Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville

Book excerpt: Some people don't have to imagine what Milwaukee's Bronzeville was like. They have only to remember. They recall Walnut Street alive with businesses serving a hardworking Black population making something out of the meager resources available to them. They describe religious establishments such as St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal, St. Benedict the Moor, Calvary Baptist and St. Matthew CME attending to the spiritual life and remember the Flame, the Metropole and Satin Doll nightclubs taking care of entertainment and secular needs. Above all, they recollect a people looking out for the well-being of all within its realm. Gathering interviews with residents of the now-vanished neighborhood, Dr. Sandra E. Jones reimagines Bronzeville not just as a place, but as a spirit engendered by a people determined to make a way out of no way.