Ominous clouds of deceit, injustice hang over the $82-million West Lawn Housing Project

Last week, this community
witnessed a press conference
called by Milwaukee Inner
City Congregations Allied
for Hope (MICAH) to shame
the Housing Authority of the
City of Milwaukee (HACM)
for its failure to implement
rules promulgated by the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD)
which mandate contractual
and hiring opportunities for
black and other minorities,
which didn’t happen in the
first phase of demolition and
construction of new townhouses
and apartments in the
first phase of the West Lawn
Housing Project.
This situation of denying
blacks and other minorities
employment and contractual
opportunities didn’t just start
with the West Lawn Housing
Project. It’s a continuation of
benign neglect, which began
centuries ago with our black
forefathers who came to this
country and were bruised and
battered, yet they survived
despite conditions of outrageous
oppression, which still
exists to this day.
Will this situation occur
again? We believe it will.
And we should be about
the business of not allowing
it to happen again. We
should demand that anyone
doing construction in the
black community hire black
employees and provide contractual
opportunities to our
people. We don’t believe a
black construction firm can
go into any other community
working in predominantly
white neighborhoods without
something being said.
We should demand no less.
And if necessary, we need to
protest and sit down at construction
sites where no contracts
have been let to black
contractors or black men and
women working.