© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
For years, the Milwaukee metro area has had a reputation as one of the most segregated in the United States.How did this complex problem come about, and why does it endure? How does it contribute to persistent poverty? Are there ways to break through the boundaries?WUWM seeks answers to those questions in our Project Milwaukee: Segregation Matters series.

Video: See How Milwaukee Schools Have Remained Segregated

Metro Milwaukee has a segregation problem. It's an issue prominently on display within area schools.

Some say, school segregation in Milwaukee as bad today as it was 60 years ago, at the height of the Civil Rights era.

How did we get here? Let’s take a look back...

"After a somewhat promising period in the 1980s, of a seeming diminution of segregation in schools, in the 1990s we see a re-segregation of Milwaukee’s schools," says researcher Marc Levine.

"Today, metro Milwaukee has the highest rate of black students attending 90 percent minority schools of any metro area in the country – slightly higher than Detroit, and Chicago and New York," Levine adds.  

Today, half of MPS students are black, and 13 percent are white. More than 80 percent of district families are considered “economically disadvantaged.”

For more on this topic, explore our Project Milwaukee: Segregation Matters series.

Have a question about segregation? Submit your queries below.

_

Related Content