Author: NNS

Victor Barnett’s yearning to lead pushed him to found the Running Rebels Community Organization when he was 19 years old. Barnett and the Rebels are still thriving nearly four decades later. Seeing how his mother made her way through life despite a physical disability, Barnett sought to make a difference and not take for granted all that he had. In this interview, he talks about the organization, those who have succeeded and why he is the person he is today. | Q&A Q: Why is your youth group so successful? A: I started Running Rebels Community Organization on the...

30th St. Industrial Corridor leader urges area residents to join in redevelopment planning. Cheryl Blue, interim executive director of the 30th St. industrial corridor and BID 37, wants northwest side neighborhood residents to participate in a plan to restore the long-blighted industrial corridor to its former glory. “There are many people in this neighborhood…that need to be engaged in this process as well so that it’s not just people from outside of the neighborhood determining what’s going to happen,” she said in an interview. Blue believes it is important to have neighbors engaged at every level in the process....

During the past 18 months Safe & Sound raised $270,000 for the expansion, which will focus on two priority neighborhoods, West Lawn and Thurston Woods/Old Milwaukee. Afeni Grace, 22, grew up in Harambee, learning firsthand what it means to be an inner city kid. “I have experienced not being knowledgeable,” said Grace. “I didn’t know what resources were available to me, I didn’t know the aldermen and women of my district. I just didn’t know. It is a very hopeless feeling.” Grace is now a youth coordinator at Safe & Sound, which recently announced its expansion into Milwaukee Police...

Williams said that she still feels like she has to prove herself every day. At 50, Lisa Williams said that growing up as a black person, she was conditioned to “move out of the way” of white people. “White people get to move through the world every day, comfortably,” Williams said. “I move through the world as if I am a thief or a criminal. Uncomfortably.” Williams made her comments at a recent YWCA Southeast Wisconsin “talk back” on racial justice, held at Bay View Public Library, 2566 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. An earlier conversation on racial justice hosted by...

More than 38,000 African-Americans were defendants in 148,663 municipal court cases during the time period examined, compared to 6,439 whites. Milwaukee Municipal Court data obtained by the Wisconsin Justice Initiative (WJI) shows huge racial disparities in the number of defendants, number of cases and the amount of judgments owed to the city as a result of municipal violations. The data spans a 4-1/2 year period, from Jan. 1, 2012 through May 31, 2016. In total, African-Americans owed $23 million of the $31 million, or 74 percent, in outstanding debt. African-Americans make up 40 percent of Milwaukee’s population. Most of...

Ammar Nsoroma illustrated the new book “I Am a Boy of Color” with author Deanna Singh for multiracial sons that their parents. Like many parents, Deanna Singh loves to read to her sons Zephaniah, 8, and Zion, 4, before they go to sleep each night. Reading has always been a high-priority activity in the Singh-Ponder household. It’s so important that Singh woke up in a panic one night thinking about her family’s books. “Oh my gosh, what does my bookshelf look like?” Singh thought. “Are my sons able to find themselves in our bookshelf?” Concerned about the negative images...