Between 1835 and 1850, Milwaukee's population grew from a handful of fur traders to more than 20,000 settlers. Three separate villages were started: Juneau's, east of the Milwaukee River and north of the Menomonee; Byron Kilbourn's across from Juneau's, on the west bank of the Milwaukee; and Walker's Point, across the Menomonee from the other two. In 1846 they incorporated into a single city. By then Milwaukee rivaled Chicago in size, wealth and potential, but in 1848 the Illinois city secured railroad and telegraph connections that enabled it to eclipse Milwaukee.
Between 1846 and 1854, a wave of German immigrants arrived, bringing with them expert industrial skills, refined culture, liberal politics, and Catholicism. Milwaukee soon became a center of foundry, machinery, and metal-working industries, as well as a center for brewing and grain trading. During the last third of the 19th century, visitors often commented on Milwaukee's refined German culture, European elegance, and prosperity (while usually overlooking the laborers who produced its wealth with the toil of their hands). On Oct. 28, 1892, a fire in the Irish third ward wiped out sixteen square blocks, leaving 2,000 immigrant working-class residents homeless.
During the first half of the 20th century, Milwaukee became known for its "sewer socialism." City leaders sought to clean up neighborhoods and factories with new sanitation systems, municipally-owned water and power systems, community parks, and improved educational opportunities. Victor Berger (1860-1929) became the symbol of Milwaukee socialism by organizing voters into a highly successful political organization based on Milwaukee's large German population and active labor movement.
During the 1930s the city was hit especially hard by the national depression: the number of people with jobs fell by 75% and 20% of residents needed direct relief from the government. The number of strikes increased sevenfold between 1933 and 1934, and conditions only improved when World War Two demanded huge amounts of factory goods between 1941 and 1945.
During the war, many African-Americans from Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee and elsewhere in the South came to work in Milwaukee's factories, and most stayed to raise their families after the war. By the 1960s Milwaukee was 15 percent African-American, but most black residents were clustered in a near-north neighborhood that suffered from unemployment, poverty, and segregation.
Local statutes, real estate agents, and lending institutions conspired to keep African-American citizens confined to the inner city, and segregated neighborhoods produced segregated schools. Two decades of struggle by black leaders such as Vel Phillips (b.1924) and Lloyd Barbee (1925-2003), supported by white allies like Fr. James Groppi (1930-1985), were needed to force city officials to obey federal desegregation laws. When local codes and practices began to change in 1968, white residents moved out, leaving Milwaukee one of the most segregated cities in America today.
Since 1970, manufacturing has ceased to dominate Milwaukee's economy, although traditional industries such as heavy machinery, tools, engines and brewing survive. Instead, businesses in the service sector, such as health care, banking, insurance, and retail sales, now employ most Milwaukee workers. Such businesses have spread north, west, and south out of the city along interstate highways, until the community of greater Milwaukee stretches nearly to Racine, Washington, and Jefferson counties.
Explanation:
Wisconsin's largest city lies on Lake Michigan, where the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnic Rivers come together. People had lived there for more than 13,000 years before the first Europeans arrived. At that time Milwaukee was neutral ground shared by several American Indian tribes.
