Color Controversy

Can you build an African-American entertainment district without African-Americans?

Critics charge that Mayor Tom Barrett’s plan for a Bronzeville development at North Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive is a white attempt to redo black history.

“Outside interests should not dictate where an ethnic community should go,” says Common Council President Willie Hines Jr. And Hines has his own agenda: He’d prefer to revitalize the area around 35th and North, in his aldermanic district. “This is the real Bronzeville,” he contends.

But the original Bronzeville centered on Walnut Street between King Drive and 12th Street. At its peak in the 1940s, it boasted more black-owned businesses than the rest of Milwaukee combined. The neighborhood even had its own newspaper and chose its own “mayor.” In the 1960s, Bronzeville was broken apart by I-43.

Developer Damon Dorsey, who has built mixed-use projects on North Avenue, opposes reviving Bronzeville in any form. This, he notes, was a segregated neighborhood where blacks provided their own services because they were shut out everywhere else. “To go back and try to create that may sound good, but it’s on the border of a racist notion. The city doesnÕt need to tell black people where to go.”

Barrett says Dorsey is missing the point. “We’re not trying to re-create the old Bronzeville,” he says. “We’re trying to create a new, vibrant area, and working hard doing the unglamorous work behind the scenes.”

Hines cites the proposed “Latin Quarter” on the South Side as an example of more ethnically sensitive planning: “This development is being driven by Hispanic business leaders and entrepreneurs. It would be strange for an outside individual to decide whatÕs in the best interests of that community.”

For the Barrett administration, Bronzeville is a logical extension of the Main Street program started after his election in 2004. Four commercial corridors were given $150,000 in city assistance: on the South Side, National Avenue from 31st Street to Miller Park Way and Lincoln Avenue between Fifth and 20th streets; on the North Side, 27th Street from Highland to I-94 and Burleigh Street from 43rd to 60th streets.

Since 2005, these districts have helped attract or expand 68 businesses and leveraged $4.4 million in private investment. The city is now expanding the program to other neighborhoods, including King Drive between Locust and Walnut streets. Bringing back Bronzeville would create a needed identity for King Drive, argues former Ald. Mike DÕAmato, who chaired the cityÕs Zoning Committee when it approved the funding. “Otherwise, it’s just another strip mall,” he says.

The development “will build upon the success of America’s Black Holocaust Museum” at Fourth and North, the city’s Web site declares. It could be further strengthened by former Milwaukee Bucks coach Terry Porter’s proposal for an entertainment district on Seventh and North.

“The foundation for a rebirth is being laid,” says Ralph Hollmon, executive director of the Urban League. “Cities around the country have Bronzeville districts,” he notes, and the idea arose “long before Mayor Barrett took office.”

D’Amato says efforts are being made to have minority business owners in the new Bronzeville. “We’re trying to achieve a unique cultural mix,” says Barrett.

In short, Bronzeville will likely move forward, despite Hines’ opposition.