Walter Jack Lanier: Bringing Harmony to the Milwaukee Black Community

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Photo by Tom Jenz

Walter Lanier

Walter Lanier

Last February, Walter Lanier, senior pastor of the Progressive Baptist Church, became the president and CEO of the African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee (AALAM). 

At 54, Lanier is a veteran of public service, and has numerous connections to diverse leaders across many sectors in the region. AALAM’s goal is to move the wellness metrics and change the narrative of Milwaukee's Black community. When compared to other segregated urban areas across the country, these metrics show the city’s Black folks experience disparities in housing, wealth, employment and health when compared to whites.

On his church website, he describes himself as husband, father, lawyer, pastor, teacher, encourager and empowerer. Those are big responsibilities, and he is a big man with a big mind.

Which I discovered when I met Lanier at his AALAM office in the 3rd Street Market complex, the old Boston Store building. He is a busy guy, flanked by a briefcase, laptop computer and two cell phones. But he turned off his devices and focused on our conversation.

Tell me about your background, where you grew up, your family, neighborhoods and schools you attended.

I was born in Buffalo, New York in 1967. My dad, Bob Lanier, played basketball for St. Bonaventure College, and he was a star. Our family moved to Detroit when my dad got drafted by the NBA Detroit Pistons. In my eighth grade, Dad was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, and we moved to Mequon. I wasn’t happy about moving because I had to leave my friends and girlfriend. 

Kind of a culture shock for me because Detroit was culturally a Black city and it had diverse suburbs, but Mequon, Wisconsin was almost completely white with very few Black families. I went to Homestead High School. Good school, and I was a bright guy, but over time, I became apathetic, got bad grades, and barely earned my way out of high school. The culture change was tougher than I realized. I was kind of depressed and did not apply myself.

When you got out of high school, did you have a career path in mind?

I was accepted at UWM to play basketball. I shouldn’t have gone to college. I ended up partying, not going to classes, hanging out on the East Side. After the first semester, I dropped out. That was December of 1984. Then, my life went from bad to worse. For the next three years, I was wandering, working odd jobs, hanging with friends, partying, staying out all night. I was kind of a transient.

Through those aimless times, were you living at home?

No, no. When I did not get a regular job, my dad put me out of the house. He told me, “I won’t put up with your behavior, not a standard I have in my household.” Best lesson I ever had. My dad meant what he said. I always appreciated him for that. 

So what pulled you out of your transient life?

In early 1988, I ran into an old friend from high school, Craig Bennett. We became roommates on the East Side. Craig was in college, and he also had a job at a bank. He was responsible, and his attitude rubbed off on me. I started coming back to being myself. I went back to UWM, hit my groove, got very good grades, and graduated with a degree in finance. I finally had goals and a vision.

What were your goals?

I started focusing on the law—on going to law school. I got accepted at the University of Michigan Law School. It was 1992, and I was 26, and I had gotten married. My wife and I went off to law school in Ann Arbor. 

After you graduated from law school, what was your career path?

Before I finished law school, we had two children. My second child, my son, was not alive when he was born, had lost a lot of blood in the birthing process, but he did survive, and he’s doing great now. It was April 7, 1994. Up until then, I was not a religious person, but on that day, I discovered my Christian faith. After law school, we came back to Milwaukee, and I worked for John Reynolds, a federal judge, who had once been the governor of Wisconsin. Then, I got a job at the Michael Best & Friedrich corporate law firm. I practiced law there for three years until 1999. That same year, I was feeling the call to ministry, and I got involved with MICAH (Milwaukee Inner-city Congregation Allies for Hope.) Eventually, I ended up with a Master of Divinity degree and became a licensed Baptist minister. In 1999, I also formed my own law practice, Lanier Law Offices.

In 2008, you were hired by the Milwaukee Area Technical College. What was your job?

For the first three years, I was in their legal department as assistant general counsel. In May 2011, I completed my Master of Divinity degree. In June 2011, I left the MATC legal department and went to the Student Services department. In September 2011, I became the Pastor of the Progressive Baptist Church on 84th and Keefe. Lots of changes for me in 2011.

While you were at MATC, you founded the MATC's Men of Color Initiative in 2015. What is that all about?

I was director of student services, and I was always looking at programming for Black men who were students at MATC. The Men of Color Initiative was designed to help reduce equity gaps centered on course completion, retention, and career. We also focused on mental health issues.  

Not long ago, you became the president and CEO of the African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee (AALAM). You stated your goal is to utilize the data gathered over the years along with your network of community connections to start changing the metrics of Milwaukee's Black residents. What do you mean by the metrics?

In 2020, AALLAM commissioned a study by Dr. Marc Levine of the UWM Center for Economic Development. It is an index of African American wellbeing on 33 data points. Of the 50 different cities studied, Milwaukee ended up ranking at the bottom on many of the data points. At AALAM, we intend to help lead on changing those metrics.

Do you have specific programs designed to bring Milwaukee’s ranking higher?

First, there is the African American Leadership Program (AALP). Each year, for the last 13 years, we enroll a cohort of 17 to 20 Black men and women leaders who go through a nine-month program about leadership and self-development, coaching and feedback. So far, we have graduated over 200 alumni, many who have gone on to success in the business, government and nonprofit worlds.

In forming AALAM, we and our allies sought to bring our Black leadership to bear on the challenges of our city. In 2017 across a three-day period, a group of over 80 African American leaders and white allies, convened. We studied the metrics, narratives, history and reports. We did some intense brainstorming. At the end, we posed the question: “What can we do?” The conclusion was to build an organization, which became the African American Leadership Alliance of Milwaukee in 2019. I became the CEO in early 2022.  

When compared to other metropolitan cities across the country, Black Milwaukee residents suffer racial disparities in housing, wealth, employment and health. You once said, and I quote, “We haven’t moved the metrics on the quality of life of Black citizens in Milwaukee for a while.” What do you mean by that?

When I came back to Milwaukee after Michigan Law School, I was always looking for an organization where I could use my skills to make an impact for my city and the African American community. A small hole in a big boat will lead to trouble, the hole being segregated impoverished Blacks in Milwaukee. Solving this problem is an “us” issue, whites and Blacks and browns. You have to look at the whole terrain.

Not long ago, I interviewed Mayor Johnson. We got to talking, and he told me there are inner city Black kids who have never seen Lake Michigan or been Downtown. I think the city, all the city, should belong to all the residents. 

Too many of us Black Milwaukeeans don’t feel like “that’s my Downtown,” or “that’s my Lake Michigan.” This is the result of hyper segregation which leads to predictable problems for the entire ecosystem. 

In my work, I’ve run into this concept of silos, meaning too many nonprofits and government agencies trying to help inner city residents, but yet staying isolated, not interacting with each other. For instance, too often the volunteer street leaders are not consulted by the bureaucratic leaders and politicians. Do you agree?

I do. Look at it this way. This is a predictable outcome of a segregated space. If a city is segregated, it is already siloed, and then it gets embedded into the culture. Silos almost become a habit, which results in a lack of communication and engagement. For instance, in war, if you are a general and you don’t get intel from the ground, you won’t be effective in the battlefield. Too often, efforts, programs, ideas and proposed solutions are advanced without sufficiently consulting with the community and neighborhood leaders.

When you give your sermons or have meetings, do you ever get into the topic of racism, how to overcome racism?

I am of the school of thought that sermons should be prepared with a bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Current events should be addressed in sermons—so yes, race, racism, voting rights, January 6, all make their way into my sermons. We have to discuss these issues if Milwaukee is going to thrive. There is the concept of “Midwestern nice” where it’s uncomfortable to have the hard conversations about our racial differences. You can’t have a team, a system, a factory, a city hall, a bureaucracy, even a newspaper that aspires toward excellence without dealing with the tough problems. We need to be brutally honest about the current reality of the social differences because that is where change comes from.

Lanier currently serves on a variety of community boards including the Milwaukee Community Justice Council, Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope, and Housing Ministries of the American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin. Finally, he is the Chairman of the Board for Milwaukee Health Services, Inc. a federally qualified health center serving patients in Milwaukee’s inner city. In 2012, Lanier founded MIRACLE, Mental Illness—Raising Awareness with Church and Community Leaders Everywhere. MIRACLE works with faith-based and community leaders, mental health organizations, and advocates to raise awareness and decrease stigma around mental illness.