March 30, 1968

April 6, 1968, Milwaukee Star, Public Library Microfilm Collection, Microfilmed by the Wisconsin Historical Society.

As Matthew Honer writes, “Kilbourntown - 3 was nearer the city center and in the years after WWII housed a large part of Milwaukee's African American and minority communities. The city of Milwaukee, citing poor housing conditions and poor land use, selected K-3 as a slum clearance and redevelopment area.” Through its policies over a period of decades, Milwaukee failed to address poor living conditions in Kilbournetown-3 and used funding provided for urban renewal to continue to isolate African American communities without addressing the slum conditions that these protesters were highlighting. (Matthew Honer, The Unworkable Program: Urban Renewal in Kilbourntown-3 and Midtown, Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, May 2015, https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/73718, accessed 3/28/20)

1. What does Robert Jacobs, spokesman for the three organizations involved in this picket, say that the city of Milwaukee was doing that was not helping address problems in the slums?

2. Why do you think the protesters chose to picket outside the Realtors’ Home Show?

3. Imagine that you were taking part in the picket. What would you draw on your sign?