Racially Restrictive Covenants: The Making of All-White Suburbs in Milwaukee County

Migration of African American families to developing suburban areas in the Milwaukee metropolitan area was inhibited by both governmental actions and private discrimination. A study by Lois Quinn of the Metropolitan Integration Research Center in 1979 found racially restrictive covenants operating in at least sixteen of the eighteen Milwaukee County suburbs. Subdivisions established in 1927, for example, in Cudahy, Shorewood, West Milwaukee, Whitefish Bay and Wauwatosa excluded all non-Caucasian families. In the 1930\u27s subdivisions created in Bayside, Fox Point, Glendale, Greenfield, Hales Corners, St. Francis and West Allis were still using covenants to exclude African Americans. As late as 1958, ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed judicial Supreme Court outlawed judicial enforcement of these covenants, race restrictions were recorded for a new subdivision in Greendale. A case study of Wauwatosa, an attractive middle class suburb less than 5 miles from the black ghetto, revealed that 51 subdivisions (covering 1/3 of all residential land in the community) were developed with restrictive covenants which prevented non-Caucasians from purchasing or renting homes in their neighborhoods

Wisconsin\u27s Mass Incarceration of African American Males: A PowerPoint Summary

The Employment and Training Institute analysis of Wisconsin Department of Corrections public inmate files showed incarceration rates for African American men at unprecedented levels in Wisconsin. This presentation summarizes ETI research on prison rates in Milwaukee and Wisconsin and offers recommendations for addressing workforce needs of ex-offenders

New Indicators of Neighborhood Need in Milwaukee Zipcode 53206

Milwaukee Neighborhood Indicators Reports were initially developed by the Employment and Training Institute with funding from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the City of Milwaukee to provide independent, timely and ongoing assessment tools to measure short-term and long-term progress toward improving economic and employment well-being of families in central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Indicators track changes by neighborhood since 1993, prior to the beginning of state and federal welfare reform. The 53206 ZIP code neighborhood serves as a bellwether for poverty changes in Milwaukee and nationally. In the 1990s prior to welfare reform in Wisconsin it had the largest number of families receiving AFDC. In the 2000 Census it showed the largest number of families in poverty among Milwaukee zipcodes. This 2007 publication introduces two new sections addressing critical (and previously unexamined) issues facing the neighborhood: the unprecedented increases in subprime and high-interest rate housing loans to neighborhood residents and investors, and the growing population of ex-offenders of prime working age in the neighborhood. Assets are identified, including the relatively high rate of home ownership for single family houses, untapped retail spending (much of which is now leaving the neighborhood), the growth of child care businesses, increases in individuals reporting full or partial self-employment, and government economic supports for families (including child care subsidies, the federal and state earned income tax credits, FoodShare benefits, and medical assistance coverage)

Replacing Rhetoric with Data: Employment and Earnings of Single Mothers Leaving Welfare in Wisconsin

This paper, one of a series of studies exploring employment myths and realities surrounding welfare reform initiatives, examines job availability and the experience of single mothers in Milwaukee County who have received Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The analysis is informed by several unique data sources available to researchers at the Employment and Training Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: (1) semi-annual surveys of thousands of employers in the Milwaukee metro area identifying available jobs, their pay level, location and education and training prerequisites; (2) surveys of central city Milwaukee families regarding their search for employment, barriers faced, interests in job training, and assessment of available support services; (3) matches of institutional files of AFDC, food stamp and medical assistance family data with quarterly reports of wages paid Wisconsin workers, Milwaukee County child care subsidies, and Department of Transportation vehicle registration and driver\u27s license files; and (4) a Milwaukee Area Technical College in-depth assessment of the employment readiness, skills and child care needs of 1,550 mothers with children under age one who received AFDC in Milwaukee County and will be expected to find employment under Wisconsin\u27s new welfare policies. The findings challenge two common misperceptions of the state’s “welfare to work policies: first, that most parents on welfare are not employed and in many cases (i.e., intergenerational welfare families ) have never been employed, and secondly, that most parents leaving welfare have moved from unemployment to a job which provides them a better standard of living

Replacing Welfare With Work in the WPA: The Handicraft Project That Made Milwaukee Famous, 28th Annual Morris Fromkin Memorial Lecture, Lois Quinn

The Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project represents the largest public work program for unskilled women on welfare in Milwaukee County. Its success in providing meaningful employment to women with few obvious labor market skills was noted in the 1930s and attracts interest today as Wisconsin and other states initiate new “welfare to work” programs. For her lecture researcher Lois Quinn draws upon interviews with Mary Kellogg Rice (art director of the project from 1935 to 1942) and other project supervisors, published and unpublished project records, and studies of federal New Deal programs. Several project staff were available to discuss their work in detail, others associated with the project have left records and reflections on their activities, and many of the Milwaukee Handicraft products have been saved by public and private collectors. Concurrent with the 28th Annual Morris Fromkin Lecture, on October 30, 1997, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor John Schroeder presented the UWM Alumni Association’s “Special Recognition Award” to WPA workers “in recognition of their dedication to, and the historical achievement of, the Milwaukee WPA Handicraft Project in providing meaningful work for thousands of Milwaukee County women.” Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament presented the workers a special recognition “for outstanding and exemplary community service to the people of Milwaukee County.

Working Paper on Poverty and the Recession

This working paper analyzes recently released estimates of poverty and economic conditions data from the U.S. Census Bureau 2009 American Community Survey. These data are used along with local and state administrative data files to help residents and public officials address concerns related to poverty, employment and education for residents of Milwaukee and the state. Poverty is a most serious statewide problem with 1 out of 8 Wisconsin residents living in poverty, according to the 2009 ACS. In Milwaukee 1 in 4 residents was living in poverty in the 12 months prior to the ACS survey. In Racine, Eau Claire and Madison 1 in 5 residents was living in poverty, and in Kenosha and Green Bay 1 in 6 residents was estimated to be living in poverty. What makes Milwaukee unique is the isolation of the urban poor in the central city. The city of Milwaukee houses 73% of the 4-county area’s poor residents compared to 33% of residents with incomes not below the poverty line. Of the large cities and their MSAs examined, Milwaukee was one of the cities with very high differences between its share of the metro area poor residents vs. its share of the metro area non-poor population

Analysis of Affirmative Action Plans Adopted by Milwaukee Area Joint Apprenticeship Committees

In 2006 and 2010, the state Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards provided copies of the affirmative action plans adopted by Milwaukee area local joint apprenticeship committees (JACs) in response to an open records law request from the NAACP Milwaukee Branch. This paper examines the documents provided to the NAACP in light of standards established by federal and state regulations governing construction trade apprenticeship programs. A brief summary is also included of the federal code of regulations (29 CFR 30) and the Wisconsin Administrative Code (DWD 296) governing affirmative action requirements for apprenticeship sponsors

Assumptions and Limitations of the Census Bureau Methodology Ranking Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in Cities and Metro Areas

This paper responds to a request from the U.S. Census Bureau to serve on a five-member peer review panel to examine an historic and first-time study by the Census Bureau that ranked major metropolitan areas by their level of racial and ethnic housing segregation and offered segregation rankings of 1,092 cities and 331 metropolitan areas based on a series of indexes discussed in the sociological literature. The paper identifies assumptions and limitations of the indexes and the five-index rankings used by the Census Bureau in its report on “Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000” (CENSR-3) and its “Segregation / Housing Pattern Index Tables” posted on the Census Bureau website, and questions the appropriateness of the Census Bureau promoting schemes for ranking cities and metropolitan areas on their population distributions

State of Milwaukee\u27s Children in 1998: Family Income/Economic Support Report

This special report assesses the economic condition of Milwaukee County families with children and summarizes data on financial supports provided children in need. Start Smart Milwaukee! has made family income and economic support issues priority concerns during Wisconsin\u27s conversion to a work-based welfare system, particularly since 65,000 fewer Milwaukee County children receive public income support than five years ago. The welfare system does not maintain current information on earnings of Milwaukee County families leaving public assistance. Meanwhile the Employment and Training Institute’s review of state tax returns for the last five years found a 39% increase in the number of “working poor” single parents in Milwaukee County. One out of every three employed single parents had income earnings below the poverty level in 1997 and two out of every three had income earnings below 185% of poverty. In spite of their parents\u27 work efforts, at least 61,000 Milwaukee County children are in employed families with earnings below poverty. Without additional public or private support, these families do not earn enough to adequately support their children. Over 111,500 children are in families with income earnings below 185% of poverty

Educational Follow-Up Study of Juveniles Released from Ethan Allen and Lincoln Hills (1982)

This follow-up study examined the educational experiences of 759 youth released during 1979 from Ethan Allen and Lincoln Hills Schools, Wisconsin’s two state correctional institutions for juveniles. Ethan Allen and Lincoln Hills school records for each youth were reviewed as well as transcripts from schools attended before and after release. (105 public and 16 private schools provided student transcripts to the Department of Public Instruction.) In addition, forty-three parole officers were contacted for further information on youth whose school records were in question. The follow-up study identified only 24 youth (3.2% of the total population) who completed a traditional high school program. Half of these youth received their diplomas while incarcerated, the other half after release. None of the 156 youth expected to return to Milwaukee Public Schools graduated. Only 2 students graduated out of 186 youth expected to return to school districts with 5,000 - 25,000 students, 221 youth (29% of the total) received the General Educational Development (GED) certificate during incarceration at Ethan Allen and Lincoln Hills Schools; and 80 youth completed their GED after release. For many youth Ethan Allen and Lincoln Hills schools provided their first successful high school educational experience: 48% of all 15, 16 and 17 year old youth arrived at the correctional institutions with no high school credits. (The median number of credits earned by youth prior to incarceration was 0.4.) Following completion of the study, Ethan Allen teachers converted much of their curriculum to competency-based education where students could achieve measurable goals, particularly in vocational and technical education fields, as certified by industry standards