HOME GR/OWN opens park to honor local civil rights pioneer Ezekiel Gillespie

On Thursday, September 25, 2014 Mayor Tom Barrett (top photo, center left) and Alderman Russell Stamper (left) cut the ribbon on Milwaukee’s newest park located at the southeast corner of 14th and Wright. Mayor Barrett’s HOME GR/OWN initiative worked to turn this previously vacant city-owned lot into a local park. Ezekiel Gillespie Park is the biggest neighborhood vacant lot improvement completed by HOME GR/OWN to date. The park’s namesake, Ezekiel Gillespie, was a civil rights pioneer who lived in Milwaukee and is the founder of Milwaukee’s first African American church, St. Mark AME, located at 1616 West Atkinson Ave.