Podcast: Vaun Mayes
Vaun Mayes talks about growing up in the South, the importance of empathy and the forces — including racism, profiteering and crime — at work in Milwaukee. Continue reading Podcast: Vaun Mayes
Category: Sherman Park
Sherman Park is a neighborhood located on the northwest side of Milwaukee. It is bordered by Burleigh Street to the north, 27th Street to the east, North Avenue to the south and Fond du Lac Avenue and Sherman Boulevard to the west. The Sherman Park area was once home to many of Milwaukee’s first business owners. Their lavish houses can be seen up and down Sherman and Grant boulevards. Sherman Park was once the heart of Milwaukee’s Jewish population, and has retained a small, close-knit, and growing group of Orthodox Jews. Today, the majority of Sherman Park residents are of African-American and South Asian descent.
Community activist freed from federal custody, as supporters question legitimacy of charges
Vaun Mayes — recently indicted for plotting to firebomb a police station in 2016 — was released from federal custody last week after a judge struck down an appeal from the United States Attorney’s Office that sought to keep him in custody during the trial. Continue reading Community activist freed from federal custody, as supporters question legitimacy of charges
“I’m just stuck”
Chris Sims sits on a set of porch stairs near 38th and Auer in Sherman Park. Sims, who sports purple and black to match his flat-brimmed Baltimore Ravens hat, wears the words “Loyalty” and “Respect” on his forearms.
“I don’t know what I really wanna do,” he says. “I guess I’m just gonna have to go explorin’ somewhere. I can’t stand still — gotta move around and get what you want.”
“I’m comin’ from a humble beginning”
Omar Gayle stands on the porch of a home near the corner of 42nd Street and Auer Avenue. Gayle’s flat-brimmed baseball cap and multi-colored tee pop with fashion, but can’t explain his journey, or where he started from.
“I’m a Jamaican,” he says. “It’s a humble beginnin’. We learn to appreciate people and life. I learned to make use of what we got.”
“We did what we had to do”
Lonnie Hughes stand just off the curb in front of his home in Sherman Park. He talks with a friend as he leans on the handle of a broom, his right hand covered by a tattered work glove.
“When I moved to this neighborhood, it was a fantastic—well, it’s still a great neighborhood,” he says. “People agree, neighbors get along great.”
“I’ve had a rough life”
Lorne Payne sits on a porch in Sherman Park, surrounded by his children. Payne attempts a smile but it’s more a look of fear that comes through — the pain in his eyes is the only thing that’s clear.
“My kids keep me alive,” he says. “I love on my kids, make sure they’re happy. I [can] be sad as hell [as] long as my kids happy.”
Demonstrators encourage gas station boycott after employee discharges shotgun
Days after another incident in Sherman Park, demonstrators are holding strong on their call for a boycott of a local gas station.
In the evening hours of Tuesday, July 19, an employee and son of the owner of the BP station at 3114 N. Sherman Blvd. discharged a shotgun twice outside of the business, according to accounts. About 40 Black youth, including young children were assembled in the parking lot on the corner of Sherman Boulevard and Burleigh Street when the shots were fired.
“I can’t leave here until my people tell me I can leave here, until my people feel … like they got justice,” said Frank Sensabaugh, one of the protest leaders also known as Frank “Nitty,” who hasn’t left the spot since Tuesday night.
Continue reading “Demonstrators encourage gas station boycott after employee discharges shotgun”
Demonstration turns tense after incident with police
A demonstration of support for Black youth at Milwaukee’s Sherman Park quickly turned into a confrontation between law enforcement officers and community members after an African-American teen was taken into custody by Milwaukee police.
The incident, which occurred shortly after 8 p.m. Thursday night, involved a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputy and two Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) officers approaching a group of teens who were playing music through a speaker and dancing near the Sherman Park playground just south of West Burleigh Street. There were about 80 people present, including state and local elected officials and individuals from the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention. A number of law enforcement vehicles and clusters of officers had surrounded the area occupied by the group, even before the incident occurred.
Continue reading “Demonstration turns tense after incident with police”
“All my mother showed us was love”
Peaches Ellis leans against a railing of her porch in Sherman Park. The 49-year-old wears a wide smile; her bellowing laugh can be heard early and often, in between sentences, up and down a sunny 41st Street.
“It was beautiful, it really was,” says Ellis of growing up in Milwaukee. “That was a long time ago. But it was beautiful because it was more peaceful, everybody got along, everybody helped one another.”
“I do what I do to try to survive”
Coleone Davis canvasses the intersection at 35th and Burleigh, sign in hand, hoping for some extra cash. On this hot summer afternoon, Davis rests on a shaded bench in front of the eastbound stoplight of West Burleigh Street.
“You know how you fall sometimes? I want to get back up to where I was. And this ain’t me. This ain’t me,” says Davis, who has been out of regular work for about a month.