Photo by Tom Jenz
Dr. Sequanna Taylor
Dr. Sequanna Taylor
Dr. Sequanna Taylor is vice chairman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors and a recent member of the Milwaukee School Board. For many years, she worked in the public school system as parent coordinator for special ed students.
She heads so many worthwhile organizations, it’s a wonder she can handle the responsibilities.
I met her at the Trendsetters offices on 66th and Mill Road where she was supervising her young volunteers to prepare disaster relief staples for tornado victims in Arkansas and Mississippi. “We’ve been doing this for years,” she told me, “delivering food and necessities to victims of natural disasters. Individuals and charitable organizations donate the goods, and we load them into a big truck. Tomorrow, we drive south to hardest-hit areas where we donate the goods to the disaster victims in disadvantaged communities.”
At 43 years old and vividly vibrant, Taylor radiates a confident engaging personality. A self-described fashion addict, she wore a gold Panama hat, her dark, orange-stringed braids trailing to her shoulders. She talks fast as if she cannot wait to bring forth her points, which bloom with her convictions.
Let’s start out with your origins, where you grew up, your parents, neighborhood, and the schools you attended.
I grew up in the inner city in our family home on 23rd & Wright. It’s still there today but deserted. There was me, five brothers and a sister. My Papa was not my biological parent, but he and my mom were together since I was two. I loved my neighborhood. Families looked out for one another. Kids could play in the street. Some are still my friends. Sometimes, we’d open the fire hydrant, and we’d run through the water. But my mama always made me be on the porch before dark. This was the 1980s.
You once wrote, ‘There was a well-dressed dignified woman in my neighborhood. She was my inspiration. She told me, “Baby, you can live in the ghetto, but you don’t have to let the ghetto live in you.”
Wonderful woman. She was well dressed and poised, very dignified. Her house was beautiful. She let me know things were possible, that my current space at that time did not have to be my end.
In high school, you met a charming older man, and you had a child and later married him. As time went by, he became obsessed with controlling you, and was even abusive. Can you share what you learned through that tense experience?
That experience helped me in so many ways. He wasn’t so much into physical abuse, but rather emotional and intellectual abuse. His dad had been abusive, and now he was abusive. Learned behavior. From all the hell I went through with him, I gained a lot of strength. It took me six years to break from him. We had two children, and I wanted to keep the family together, but I didn’t want my kids to view me negatively. He was molding me into what he wanted me to be, not letting me be who I really was.
What did you do after you left your husband?
I became my own person. I started living for me and my children.
You have worked hard to gain an impressive formal education. What degrees do you hold?
After I had my four children, I was working full time at MPS in the Boys & Girls Club but also going to college nights. I was putting in 80 hours a week except for Sundays when I went to church and did the cooking for my family. I followed this busy routine for six years. I have an associate degree from Concordia and a bachelors degree from Cardinal Stritch in criminal justice and human resources. I also went to school for two years to become an ordained Missionary for the Church of God & Christ, one of the biggest Black churches in the world. My doctorate is in business administration. I also have certifications in mental health, early childhood, and CPR.
And, to add to your work load, you are also a leader of a few charitable organizations.
I have a nonprofit called Raising Our Village and an umbrella company, Taylor Legacies.
Since 2016, you’ve been the 5th District Milwaukee County Supervisor (previously District 2). I also believe you are the County vice chair, right? What is your job and who do you represent?
The 5th District covers a good share of the north side, fairly diverse, and even with some conservative constituents. The County Supervisors oversee the social services of government, mental health, human & health services, aging, parks, busses, the downtown county jail, the House of Corrections, the z\Zoo, museums, highways, and the sheriff’s department. We have a billion-dollar budget. Most of my constituents contact me about issues regarding the parks, the buses, disabled people and child support.
County Supervisors are elected. How often does the County Board meet?
Once a month, but we also have committee meetings. I chair Intergovernmental Affairs, and I am vice chair of the Finance Committee.
Why did you vacate your job as a Milwaukee Public School Board member? Your term ends April 30, 2023. I was surprised that you left.
I was a school board member for four years and worked at the Milwaukee Pubic Schools for 15 years. I’ve also done training for the National Education Association, the NEA. I’d been in education a long time, and I thought it was time to move on. You know, education is a place where people are always bumping heads—citizens, children, parents, administrators, politicians, and teachers with their union. Public education encompasses everyone regardless of race, class or religion. We have to allow anyone a public education. In Milwaukee, many of the Black residents experience trauma every day. If you often face fear and dysfunction, how can you concentrate in the classroom? What Black child or family would say they want to live in a neighborhood infested with crime? Do I want drugs in my neighborhood? Or my brother killed? Or my mother at work all day?
I recently did a story on the private Milwaukee Messmer High School where students are required to take courses in the trades - mechanics, carpentry, welding. It seems like the MPS school system offers very few of those practical courses. Why is that?
Milwaukee Tech does offer the trades, but most other MPS schools do not. I am a big advocate of teaching the trades in public schools because most inner city students are not going to a four-year college. MPS doesn’t seem to understand the importance of the trades. If you intern or apprentice in the trades, you will get a good paying job. If trades cannot be taught in the schools, then maybe an after-school or summer program.
Many of those jobs pay better than a teacher’s salary.
I tell students to get a skill in the trades even if you end up doing a professional or business job.
You certainly are an “influencer” in the Milwaukee Black community. You have some notoriety.
I didn’t even know people were following me. I guess I was too busy. My outside work went toward credits for my doctorate. Last year, I received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. At the Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, there were people from all over the world. I took my Lifetime Achievement Award plaque back to my old neighborhood on 23rd & Wright, and some of the neighbors took a video of me in front of the old family home.
You are also a promoter. What are some of the area events that you promote and are involved in?
One thing I promote is helping with Re-entry, individuals who have been recently incarcerated or their family members. I headed Dream Team with support from Vaun Mayes and Farina Brooks. For Rock the Block on 35th Street, we gather kids and families and provide them with services like haircuts, book bag giveaways, face painting, and prizes. In November, we feed them Thanksgiving dinner, and provide them with dinners at Christmas. And we feed the homeless. I also work with the Office of Violence Prevention. Coming from a history of domestic violence, I get involved in helping victims, children, and even perpetrators.
A lot of white people and white groups in the suburbs are supportive of Black Lives Matter, and some even plant BLM yard signs and wear the T shirts. But they are afraid to venture into the inner city or even talk to leaders like yourself. Why? Because they have the preconceived notion that the central city is crime ridden and dangerous? They won’t even drive through the Black neighborhoods.
There is also the reverse of this. Sometimes in national meetings, I find myself as the only person of color in the conference. I’m the elephant in the room. For those white folks afraid to visit our Black community, I think it’s about perception. I say forget what you’ve seen on the TV news or read in the newspapers. Come into our neighborhoods, attend our events, help us with our charities, visit our churches, eat our food, and share our music. Let’s talk about racism and prejudice, let’s get offended, but let’s get over it. In other words, we might argue, might agree to disagree. But if we don’t talk about our differences, we will never get over it. We have to stop judging each other for what our ancestors did. At the end of the day, we are all just human beings. We hurt. We feel. We love. We cry.
It is 2023 and three years beyond the George Floyd unrest and divisiveness. What do you see as the future for Milwaukee’s Black community?I see Milwaukee in all of its glory but also in all of its pain. We may go forward, but there still seems to be a hole down there that keeps us in a sunken place. You see the light, but sometimes it is so far out of reach, you can’t touch it. I am a Black woman 365 days a year. Within my lifetime, I will always be judged first by the color of my skin and second by my intelligence.
