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Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University

You are here: Home / Home / Carousel / Voices of Sherman Park: Three years later: ‘The power of anger’

Voices of Sherman Park: Three years later: ‘The power of anger’

August 14, 2019 by Phyllis Wax 1 Comment

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Milwaukee police stand outside the remnants of a gas station destroyed during unrest in Sherman Park three years ago. (File photo by Adam Carr)

Social issues are a major focus of poet  Phyllis Wax.  Although she was born in Washington, D.C., she has spent most of her adult life in Milwaukee.  She served on the board of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council in its early days, and her late husband grew up in Sherman Park.

If you play by the rules 

you won’t attract attention 

If you obey the Man 

the Man won’t bother you 

All men are created equal 

Liberty and justice for all 

America, land of opportunity 

But the Man did 

bother them and 

justice turned out to be 

not for all 

Tension in the air 

despair 

a lazy afternoon 

another black man  

shot 

People were tired 

of waiting  

for change 

If some hadn’t thrown rocks 

or burned a police car 

it might have been only a small item 

in  the local paper 

If people hadn’t gathered 

         —angry— about 200 

if shots  hadn’t been fired 

bricks thrown 

If that gas station hadn’t been set ablaze 

                 and a major bank 

         other businesses it might have been  

just another police shooting  

                of a black man 

                                       But 

even though pastors tried 

to calm people and 

neighbors formed clean-up crews 

in the week that followed 

the possibility of riots  

seemed to focus the minds  

of city and state leaders 

who finally started talking about 

                  jobs 

for an area where for decades 

half the people couldn’t find any 

A few angry people 

A few businesses burned 

The threat of violence 

What are your memories?  

It’s been three years since Sherman Park was thrust in the national spotlight after a  weekend of unrest.   

We’ve asked for you to share your memories and will feature your voices all week.  

What do you remember about the weekend? How has Sherman Park changed? What do you feel the media missed when reporting about the neighborhood?  What is the legacy of the unrest?   

Do you have photographs from the unrest you want to share? Would you like to talk with an NNS reporter for a story?   

Feel free to  email us  or leave a comment on Facebook.    

Your neighborhood. Your news. Our community. 

How to reach us: Email is highly effective. We can be reached at info@milwaukeenns.org. Our newsroom phone number is (414) 604-6397.  

Here’s how to get your news published on our site. 

HELP US HELP YOU: As a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to telling your stories, we need your help. Make sure you and your friends SUBSCRIBE to our daily newsletter. And DONATE. Every little bit helps.   

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Filed Under: Carousel, Community Voices, Home, Neighborhoods, News, North, Sherman Park Tagged With: Sherman Park Three Years Later

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About Phyllis Wax

Comments

  1. AvatarLarry Hoffman says

    August 15, 2019 at 1:10 am

    Not long after the Sherman Park uprising, middle-class white guy that I am, I would cross Holton St. from Riverwest to Harambee to teach baseball to kids in a schoolyard. On one occasion, in the outfield, one of the boys showed me something in his belt. It had orange on it, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t real a real gun. But it was real enough for someone to mistake for one. I said to myself, “I’m IN this thing.” A few weeks later, as I played baseball with another boy in that schoolyard, a car stopped and pumped three bullets across the street. We hit the pavement fast. I said to myself, “Now I’m REALLY in this thing.”

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