Theresa Garrison on Witnessing 'Urban Renewal' in Milwaukee

"There have been laws and policies that created some of the disinvestment, the plight, and the wrong that we're experiencing today."—Elmer Moore Jr., CEO of Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority

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Theresa Garrison on Witnessing 'Urban Renewal' in Milwaukee

Clip: Ep 3 | 1m 50s

City of Milwaukee Bronzeville Advisory Committee member Theresa Garrison shares memories of growing up in a Black neighborhood that was razed in the 1960s in the course of "urban renewal" projects.

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TRANSCRIPT

Theresa Garrison:
But then there was a lot of places they tore down, and nothing else was built there. I remember the church that I was first baptized in, St. Mark’s AME, they tore that down. It was on 11th and Reservoir. And I went to junior high school. I went to Roosevelt Junior High, and a lot of the homes around there had been torn down, and I can’t honestly say if anything was rebuilt there. And so, as far as urban renewal, I’ll just say it was urban tragedies, people losing their homes. I don’t know if the homes were bought, if the people were forced out of their homes. But I remember kids I used to grow up with, I didn’t see ’em anymore ’cause they didn’t live in the neighborhood anymore. But I stayed on 5th and Meinecke. And I can just say, right around the times that they started building up the expressway, I remember, I think it’s two cement company, they would bring their equipment in, and they’d have big cement trucks all along from, I’d say from 6th and North all the way to 8th and North. And they stayed there for a long time, I guess, until they got the expressway finished.

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