Thoughts on Milwaukee and Civil Rights, 1958–1968

As I wrote my biography of Clement J. Zablocki, I became interested in determining who opposed Civil Rights in Milwaukee from 1958 to 1968. In 1958, a police shooting led to the beginning of Civil Rights agitation in the city. The area became a focus for Civil Rights opponents as Alabama Governor and Presidential candidate George Wallace famously campaigned for city’s Polish American votes in 1964. After a series of protests and riots in the South Side of Milwaukee in 1967, the city passed an Open Housing ordinance in the next year. That dictionary of popular wisdom, Wikipedia, explains that Milwaukee’s Polish Americans opposed Civil Rights as part of a “White Backlash.” I have decided to test that argument.