in 1,300 words or less, so here are a just a few key events that every Milwaukee resident should be aware of.

The bridge war

Solomon Juneau, Byron Kilbourn and George Walker — the area’s first real estate developers — began trying to solicit residents and businesses to their settlements in the 1830s, and were in fierce competition with one another.

The competition between Juneautown on the east side of the Milwaukee River and Kilbourntown on the west was so intense that the two refused to line up their street grids so that roads could be connected straight across the river. The results of this feud can be seen in a number of downtown bridges today that cross the river on angles, said Robert Geske, executive director of the Milwaukee Historical Society.

The bridge battle became violent in 1845, when both sides destroyed or tried to destroy several bridges. No one was killed, and the settlements were unified the next year when the city of Milwaukee was founded.

The freeing of Joshua Glover

Joshua Glover escaped slavery in 1854 via the Underground Railroad and sought asylum in Racine. Under the Fugitive Slave Act, people who fled slavery had to be returned to their captors, even if the escapees lived in free states like Wisconsin.

Glover’s enslaver found out where Glover was, and he was thrown in jail in Milwaukee. Upon finding out about Glover’s imprisonment, a huge mob of Milwaukee- and Racine-area residents stormed the jail and freed him. Two people were tried for their participation, receiving short prison sentences and large fines.

The state Supreme Court declared the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional and did not back away from this position even after the U.S. Supreme Court said all states must abide by the law.

The freeing of Glover is “a telling example of the strong abolitionist stance of the Milwaukee community prior to the Civil War,” Geske said.

‘Bay View Massacre’

Following the rapid post-Civil War industrial boom — and the grueling, low-paying jobs that came with it — workers began to organize across the country, and Milwaukee was no exception.

In the 1860s, workers were demonstrating for the eight-hour workday nationwide. On May 3, 1866, about half the workers in Milwaukee went on strike, effectively shutting down the city’s industries. Only one establishment remained in operation: the North Chicago Railroad Rolling Mills Steel Foundry in Bay View.

An estimated 1,000 Polish workers set out to close the foundry the next day. The foundry was symbolically important for the workers and for those who opposed them — industry tycoons and government officials.

Gov. Jeremiah Rusk called out the Kosciuszko Guard, which consisted of Polish militiamen, to maintain order — infuriating the Polish strikers. On the same day, the Haymarket Square bombing occurred during labor demonstrations in Chicago, causing increased alarm over Milwaukee’s strikes.

The next day, May 5, the workers marched on the foundry again, this time with an estimated 1,500 strikers. Rusk instructed the guard to fire if the strikers didn’t heed an order to halt and, whether intentionally or as a result of not hearing the command, the demonstrators moved forward.

The militia opened fire on the crowd, killing at least five people, though the exact number of fatalities is not known. The same day, an estimated 2,000 German workers demonstrating on the North Side were beaten and shot at by the Milwaukee police and the National Guard; there were no fatalities in this incident.

It’s important to know about the Bay View Massacre, said Daniel Dannenberg, a Milwaukee labor activist, because people need to realize that things we now take for granted, like the eight-hour workday and the concept of the weekend, were the result of years of struggle.

Milwaukee’s socialist mayors

Another of Alice Cooper’s Milwaukee fun facts in “Wayne’s World”: “… One of the most interesting things about Milwaukee is that it's the only American city to elect three Socialist mayors.”

Milwaukee was, in fact, the first American city to elect a socialist mayor, Emil Seidel, in 1910, largely as a result of increased labor activism and the previous mayor’s corruption. Daniel Hoan, after whom the Hoan Bridge is named, was the second socialist mayor from 1916 to 1940. The third, Frank Ziedler, was in office from 1948 to1960.

Though socialism was considered a subversive movement while all three were in office, Milwaukee got behind the so-called “sewer socialists.”

The three mayors and other socialists elected to positions in Milwaukee government were called “sewer socialists” because of their commitment to public works and ensuring that city services functioned properly, Geske said. They made dramatic improvements to public infrastructure and rid the government of the corruption that had plagued it.

Hoan was especially instrumental in the development of the extensive park system that we enjoy today, said Nichali Ciaccio, author of “Because it had to be: the Milwaukee Leader, socialism and the first World War.”

The civil rights era

Before World War II, Milwaukee’s black community was relatively small, with 13,000 black residents in 1945. Many black southerners migrated North during and after the war to work in the booming industrial sector. By 1960, the city had over 60,000 black residents; by 1970 that number had grown to over 100,000.

Black migrants to Milwaukee found their options limited by residential and educational discrimination, and began fighting for their right to enjoy the same quality of life as white residents. Father Groppi, the Italian American priest of a predominately Black parish, was a passionate and nationally known opponent of segregation who organized and agitated for the end of discrimination.

In July 1967, tensions in the city reached the boiling point and a riot broke out. Four people were killed and over 15,000 people were arrested. Following the riot, Father Groppi and the NAACP Youth Council led marches against housing discrimination for 200 consecutive days. A month after the marches, the federal government passed an open-housing act.

The fight for school integration lasted even longer. It wasn’t until 1979 that the city implemented a plan to end educational segregation.

Milwaukee still has a long way to go to attain racial equality, which is evidenced by the level of segregation and discrimination, said Allen Davis, a UWM student and Milwaukee NAACP staff member.

“Racism is a sensitive subject for everyone,” Davis said. “People don’t want to discuss it.”

Sources: Milwaukee County Historical Society, the Wisconsin Historical Society and “The Making of Milwaukee” by John Gurda

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