Photo credit: Juan Miguel Martinez
Protest caravan sets up on Aug. 29, 2020 during it's journey from Bay View to Kenosha.
August 29, 2020: The day started at the Holt Ave exit park and ride, orchestrated by Melody McCurtis of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges. A little over 10 cars showed up, forming the caravan that was set to drive to Kenosha to participate in the march that called for justice for Jacob Blake. The group formed a line on the on-ramp, holding up traffic so everyone could properly get in line. This continued on the freeway and we got company. Sheriffs cars started driving alongside us, giving us dirty looks, barking into shoulder mounted radios. A steady pace of 45 miles an hour got us into downtown Kenosha within 50 minutes, making the caravan a success. We joined a group of seemingly thousands of people who had all gathered to march for justice, leading to the courthouse. Federal troops had not been deployed but there was a feeling their boots would hit the ground any minute. Mandela Barnes delivers an impassioned speech and adds that “Though Black Panther may have passed, his spirit is still here within us,” referring to the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman the night before.
Juan Miguel Martinez
The march for justice in Kenosha on Saturday, Aug. 29, led to the courthouse.
August 29, 1970: The Chicano civil rights movement comes to a head in Los Angeles, where the Chicano Moratorium is taking place. Rosalio Munoz organized a rally to protest police brutality only a few days earlier, which escalated into violence on Whittier Boulevard. Ruben Salazar, 10-year veteran reporter and war correspondent, covers the events of the moratorium. He stops into the Silver Dollar bar for a quick beer before he goes back to the office to start writing his piece. He had been warned by LAPD several times to "tone down his coverage" about police corruption. He told them to buzz off. The LAPD gets a “call about a man with a gun inside the Silver Dollar” and they surround the place, firing a tear gas canister into the front door, which hits Salazar in the left temple, taking his head apart completely. He lay in a blanket of rancid tear gas, becoming the first martyr in the Chicano movement.
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Late Summer, 1970: It was around this time that Chicano students staged sit ins, protests and demonstrations outside of the office of J. Martin Klotsche in an effort to provide resources for Latino/a/x students. Despite only having 12 students with this background enrolled at the time at UW-Milwaukee, their efforts proved fruitful and in November of 1970, UWM opened its Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute, a forerunner of the Roberto Hernandez Center.
Fifty years later, turmoil continues to affect communities of color at whim, due to unresponsive administrative entities and a police force seemingly dedicated to silencing them. Milwaukee has had an eventful summer, with effective organizing taking place all throughout the city. Black and Brown unity marches have been prevalent, as is part of Milwaukee's history of doing so. The indomitable spirit of these two major events in Chicano history run throughout the demonstrations of present-day activism and will continue to do so. The expectation is for us to no longer have to march, and our voices are heard enough for real change to take place, with the past as a reminder and example.
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