UWM’s Sharon Jones Finds the ‘Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville’

Is Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood a reminder of a bygone past, a diverse and thriving area or simply the spirit of a caring community? According to local author Dr. Sharon Jones, it’s all of this and more. In her new book, Voices of Milwaukee Bronzeville, Jones, a lifelong Milwaukeean who both taught and developed curriculum at UW-Milwaukee after earning her doctorate from the institution in 2004, tells the stories of Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhoods by sharing the first-person stories and experiences of the people who called this place home.

Through interviews and spirited anecdotes, the North Side neighborhoods that made up the historic Bronzeville neighborhood come alive and help new residents connect with this important local commercial corridor of the past.

The name Bronzeville was a generic term given to an area in a city in which the majority is populated by African Americans, and Milwaukee’s Bronzeville neighborhood (before it was decimated by the I-43 highway) was bordered by North Avenue on the north, State Street on the south, Third Street on the east, and 12th Street on the west. Milwaukee’s Bronzeville flourished in the early to mid-20th century, becoming a booming self-sufficient economic community at a time when Black Milwaukeeans faced legal segregation in most areas of public life. From renowned nightlife to linchpin church communities and anchored by the many successful businesses flanking Walnut Street, the local Bronzeville community was known for the strong social bonds that connected its residents to one another.

Jones will speak about her new book and share stories she collected from Milwaukee’s Bronzeville residents at Boswell Books on Nov. 18 in a hybrid event that can be attended in-person or accessed virtually, beginning at 6:30 p.m.