Back in 1989, when I was 17 years old, my experience with racial diversity generally consisted of one of three things: watching affluent African-Americans on NBC’s The Cosby Show, listening to stories about Hispanic immigrants from my Uncle Noel in Florida, and trying to converse with Inga, a German foreign-exchange student at my high school.
Then I met Dr. Coel.
A tall, strong woman who carried a Juris Doctorate in law, Dr. Coel was the first African-American person I truly got to know. A professor in my journalism classes at UW-Platteville, she pushed me into thinking more broadly about the world and challenged my talents like no one had before. When I think back about college, working under Dr. Coel was a watershed moment.
The next watershed moment came in November 2006 during the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program Group XII Urban Issues – Quality of Life seminar in Milwaukee. I thought I would be prepared for the seminar because after college I had lived in several different parts of the country, expanded my professional and personal friend base to include people of color and considered myself to be pretty well-read.
Then I met Sharon Adams.
Sharon Adams grew up on the north side of Milwaukee, before Dutch Elm Disease took away the tree-lined streets of modest middle-class homes and before large manufacturing companies like Allis Chalmers and Schlitz disappeared, taking thousands of jobs with them. By the time she returned in 1997, the safe, working-class neighborhood she had knew as a child had deteriorated into a drug-infested crack house neighborhood where even the police avoided patrolling once darkness closed in.
But Sharon Adams looked at the Walnut Street neighborhood and instead of shrugging her shoulders like so many others had done, she took charge. With her husband Larry and a key group of volunteers, she founded the Walnut Way Conservation Corp, aimed at the commercial and spiritual renewal of Milwaukee's oldest African-American community.
Drill and hammer in hand, the Adams’ are busy salvaging condemned houses and are working with the city to encourage new construction on the vacant lots that once held working-class homes. Since 1998, they have spearheaded the construction of 88 new homes on 100 vacant lots and have refurbished a drug house that in 1997 was condemned for demolition into a community center whose original architectural structure is once again the heart of the community.
Not only are the Adams’ creating much-needed change in one of Milwaukee’s most destitute neighborhoods, they are spurring others to improve their small portion of the community as well. By leading through example, community gardens are sprouting up throughout the Walnut Street neighborhood, and many homes are disconnecting their drain pipes from the city’s already-overflowing system and redirecting that water to water cisterns and rain gardens.
Meeting Sharon Adams reminded me that true leaders are those who inspire others to improve their lives and the lives of their neighbors. In Milwaukee, it doesn’t matter in which neighborhood you live. If Milwaukee is to have a growing economic future, all of its neighborhoods must thrive. And to do that, it needs more leaders like Sharon Adams and those who have chosen to make a difference.
Jeanne Carpenter is a communications specialist with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in Madison.
Thank you to the many people at Milwaukee County Extension who helped plan and implement this seminar:
Gail Epping-Overholt, Basin Educator, Milwaukee River Basin
Cheryl Horns, Nutrition Educator
Carolyn Johnson, Assistant Director
Dennis Lukaszewski, Urban Gardens Director
Sharon Morrisey, Consumer Horticulture Agent
Cindy Muhar, Family Living Agent
Andy Yencha, Basin Educator |
Top