Oral+History+Reflection

Reflection:

I was a Wisconsin native and when I was younger we had covered some of the civil rights. We never really talked about the North and specifically Wisconsin so I just assumed that Milwaukee was a happy-go-lucky integrated city. After doing this it sort of shocked me that Wisconsin was so segregated. It really changed my thinking when my uncle told me the story of how he was beat up and his African American friends didn't help him. It was very cool that he heard of the NAACP and it really helped me relate some of my previous knowledge because the NAACP was a huge organization at the time. I found it peculiar that my Terry said whites hung out with whites and blacks with blacks. I guess Milwaukee at the time was originally just segregated and it didn't change for a while. I thought that the fists in the air to show "black power" was also quite weird because it did show that students in high school did care about what was going on even if they cared somewhat less that their parents. Obviously Milwaukee was impacted seeing as many remember what they saw on TV and Terry said he had to stay home sometimes because of riots. Overall I was very amazed at the involvement and the influence the civl rights had on Milwaukee and students during the time.