August 2017

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9TH – 6:30-9:00PM

The Hidden History and Impact of Segregation in Milwaukee County

Lecture/Q & A by Reggie Jackson, ABHM Head Griot (Oral Historian)

How did Milwaukee come to be the most segregated metro area in the nation?

It turns out that racial segregation is neither accidental nor “natural.”

Reggie Jackson, ABHM’s Head Griot (oral historian), gives the talk that has been packing venues from Shorewood to Waukesha to Milwaukee’s Southside.

His presentation is tailored to each neighborhood or city where he speaks, in this case the Washington Park area of Milwaukee.

Jackson examines the role played by national and local policies and social systems. These systems have promoted and maintained an artificial separation between white and black citizens – and other residents of color. Finally, he explains how segregation negatively impacts the economic and social well-being of all the residents of this region. The talk is followed by a Q & A session.

Bethany Lutheran Church

2031 N. 38th Street

Milwaukee WI 53208

Free and open to the public

About Reggie Jackson

Reggie Jackson first volunteered with America’s Black Holocaust Museum in 2002. A year later, he was appointed Head Griot (pronounced GREE-oh) and began training the new griots. By the time the bricks-and-mortar museum closed in June 2008, he had led hundreds of tours.

Reggie became a close friend and protegé of ABHM founder, Dr. James Cameron. Since Cameron’s death in 2006, Reggie has served as an expert on the life of this unsung civil rights hero and lynching survivor. He authored the Afterword of Dr. Cameron’s memoir, A Time of Terror: A Survivor’s Story, 3^rd edition.

After the building closed, Reggie joined a task force of community activists determined to keep Dr. Cameron’s museum and legacy alive. They formed the Dr. James Cameron Legacy Foundation and in 2012 began to operate America’s Black Holocaust Museum as a “museum without walls.”

Reggie served as the Cameron Legacy Foundation’s first board president until January 2017 and helped establish not only the online museum but also the popular Griots To Go Speakers Bureau.

In his role as ABHM’s Head Griot, Reggie has been a much sought-after speaker on Black Holocaust topics regionally and nationally for over a decade. He presents the untold and seldom-told stories in African-American history at schools, libraries, churches, and businesses – and conducts diversity and race relations training.

Mr. Jackson has also taught Contemporary Social Problems and Introduction to Sociology as an adjunct professor at Concordia University and worked as a special education teacher in Milwaukee middle schools.

He is the 2015 winner of the Eliminating Racism Award from southeast Wisconsin’s YWCA and the 2016 Courageous Love Award from the First Unitarian Society.