A Portrait of the South Side Community of Milwaukee, WI 53204 USA

In  a study of the 2000 census the Employment and Training Institute of University Wisconsin – Milwaukee, the racial make-up of the city of Milwaukee was examined. It was found that a neighborhood on the north side was not only the most integrated when measuring blacks and whites, but among all races. The area south of the highway 94 and East of 27th street was labeled “other population mix.” This area is the zip code 53204.



My aim was to develop media of everyday beauty and to provide images that set a scene of the real struggle of the community, while also showing the strengths. What we found were scenes of people making good on their claim to dignity in spite of struggles. People living despite mental illness, poverty, exposure to crime-risk. If there be any descriptor I would choose for all present, it would be decent.

The images present depict the morning worker leaving for work at just before the break of dawn, the most common departure time for this community with it's large population of industrial workers starting their shift before the sun rises. I chose individuals to depict for their local fame. Some are quite well-known for their good nature, resistance to struggle, and decency. Some images were simply quintessential of the daily life in the neighborhood.



Never reported upon is that the community is largely family-oriented as there are few statistics that will display the details of the actual living experience in this community. Never has there been a depiction of a member of this community of a lazy Sunday walk with children. Put simply, I have worked to change this.

The community has come up with a few interesting ways to deal with it's unemployment rate. The selling of ice cream is the neighborhood's semi-permanent always-available unemployment insurance. Individual workers gather near the corner of 14th and Forest Home to take a cart for the day. When there is no other employment or social services available, Paletaria Leon will employ 30 people first-come-first-served. While it doesn't employ the 25% knocked out of the workforce, it is an interesting system.



Also available is the work of recycling. Bandos Recycling & Shredding Center has the most flexible acceptance of goods for recycling as well as pays competitive rates, so the local recyclers will almost exclusively go to them. Other recyclers in the area deal with larger poundage then the average individual can gather in aluminum cans.

The community has attracted attention on several occasions. In it's history, for it's opulence when it was considered the second downtown, which ended with the Great Depression. Although the area is rich historically, it has never been rich economically outside of a short stint during the 1920s, the community was the entertainment center of Milwaukee with 5 theatres. The Modjeska still survives, but barely.

During 1967 during the Open Housing marches it had national attention. Today it gets attention for its poverty and crime.

The most famous image from the community may actually be of the 1967 Open Housing march. Particularly interesting is the history of racial turmoil in this area. During the 1967 Open Housing March, a march lead by black comedian Dick Gregory and white Reverend James E Groppi crossed the 16th street bridge into the neighborhood. That particular point was where marchers were turned back and told to go to the north side

This is the street where the swastika image was taken. Whether this was the work of drastically mistaken children, or there is further turmoil that the police simply aren't aware of is worrying.


Mitchell Street and Walker's Point are the most famous neighborhoods in the zip code and are  synonymous with the entire neighborhood for the many of the city of Milwaukee’s population.

In the 1830s Walker’s Point was named for George Walker he designated one block of land for public use; that area is now Walker Square. The photograph of the public farmer's market is set in this location.

During the 1870s, the demographics shifted from the original German settlers, as Polish immigrants began to move into the area. A further ethnic shift occurred after World War I, as Latino immigrants began to settle into the area, becoming the area's predominant group. Together with the adjacent Historic Near-South neighborhood, this community has both Wisconsin's largest Hispanic population and the state's highest population density.

The first Latinos to come to Milwaukee, was a group of 100 Hispanic men hired by a tannery to live and work on the company’s grounds. As city-wide economic growth continued more Hispanics came to the area with their families. The Walker’s Point neighborhood, near the factories and the near south side, became the center of Latino culture. The economy also developed as Hispanic social clubs and businesses opened to serve those populations.

According to one resident, the hungry gather in the hundreds for food aid. While they declined to allow photography, the St Vincent de Paul location is one of  the organizations offering food aid to the community. Other organizations include The Gathering, which has a emergency food center on 27th st serving this neighborhood.


Education level is a problem, as more than 80% of the neighborhood population has less than a high school level attained. This translates directly into degraded earnings and higher crime. 74% of families with parents that have less than a high school diploma live in low-income families according to the National Center for Children in Poverty.

The hardest populations to get a view of were shift workers – a large population in this community, as they generally kept hours that were difficult to pin down. I attempted to get shots in a number of morning hours' bars for the post 3rd shift rush, but it proved difficult to pin down owner permission in almost every case, as owners in this community were shift workers, themselves.

City-Data pins down 6am as the peak hour for beginning the workday with about half of the near south side leaving for work at this time, but quite a large number – about 10 percent – leave for work on a second shift schedule.

If I were to start the project over, I would give more attention to the United Community Center, as it's services are central to keeping the neighborhood intact. It has offerings in every one of the needed service classes, childcare, education, housing, and drug intervention.

The only reason that their offerings are not included are scheduling difficulties and client privacy. Both of which could have been alleviated with further negotiation and time.