Black Nouveau

illing notes) (somber piano music) Welcome to "Black

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Stories of our Pandemic". I'm Joanne Williams. For some Milwaukeeans, the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the protests will forever be linked. James Causey talks to former Milwaukee police chief Alfonso Morales about the protests and other issues. Alexandria Mason talks with artist Brad Anthony Bernard about his new mural, "Martyrs of Injustice, Heroes of the Protest" and I'll discuss how the pandemic is affecting senior citizens and their caregivers. But first, Ossie Kendrix, the CEO of the Wisconsin African-American Chamber of Commerce, talks about how the pandemic is affecting Black businesses. -

James

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When Milwaukee landed the Democratic National Convention, it was supposed to bring with it about 50,000 people and have an economic impact of 200 million dollars. The coronavirus pandemic changed everything. This year's mostly-virtual event will be held August 17th through the 20th, drawing just a fraction of visitors. Joining us to discuss this new-look convention and what it means for our city, is Ossie Kendrix, Jr., head of the African-American Chamber of Commerce in Wisconsin. Ossie, thanks for joining us. No problem, good morning. - Good morning. So this will not be the convention anyone expected. What type of impact will this have on Milwaukee, especially African-American businesses? It's been predicted that because of the COVID pandemic, 40% of Black-owned businesses throughout the U.S. will not reopen their doors. And I think at this point, Black businesses in Milwaukee will take any piece of business that they can get. The DNC convention coming here, we began preparing almost a year ago, because of the economic opportunity, because of the expected thrust to the economy, because of the predicted 50,000 attendees, I read somewhere that the number of attendees has trickled down to around 300, which may mean that there may be more law enforcement than attendees this year. And we can blame the COVID pandemic, it's a double-edged sword where I wanna see Black business seize opportunity and at the same time, I want business owners and their staff to remain safe and healthy. So I know that Black restaurants along the King Drive corridor such as Coffee Makes You Black and Mi Casa Su Casa were optimistic of the foot traffic that would increase revenue. I know that nationally, the nationally-known Sherman Phoenix was looking forward to attendees making the pilgrimage to their facility so that they could explore, taste, and sample, purchase services, cuisines like Funky Fresh Egg Rolls, bakery at Confectionately Yours, Buffalo Boss, so those are some of the places that will be impacted. I also know that there's hair care facilities such as G's Clippers that was optimistic that there would be an influx of traffic, of foot traffic, with people, outta town guests with hair needs. Retail locations in the Brownsville neighborhood which is just a hop, skip and jump from where the DNC was to initially operate, operates the Brownsville Collective which hosts about 30 creatives and that they were ramping up their efforts in ensuring that they had the materials, the creations available for guests to purchase, so it's a disappointing time that the DNC convention traffic won't be here and even when you look at the entertainment or the nightlife, DJs such as DJ Lolo and DJ Infotek could have had opportunity by participating in nightlife experiences, parties, that the DNC convention was or could have had for the attendees traveling to Milwaukee. So this is like a double-edged sword, to some people, because you figure that we missed out on Summerfest, they're missing out on State Fair, especially the restaurants, I mean, well, like, you mentioned being able to bounce back, how will Milwaukee businesses, Black businesses be able to bounce back from losing so much potential revenue? It's gonna hurt. The, I think the bounceback as a result of COVID pandemic will take some time. The chamber started a recovery fund for businesses that needed to reopen as a result of the COVID pandemic and that wasn't enough. There are federal dollars, there's state dollars in the form of grants, and all that wasn't enough for the unexpected, if you will. So how will Black businesses begin to bounce back, the, really bootstrapping, the receiving some additional support relative to financials, working with the business owners to ensure that they're filing their taxes, and that their entities are appropriate and then convincing business owners to establish relationships with traditional banks. That, historically, has been a struggle but it's an important need for the survival and bounceback of Black businesses within the Milwaukee community. So, democratic nominee Joe Biden is expected to attend Milwaukee, what do you want to hear him say especially when it comes to minority-owned businesses, which are the pillars for stabilizing communities? You know, I wanna hear him talk about how he intends to be proactive with entities that are on the federal level, so like, with HUD, with the SBA, to ensure that there are opportunities and to ensure that Black communities are well-represented in his administration and that the Black experience is a factor as he resumes, as he takes an opportunity for the highest leadership role in the U.S. So that's part of the conversation that I wanna hear him articulate, when he comes. It almost seems like we won a DNC but we essentially lost. Are there any chances, or is there any way that Milwaukee could get the DNC back in 2024 for like, a do-over? (laughing) Ah, you know, I hope so. I think Milwaukee does need a do-over! I believe the COVID pandemic is to blame here and the uncertainty of it. If it were to occur in Milwaukee four years from now, I think everyone would be in for a treat. Milwaukee keeps getting better and better, to me. I'm familiar with a couple of Black developers that are building hotels close in proximity to where the DNC would occur, a number of Black developers that are developing affordable and market-rate housing close in proximity, so that will be built within the next couple years. The African-American Chamber has an entrepreneurial training program known as RISE and to date, we have 52 alumni and 41 existing or new Black-owned businesses that I feel will continue to thrive, evolve and be prepared should the - Should it come back? - DNC convention come in 2024. Okay, well great, hey thanks a lot for takin' this time and talkin' to us. Appreciate it. - Sure. Sure, no problem. - Thank you. (upbeat groovy hip-hop music) Caring for an elderly or ill family member at home is tough, and when one of those illnesses is dementia, it's even harder. I talked with two families who are struggling to be safe at home. (jazzy piano) Willie Wade loved to sing in the Amazing Grace chorus with his wife, Lani. (audience applauding) But she died awhile back with dementia, and now the pandemic has him living in the house with his daughter, Diane. How're you doing, Mr. Wade? I guess I can say that I'm doing ah, good, considerin' age and all of that, Miss Williams. I'm doin' okay. -

Joanne

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Mr. Wade is 96 years old. He raised and cared for a large, loving family before heart failure stopped him in his tracks. Now the tables have turned, and that family has to care for him. And in March, he, his daughter, and her daughter tested positive for COVID-19. I contracted the virus and I really don't know where it, where I got it from. Me and my daughter had it, and then I, then my father got it from me. So it's been, it was really a rough time dealin' with that and trying to provide and help my dad. -

Joanne

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While all three were sick at home, they have avoided further COVID complications but the stress has taken its toll. What I've noticed, with me, that COVID-19 not only affects your body, it affects your mind. I've not really been able to sleep all night since then, I mean, I wake up in the middle of the night, I can't go back to sleep. I worry about family caregivers, I worry about professional caregivers, I worry about my patients. It's a horrible time for all of us. -

Joanne

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Dr. Richard London specializes in geriatrics and dementia. And the uncertainty of it? Not knowing what's gonna happen next month or later this year? It just adds to the stress, so my advice to caregivers and to professionals is take care of yourself. Do things to help you feel as good as possible. -

Joanne

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Gail Morgan holds warm memories of her mother, Marie, whose strength and personality are being robbed by dementia. The pandemic has her stuck at home and caring for her mother 24/7. It's gotten emotionally draining. That hasn't been fun. I have managed to get a routine in, now, and so we have been in home together since about March 15th or 16th, and initially it was extremely hard. I think I probably went through a little bit of depression as I was trying to regroup to this new norm and luckily enough, I was one of the people to be very fortunate to still have a job and to be able to work from home and I think that allowed me to keep going. I could get up, and I was able to manage to get my mother bathed and dressed for the most part and get her fed, but then when it came down to doing anything for me, that just went downhill. I mean, downhill drastically fast. Some of my strategies are to have at least a few minutes where I take a deep breath and sit back and say I'm gonna try to clear everything out of my brain right now. Some people meditate, some people do yoga, being physically active helps us relax, so taking walks, and it can help our loved ones with dementia to do that, also. All of us feel better if we get off the couch and move around. How old is Marie? - She's 93. 93, congratulations Marie! Say thanks. - Thanks. You're welcome. - Thanks, thanks, thanks. Okay. I'm sure you're glad to have your daughter there. Well... Sometimes yes and sometimes no. (laughing) Yeah, she got a kick out of that, too. Yes, we do get into fights. Yeah. - Yes. But would you, would you have it any other way? Ah, probably not. I mean, there are sometimes when I'm like, oh boy. Yeah, this is not workin' for me. But, you know, these past months now since I got it together and I got a rhythm in place and we got things goin', it's much better. The Alzheimer's Association is a great resource for a lot of these things and they have a toll-free number that you can call and that number is 1-800-272-3900. And they're a great resource for information about Alzheimer's disease and what we can do during the pandemic. (upbeat hip-hop music) (drill whirring) Today, we're installing what's called "The Martyrs of Injustice, Heroes of Protest" mural. This mural took us about a month worth of conception, execution, and preparation for the unveiling, all together. (group cheering, applauding) -

Alexandria

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"Martyrs of Injustice, Heroes of Protest" is a collaboration between Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Milwaukee Lutheran High School, Repaint Milwaukee, and the owners of the West Allis trucking company, RSR Services. The owners of the building, RSR Services, came to me, wanting to dedicate the side of their building and business for a mural in support and honor of the protest organizers. During this collaboration, a lot of people were positive, motivatin' each other, lifting each other, a little bit of conversation on who these characters actually were and really we start the conversation up and we built a family, a community, through this mural process. I was compelled to wanna include Dontre Hamilton and Ernest Lacy because of recent history and past 40 year history in Milwaukee, these are two young African-American men that were victims of police brutality. -

Alexandria

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As protests continue to swell around the country for those killed at the hands of police, these artists are educating others about Milwaukee's own stained history with law enforcement. Ernest Lacy died in Milwaukee police custody in 1981 after a knee-and-neck hold during arrest. In 2014, a Milwaukee police officer shot Dontre Hamilton 14 times, following an altercation sparked by reports of him sleeping on a park bench. I think one thing about murals is that they're just in your face, you can't block them, you can't filter them out so you have to address it, you have to see it, and I think that's just one of the ways that people are finding to express themselves in a way that's not toxic, in a way that's not aggressive. -

Alexandria

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The Heroes of Protest include Milwaukee activist Markasa Tucker, Frank Nitty the Second, Vaun Mayes, and Khalil Coleman. I personally had not heard of them before the mural, I won't, like, lie, but after like, knowing about it and knowing that these people are in my community, it's not just like, big New York protesters, it's not just big, you know, big cities, it's people in Milwaukee who are trying to make a difference I think that kinda inspires me 'cause I feel like, well, I'm just one person in Milwaukee, but these people are one person in Milwaukee, so, and they're doing so much for us. - I think it's dope that the young people decided to find a way to express themselves for justice. You know, I didn't really know what it was really about, you know what I'm sayin', so to kinda see it and have the opportunity to pull it down, I think that was really exciting. When I found out I was surprised, it's already humbling to have a mural, but one in West Allis, you know, somewhere outside of the inner city, is definitely very interesting. I think it will be good just to start and spark a conversation with the people in West Allis, those who don't know who we are, those who do, and those who are unfamiliar with the cases of Ernest Lacy and Dontre Hamilton. -

Alexandria

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The family of Ernest Lacy says while it's hard to see the same injustices repeated, there's comfort in knowing their brother will not be forgotten, even almost 40 years after his death. It's first of all, it's an honor for someone in the city to think, you know, enough of the Lacy family to you know, put a mural up for him and it's been 39 years since my brother was murdered by the Milwaukee Police Department, so I just think that it's a nice gesture for the community to come together and community organizations and just share life and let people know, it's another generation that's comin' and they really don't know about Ernest Lacy, so just to kinda put it fresh in their minds, because it was a heinous act of violence and brutality against our family, and so people need to know that because it's relevant, because it's happening, since 1981 and even further back than that. -

Alexandria

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It's the sharing of these stories that artists hope will stir more conversations of racial equity in West Allis, a predominantly white city in Milwaukee County. My role can actually spark different conversations in other rooms that I'm not in, so even if I'm in a classroom and we talk about subjects that are uncomfortable to take on at the moment, you know if doin' something like this can actually make somebody talk about it in another room to get that conversation started more for a progressive reason. Were you ever hesitant, getting this mural on the side of your business? - Hesitant, no. But aware that not everybody would love it there. So, yeah, no hesitation in actually doin' it just, you know, had the thought in mind that not everybody thinks the same way I do. There's gonna be people that may be opposed. Some people, I feel like, probably go through life not thinking at all about the issues that that billboard represents. So, if nothin' else, somebody drives by, spends 30 seconds thinkin' about it and maybe they open up, you know, certain ideas are opened up to them. And really, what I'm hoping to get out of that mural is that somebody drives past there and it just makes them think in a way they haven't thought before. (upbeat hip-hop music) James Causey's interview with the MPD's Alfonso Morales was taped on August 5th, the day before he was demoted to Captain. Milwaukee police chief Alfonso Morales is a leader under fire. There's been a spike in homicides and violent crimes this year, his home has been a scene of protest for members of the community calling for him to be fired and in July, the Fire and Police Commission issued seven pages of directives, threatening discipline if he did not follow them. Joining us to talk about the state of policing is Chief Morales and his attorney Franklin Gimble. Man, thanks for joining us. Happy to be here. - Happy to be here. First question, Chief, do you believe the Fire and Police Commission is trying to force you to resign? What I can tell you is I am committed to the city of Milwaukee, I'm committed to the residents here of the city of Milwaukee and the organization of the Milwaukee police department. The men and women, both sworn and civilian, come to work every day and I'm gonna continue to work for them, all of them, until told not to. You know, I think James that this is very unprecedented from my view and now, I graduated from law school 60 years ago, 6-O, and I served as a Fire and Police commissioner between 1987 and 1992 during the term of Harold Breier. I have watched the Fire and Police Commission work with the police department and with the fire department and it has always been, from my point of view as a spectator but an involved spectator, that the Fire and Police Commission and the two departments have worked jointly together for the benefit of the community and have not had the adversarial relationship that appears now to be what is at play with this Fire and Police Commission against Chief Morales. So far, about 200 citizens have signed a letter to Mayor Tom Barrett, asking him to use his authority to overrule the commission's directives. Should he step in? Well, you know, it's up to the mayor, after all, the mayor appointed each one of the seven fire and police commissioners, and I think that he also had some role in the leadership of the commission in Mr. DeVougas, so the mayor's voice on the interaction between the Police and Fire departments and the Fire and Police Commission is a very relevant voice. He has to make his own decision, I've read the letter that was sent to him and I think the letter that was sent to him, by the 200 people that are not happy with what the Fire and Police Commission is doing now with the Chief, is well-written and well-thought out. Let's talk a little bit about the directives. One of the directives calls for prohibiting the use of tear gas and pepper spray. Chief, why were these methods used on protestors? The chemical irritants were not used on protestors, they were used during a time, six occasions, where it became an unlawful assembly. And it was to disperse the crowd in a manner where we could have less injuries to both the civilians, the people out there, as well as our law enforcement. So it's meant to prevent injury, it's meant to prevent great bodily harm. And we explained that in a short video last night that we released that was part of one of the directives, we also went over the policy a week ago as part of the directives, to explain that to the Fire and Police Commission, and that policy has been, a review of that policy has been pended to September but there's reasons why we have this, the chemical irritants, it's not for peaceful protests. In fact, police and law enforcement tend to back off and be very invisible when protestors are peaceful. We just have to keep in mind that an unlawful assembly is not a peaceful protest. Chief, do you feel that you have the full support of Tom Barrett? What I can tell you is I'm committed to the city of Milwaukee, I'm committed to the residents of the city of Milwaukee, as you stated there was a letter that was signed by several people within the community in Milwaukee that's humbling in itself but it also shows that there's another voice here. Oftentimes, what happens is we hear the squeaky wheel and we listen to the squeaky wheel. We have to look and understand that Milwaukee is a city of 600,000 and we have to listen to the voice of Milwaukee to really understand what are the real problems of the city of Milwaukee and not get bogged down by the voice of one individual or one group. Is it really a problem or is it not and again, when complaints come up as such, we should be lookin' at complaints that come through but understand, is it a problem or is it perception or reality. Is there a point in time during your time as chief when you felt that the situation started to go sour between you and the community, and if so can you point out when that happened? I could tell you that working with the community, I took over as chief over two years ago, February 2018, and I worked our team here in Milwaukee worked very hard on police-community relations. We were very successful, but what I can tell you with police-community relations, it's a constant. It's a goal that you try to meet that is always gonna be one that you have to continuously put effort into it, 'cause you can lose it. The COVID-19 this year in 2020 has been a challenge in that community outreach, the interaction with the community, because we had stay-at-home order, the faith-based organizations, some of the community groups that we work with, were not in operation. So all of those things create a challenge, and the interaction that police have with the community to keep our police legitimacy, and it's easy to have an incident such as one in Minnesota that can set us back, law enforcement in general. So what I can tell you is, police-community relations is a constant that you cannot, you know, take your eye off of it. Because you can easily lose it. So there's members of the community who say that they want you fired. What would your message be to them as the reason why you should stay? Well, if you hear, let's look at the reasons and I mean, let's have an intelligent conversation regarding this. Is it emotions, is it because of something that happened somewhere else in the nation? Or what are we looking for? What is it that you wanna find, but let's look at facts and not fiction, and have that conversation. I'm committed to working here at the city of Milwaukee. Again, oftentimes people say that we, that you want a chief from the community. I was born and raised here in the city of Milwaukee, and although I've said it and some people say you say it too much, part of the uprising, you want a chief from the community. So sometimes the complaints come from perceptions that aren't reality. And we just have to have those conversations. And at the end of the day, people are entitled to their opinions. Well, we're out of time in this show but we're gonna continue this important conversation in a Black Nouveau web exclusive. Thank you, Chief. And before we close, the Sisters of Creativity exhibit is on display at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. You can see it through September 6th. It features the work of six African-American women, all from Milwaukee. They were from the 2018 Class of the Sisters of Creativity. I spoke with one of them, Tia Richardson, for a Black Nouveau web exclusive. You can see that online at MilwaukeePBS.org. Also online, you can find For Jobs and Freedom, a Black Nouveau special. It commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington. I had the honor of interviewing Congressman John Lewis for that program. He and Reverend C.T. Vivian passed on the same day. R. I. P., rest in peace, rejoice in paradise. And that's "Black Stories of our Pandemic" for this time. I'm Joanne Williams, thanks for watching. (upbeat hip-hop music)