(bright music) (upbeat synth music) - What's going on everybody, and welcome to a special edition of Black Nouveau.

I'm Earl Arms.

- And I'm Alexandria Mack.

And as you can see, we're at Milwaukee's 50th Juneteenth celebration.

(upbeat drums) (muffled singing) (muffled singing continues) (man singing) ♪ Yeah, yeah!

♪ (muffled singing) (upbeat drums fade) - [Earl] Despite the early morning rain, vendors and visitors were able to get set up and situated.

The parade, one of the biggest yet, was carried live on television, but that didn't stop fans from turning out early to watch it.

- Happy Juneteenth everybody!

- Juneteenth- - Come on down.

(muffled celebratory cheering) (crowd cheering) (car honking) - This is how we do it in Milwaukee.

- Milwaukee.

Happy Juneteenth in Milwaukee.

(cars honking) (upbeat drums) - [Crowd] Who are we?

Foundations for Freedom!

Who are we?

Foundations for Freedom!

(background chattering) ("Atomic Dog" by George Clinton playing) - Come on, say- - Woo!

- [Earl] Opening ceremonies followed by the parade.

Elected officials, dignitaries, and the Juneteenth court were presented to the public.

And then everyone was free to enjoy the good weather and the spirit of Juneteenth.

- This is the 50th year anniversary, and we are just celebrating, we are glad to be back out in our community, and we are just happy.

It's my grandkids' first time here, so we're just celebrating, we're happy.

We're excited about this.

Yes!

- We're here at Juneteenth with Milwaukee County executive, David Crowley.

County executive, thank you so much for joining us.

- Oh, no problem!

Thank you for having me.

- First off, just talk about Juneteenth, talk about this day, talk about this holiday, what does it mean to you especially being here in Milwaukee, the 50th anniversary of it?

- Oh man, I mean, first and foremost, how many times can you say we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of anything?

So Juneteenth for me, is a day of celebration, right?

When we think about June 19th, 1865, when the last folks who were enslaved in the United States found out that they were actually free.

And so for me, when you think about even the history, 100 years later we got our voting rights, and we're still able to even celebrate this day.

And so it's the independence day for a lot of Black people, it's a time for us to celebrate, immerse ourselves in the culture, really teach our young people what this day means to us and to the rest of this nation.

- And this nation, speaking of just Juneteenth for a federal holiday, you actually did it on the county level last year, but talk about the meaning of it being recognized on a national level.

- Absolutely.

You know, we did it last year, and to see that it just happened, President Biden signed the legislation on Thursday, I mean, it's wonderful, right?

And when you think about how long people have been marching and fighting and protesting for equity and for equality, and just being able to recognize this particular day, I mean, this means a lot for us.

Because being from the State of Wisconsin, we got elected representatives in Congress who actually voted for it, who always blocked this piece of legislation at the state level.

So for me, this is progress, it lets me know that we're moving forward, but it also lets you know that we still have a long road ahead of us.

- Yeah, speaking of you're doing that work on a county level, but talk about some of that work and what you're doing beyond gestures of making things a holiday, just some of that active work that's going on at the county level.

- Well, our mission is that we believe that we can become the healthiest county by achieving racial equity.

And so we are focusing on our first strategic plan in over 20 years, and really focusing on three strategic focus areas.

One is being intentional on who we are, including in the work.

Does our board, does our commissions, does our cabinet represent the people?

We also wanna bridge the gap, when we talk about health equity as well as racial equity.

Making sure that we're tackling housing, tackling eviction prevention, some of the things that we've been able to do to keep over over thousands of families actually within their homes, but also investigating in equity, really putting our money where our mouth is.

And so this is some of the things that we've been doing, and we're gonna continue to do, but I would say that we're not doing this alone.

We have partners throughout all of Milwaukee County, through philanthropy, private businesses, and even like organizations like PBS, being able to talk about the things that matter most to this community.

- So, from a state rep to county executive, it's been about a year now, right?

- Yeah, yeah!

(chuckles) It's been a year.

- So talk about some of the challenges and successes that you've seen from your office in the first year.

- Well, I mean, COVID has always been the biggest challenge, right?

- Mm-hmm!

- And coming in to a new term, not being able to even interact with majority of the people who work with you or for you because of the health aspects.

But what I will say is that we've been able to identify a lot of different opportunities, you know?

Because of the CARES dollars, because of the American Rescue Plan, we've been able to invest in communities that have disproportionately been affected by racist policies and procedures that has always been on the books.

So, for example, we developed a small business grant, doled out over almost $12 million to small businesses with two thirds of those businesses being minority, women, or veteran-owned businesses.

We've helped over 5,000 families stay within their homes, because when you think about the economic toll this pandemic has had on us, it has directly impacted communities of color the most.

And so we wanted to make sure that we can keep those individuals within their homes.

but we know that again, there's so much more that we still have to do.

And even though we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the next thing that we have to focus on is continuing to get people vaccinated, particularly in Black and Brown communities.

- All right, as we wrap things up, what would you say is your biggest priority then moving forward with your office?

- Well, my biggest priority right now is making sure that we can make quality investments in our community.

You know, we wanna make sure that we can continue to support and invest in quality-centered person program that we have, whether we talk about for people with disabilities, our seniors, our young people, keeping our county buses going.

This is really about making sure that we can continue to have Milwaukee County here, and one of the reasons why we continue to talk about the local option sales tax for Milwaukee County.

We need more revenues to be able to take care of our obligations, but more importantly, we needed to do that so we attract more businesses, attract more human capital, so we can be able to improve the quality of living for everyone in this county.

- Milwaukee County executive, David Crawley, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you so much Earl, glad to be here!

- Absolutely, come back!

Make sure you come back.

- I will!

- All right!

- What brought you out today?

- Celebration of Juneteenth as always!

- What's your favorite part about Juneteenth?

- The parade, seeing the children, and also the food.

- What type of food are you looking forward to getting today?

- Girl, please!

Everything!

(chuckles) Catfish, greens, I'm a vegetarian.

So whatever doesn't have meat in it, I eat.

- My first memory is actually coming with my uncles and aunties and my mom, that was my first memory.

They used to always tell us about my grandmother and my aunties, my great aunts having a booth down here, they used to cook.

sold soul food dinners and stuff down here.

- [Alexandria] These aren't the typical shots we're used to seeing people take during celebrations, but without them, reunions that light the city up with joy and culture will continue to be a socially-distanced memory.

- Well, Juneteenth is a great day to celebrate our freedom, but also you can't be free unless you're healthy.

So one of the things that we wanted to do at Milwaukee Health Services is incorporated along with our collaborative partners, is to make sure that people receive health information, and an opportunity to receive vaccines.

- [Alexandria] Some attendees wore masks and some did not, but despite looser CDC restrictions and fewer mass mandates, the pandemic isn't over.

- Well, as a doctor, I always tried to address things in reality.

And so the reality is, statewide we're doing pretty good with vaccinations, but in the particular communities we serve and where we're located right now, this census tract ranks 293 out of 296, which means the vaccination rates are very low.

So this is a place you wanna be, you wanna come to the people where they are, not to tell them what to do but to educate them, provide them information, and help them make their own decisions for themselves and their families.

- [Alexandria] Now that the vaccine is available to all, the hope is by having a presence at Juneteenth, it can help break down the walls of mistrust and misinformation in lower-vaccinated communities.

- I dunno, I kind of trust it here more than anywhere else, and I didn't even know they were doing it, but when I walked past, I was like, why not?

- Yeah, we've had a great response.

We have Cream City Medical Society, it has Black physicians, dentists, and pharmacists, podiatrists here, to provide health information, working with Walgreens.

So people, if they wanna get the Pfizer here, or go inside and get the Johnson and Johnson or the Moderna, we're making sure all three vaccines are available for people.

- Well, I am here, joining the community in celebration of the Juneteenth holiday, and I'm so excited to be in the midst of all of my community today, it's been a long time, so I'm glad to be back in person.

And we're just sharing more information about the Milwaukee Tech Hub, and getting more black people into the field of technology.

Which is really critical and important for our future and advancement for the Black community in general.

- Happy to be at Juneteenth, with Milwaukee County Sheriff, Earnell Lucas.

Sheriff, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you, and thank Black Nouveau for having me today.

- Absolutely, absolutely!

But, talk about what Juneteenth means to you.

You grew up here, you grew up not too far from here.

So talk about what this holiday means to you and your family.

- This is certainly a dream to be here on the 50th anniversary celebration of Juneteenth day here in Milwaukee, but also the pride of having the federal holiday name, just on Thursday signed by the president.

This has been a long time coming, and I'm just so humbled to even see this day, but it's also an indication of how much work we still have yet to do in this community, because we see some of the blight and other issues that still exist in our community, but I'm just so glad to be a part of this today.

- So talk about some of the work that needs to be done, some of the work that you've done in your office, and just talk about what needs to continue to be done for us.

- Well, I mean, there's so many institutions in our country that have failed, and as a result of their failure they collapsed down on to the law enforcement profession.

Whether it be the education system, the healthcare system, employment, housing, mental health, when all of those institutions collapse they collapse down on the law enforcement community.

But I've been fortunate here now for the past two and a half years to work with a group of young men and women who are dedicated.

We wanna work, we wanna try to solve the problems, but in order to solve the problems of this community everybody's gonna have to be at the table.

Whether it's the business community, the philanthropic community, certainly our elected leaders, and everyone, including the people of this community, working together to help solve all of our problems.

- How do you see your office specifically solving those problems?

And what do you think your office has already done in your last two and a half years?

- Well, without a doubt, we just received a certification by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare, which is an indication that those persons that are entrusted to our care, those some seven, 800 people on a daily basis, we are the gold standard in terms of how those persons are treated.

And there's hope that when they come into our institution, receive the proper treatment and care in our facility, that when they return to our community maybe they can return to a life of productivity and won't have to become part of a cycle of recidivism.

So that's just one of the things that we're doing.

I think the work that we're doing in our parks, at our Lakefront and other areas, to keep all of our people safe during the summer months is certainly a testament to the dedication of our people.

And then whether we're keeping our courthouse and all of our institutions here in Milwaukee County safe, we've done a lot of things, but we still got a lot more to do.

- You've mentioned the Lakefront, trying to keep the Lakefront safe, and of course the city and the county as a whole, what do you see though as the biggest challenge from your perspective at the Sheriff's Office in keeping Milwaukee County safe, and the Black community, keeping the Black community- - You know, I think in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, by the four former Minneapolis police officers, and all of the calls for reform and defund the police, it's a narrative that's worth having, but again, it requires everybody at the table.

Let's have a substantive discussion on all of the issues, not just simply a symptom of the problem, we need to talk about the larger problem.

So I wanna see a robust discussion of all the entities in Milwaukee.

And then let's talk about who's doing what, and who's not doing what, because there are a lot of other institutions and individuals who are talking, but are not doing a whole lot, and we need for them to step up to the plate as well.

- But this still a great time, it's been a great summer so far, and right now it's still being culminated by Juneteenth, right?

- Yeah!

Yeah, and this is truly a wonderful day for a young boy who grew up less than a block away from here, played at the park across the street here, walked these streets everyday going to my elementary school, as well as to my high school.

It's truly humbling to be back, and seeing a lot of the friends and family that I grew up with and have known for over 15 plus years, so this is a wonderful day.

- Milwaukee's own, Sheriff Earnell Lucas, thank you so much for joining us!

- Thank you for having me.

- Absolutely!

Come back anytime.

- I certainly will.

- All right.

- Yeah!

- I usually come when they got the food out, but she wanted to come for the parade, so I got to make the sacrifice to bring her out in the morning, plus I'm having a great time.

(muffled background chatter) (loud music playing) - [Alexandria] Every year at Juneteenth, visitors can expect food, service vendors, and even entertainment.

(urban music playing) But this year, the festival wanted to add a little bit more fun.

- In honor of our 50 years, we wanted to do something big, something special, something that all the kids can enjoy not just in the adults, so we created this kid zone for all kids to enjoy.

(engine roaring) - Ah, yeah, yeah!

Go and get it, hurry up!

- We kind of just based it off of ages, we know that there are a lot of younger kids that don't really get to do too much Juneteenth, so we have the train, we have the rock wall, we have everything so that anybody under 12 can enjoy as much as they can.

- [Alexandria] For parents, the kid-friendly area helps start the conversation of what the celebration of Juneteenth is, no matter what age.

- Just to educate my kids more on what Juneteenth is all about, 'cause they don't know, and I'm educating myself as well.

- [Alexandria] But it's also an opportunity to remind the kids that there's a place for them in the community, after a year of limited activities and increased violence in the city.

- Helping out the community 'cause like, it's stuff happening around here.

We just want everybody to gather up and know that there's people on their side.

Like we got food over there, we got the games, we got basically just playing stuff.

We're giving our mass bobbleheads, it's just everybody having fun on the rides, so yeah.

(kid chuckling) - Bobbleheads!

- Now you want more!

- Personally, I just want to show kids that this community we care about all our kids, we want the best for all of our kids, and we want to show them that there is more out in the City of Milwaukee than what they see.

So we created this so that no matter what they know that there is somebody that cares about them.

I think just seeing the smiles on their faces, I think that was my favorite part today.

(muffled chattering in the background) - Most of us know that Juneteenth marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to take control of the state to ensure that all enslaved people would be free.

But there are other significant black events that we should know about.

Here to talk about the other important dates in Black history, is Marquette University history professor, Dr.

Rob Smith.

Dr. Smith, thanks for joining us.

- Always a pleasure brother James, thank you for having me.

- So in school we all learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and the bus boycott, what are other significant events in African-American history that doesn't receive the attention it deserves?

- Well, let's go on reversed chronological order.

And then whichever ones we can talk about, we will.

I think we have to always be reminded about the importance of the election of Barack Obama on November 4th, 2008.

You know, that was as historic of an event.

Most of us who were in any way into adulthood thought we'd never see an election of an African-American president.

Very connected to that, then we have to also think about the August 6th, 1965 signing of the Voting Rights Act.

Which even maybe more so than the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the year before, really changed the political landscape, and opened up a number of opportunities because we were immediately able to elect a significant number of black elected officials across the country, and especially in the South, where we saw immediate spikes in voter registration.

And that's not to minimize the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it's significant.

Especially its employment provisions, and the ways in which it protects with regard to federal funding and contracts and the like.

But then there's one other really important event, July 21st, 1896, the birth of the National Association of Colored Women, the really massive expansion and the broad expansion of the Black women's club movement era.

And I'm originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, so I grew up under the influence of Madam C.J.

Walker, her industry and her empire really was a significant portion of the city's landscape, and also was really important for Black women entrepreneurs in the early 20th century.

- Yeah, so why isn't this history really being taught in schools the way that white history is?

- You know, obviously we have a white washing of history in the United States.

You know, obviously it's been several decades where we've really been working to inject not only African-American history, but indigenous history, women's history, Latinx history, this all emerges out of student movements, protests, communities, community organization.

All of that is so critical to really redefining our educational landscape.

Because we know that in a society like ours, that's built on these kinds of racial paradigms and racial dominance, one way to maintain that control is to make sure that folks are not getting that real history.

And we're in a reawakening in so many ways today.

And so we'll see over time, I think, even more inclusive curricula, we'll see the inclusion of all kinds of topics and things that weren't necessarily included over the last generation or so, just like the generation before was able to include some stuff, it's a steady process.

I think what's really critical now though, is this real serious critique on white supremacy that many folks have begun to embrace along with anti-racism.

You know, that language, those ideologies, we see the political backlash to it.

Those are really powerful.

And I think more and more teachers are going to begin to feel more comfortable addressing some of those issues.

- Let's bring it back to Juneteenth.

- Yeah!

- When you hear 1865, you know, people think that's 156 years ago.

Tell me why that wasn't really a long time ago.

- Well, it wasn't a long time ago, because so much of the struggles since 1865 have been predicated on just basic fundamental challenges, so that we can get these small incremental steps toward a real meaningful citizenship.

You know, it's only been 60 years since the 1964-65 act roughly, so the ending of Jim Crow is very recent as well.

And so the 100 years or so that we see the true entrenchment in the real difficult era known as Jim Crow, we can't ever forget how important that moment of emancipation is.

And at the very same time, while it marks the ending of slavery, it also marks the beginning of that journey toward full citizenship.

And so we're nowhere near complete, that journey is nowhere near complete.

And so we have to continually come back to it, we're forced to come back to it in some ways, but we also embrace Juneteenth, that's our holiday.

It's not a hallmark holiday, it's not a holiday that we get (indistinct) over the airwaves and told to go out shopping and all that, we've we have made Juneteenth ours.

And it will continue lie that.

- Right!

Well, hey, thanks a lot Dr. Smith!

- Anytime brother, thank you.

- Juneteenth means a lot to me, man.

But I'm gonna tell you something that means more than that.

What means more than that is giving back to my community, man.

The same community I helped destroy, the same community I helped poison, so we trying give back to it.

(upbeat drums) - [Everett] Pulling off an event like Juneteenth takes a lot of meetings like this.

- We've got several pieces of handouts, and all of that good stuff.

- [Everett] Northcott Neighborhood House has been at the of planning Juneteenth for decades.

Tony Kearney has been Northcott's executive director for about a year and a half.

- It's important for Northcott because it's important for the community.

Our young people need to understand their history and culture, and we need to make others aware of our history and culture.

We've struggled since 1865, as you will know, freedom wasn't free, and even the announcement in 1865, that you were free, and General Granger soldiers to back it up, didn't make us free.

- But Juneteenth is by no means all that Northcott does for its community.

- Northcott has been around since 1961, doing community services programs trying to basically help women and children.

We, 20 years ago, found that a way to help them was to help the whole family.

To look at employment and trainings, because there were fathers who were unemployed.

They couldn't take care of their children if they're unemployed.

So we developed what's called Youth Builds, which is a program that builds houses, young people 18 to 23 building those units.

10 years ago, we started what's called Milwaukee Builds, which is a 24 and older version that builds houses, rehabs houses, works with developers.

Then when we have an arborist program that we started two years ago, where we're teaching young people how to take care of trees, not just cut them down.

- [Everett] Northcott has numerous programs for the young and not so young members of the community.

- We serve people food, and as you could see from walking through our hallways, it has kind of taken on a life of its own.

Last year we probably served 800 people a month, this year it's almost 2,800 people a month.

We deliver Stockboxes which are pre-packaged boxes to senior citizens.

So five days a week, one of our vehicles is out there delivering to those seniors so that they don't have to come out in the middle of this pandemic.

Everything we do is about the community, and youth programming, adult programming, senior programming, and building houses, rehabbing houses, all of those things make this a better community.

(indistinct chatter) - I hope people learn what it means to them, and where it started from, the purpose of it, the purpose of Juneteenth.

And for the young people anyway.

You know, us older folks, seniors, seasoned citizen, we already know what it means to be free.

And we know we're not totally free, but it's still a beginning, so it's a beginning.

And for the younger people like you, and other younger than you, it should mean a lot to them.

I hope they get something out of it, and appreciate it like I do.

- All right, and as we wrap things up here at Juneteenth, Alexandria, your thoughts on the 50th.

- Today really felt like a family reunion.

There were so many familiar faces, the sun was out, the energy was just so warm and inviting, so it felt like a homecoming.

What about you?

- It was great.

It was great seeing all the folks who mentioned the (mumbles) reunion, but also a time to meet new people.

When a time of excitement too, just because we missed Juneteenth last year because of COVID, but everyone able to get back together have a good time.

I think a good time was had by all.

So happy to be a part of it, and happy to help bring it to you.

So with that said, I'm Earl Arms.

- And I'm Alexandria Mack, and have a good night.

- Take care!

♪ Lift every voice and sing ♪ ♪ Till earth and heaven ring ♪ ♪ Ring with the harmonies of Liberty ♪ ♪ Let our rejoicing rise ♪ ♪ High as the listening skies ♪ ♪ Let it resound loud as the rolling sea ♪ - Thank you!

(cheering and clapping)