Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
The Kenosha Black Activist Gregory Bennett Jr. was a major protest leader following the shooting of Jacob Blake last summer. A 10-year Army veteran, Bennett is the founder of Peace in the Streets and a sought-after motivational speaker. I met Bennett in the Milwaukee Marshall High School parking lot where he was helping give out food packages to needy families from Milwaukee’s North Side. He is 41 and a father to three children. He has a strong, serious personality and exudes self-confidence.
Gregory, let’s start out with where you grew up.
I was raised in Kenosha and went to the schools there. Growing up in Kenosha, it was the same as it is today but a lot rougher in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The neighborhoods were more cut-throat. You screw up on the streets, you get taught a lesson. My mom, me, and my brother were homeless for a short time, but she got married when I was 11, and life got better. The world’s getting better, but Kenosha isn’t much better. After high school, I ended up in the military, the Army. Started out at Fort Polk, then was sent to Germany, then Kosovo, and three years in Iraq for two tours, and also Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Washington.
Kenosha’s an old industrial town, a smaller version of Milwaukee and with the same kind of racial problems.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, lots of people worked for Chrysler, General Motors or Case in Racine. Now it’s more warehouse work through Amazon and Uline Shipping, and the jobs pay less. My pop, he’s my stepfather, he worked at Chrysler and was in the National Guard. Mom worked at Jupiter Transportation and she did Microsoft work when computer software was first coming out.
Where did you go to high school?
I went to Bradford but graduated from Reuther Central High School. I got expelled from Bradford because I told the History teacher “I’m tired of learning your version of history, Teacher.” I got tired of hearing about George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Not Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglas, or Harriet Tubman. I had to do my own research on those activists. At Reuther, they let the students do our own teaching based on what we chose to study. I liked that experience. Reuther had a performing arts curriculum and a military academy.
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Moving forward, what did you do after you got out of high school?
I did 10 years in the Army, stationed all over the world. I was 30 when I got out. I stayed in Tacoma, Washington for four years. Me and my battle buddies from the war owned a record label and had a distribution deal. We traveled around the world doing music. In 2014, my mom ended up getting sick, and I came back to Kenosha. That’s when I started noticing that the streets hadn’t changed that much. I stepped up to help. Kenosha needed a community center. I started doing my Peace in the Streets barbecues, talent shows, and basketball. Mayor Bosman worked with me, and we opened up three community centers. I ran for Alderman a few times. Then some children got arrested for not picking up trash at Lincoln Park, wasn’t their trash, but the cop had ‘em on the ground. I consulted my lawyer. We went down to the station and got the kids released. Too many cops instill fear instead of helping. I figured I had the responsibility to lead from the front.
Philosophy of Activism
When did you start your movement, Peace In The Streets?
I started Peace in the Streets unofficially in 2014, but in 2018 when I got the money, I did the official paperwork as a 501 C4 corporation. I’d do street barbecues, maybe 500 people at a time. We were teaching baseball. We had software experts teaching kids computer code and creating Apps. Chess competitions, ping pong competitions. Doing things for the kids.
On the broader subject, the cancer of racism, prejudice and hatred. I’ve been writing about the Milwaukee inner city. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the hardcore neighborhoods, talking to residents and on the ground leaders. I feel the mainstream media have not told the stories of everyday people who live in these neighborhoods. I ask what the residents want, the ones who put up with crime, drug dealing, reckless driving, shootings. They want to be rid of the criminal element. They want peace and safety.
In Kenosha, people were pretending everything was OK. But the ignorance of racism was always there. Black businesses aren’t allowed to thrive. Banks put them on probation for two years and don’t give them a chance. Result? Restaurants, clubs, candy shops closing. Trump gave ignorance a voice. Not long ago, when we did the protest walk from Kenosha to Milwaukee, somebody spit at us. Black people are tired of having to deal with this kind of ignorance. thought we were past this. Yet, we Americans are still divided. Why do we have to march to be included in the budget, in the boardroom, in the planning phases? We are tired of just talking. Aldermen have been here too long saying the same things. To unite, it is gonna take equity and equality. Kenosha doesn’t have that.
I am very troubled by this hatred between Americans, between the races, the tribes, the economic classes. The Black inner city culture is considerably different than the rural culture 40 minutes west of Milwaukee. But can’t we just understand and accept our different ways? Is that possible?
I do think it’s possible. Think about it. Take any street in West Allis, then take North Richards Street in Milwaukee. The residents want the same thing. They want to be understood, they want equality, and they want peace. They want to live their lives and have a piece of the pie. We’re in the number one state for incarcerating Black males. Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine have the majority of African Americans. By the time they are 18, a lot of Black kids are on probation. In the Army I was a Combat Engineer, a sapper, it’s like Special Forces. My specialty was disarming IED’s, raiding houses, interrogating people. That kind of danger is addicting, the adrenalin rush. But we also built schools. The people appreciated us. When I got back to Kenosha, I started working with the DWD on Chase Street in Milwaukee, then worked for the Department of Corrections as a probation and parole agent. But even with my credentials they had to let me go for budget reasons. Same with teachers who have credentials. In some cases, our children are teaching our children. It’s not inclusion or equality. Me and you want peace and can have a dialog, but when will our politicians institute actionable items?
The Problem of Crime
Inner city Black residents are trying to live a life in 53206 and obey the laws, but they are concerned about several major problems. One, the amount of crimes in their neighborhoods, and two the lack of fathers, lack of strong Black male role models. Then there are the Black on Black crimes, domestic violence, shootings and murders. And recidivism, Black criminals let out of prison to repeat their crimes.
Let’s change the narrative. If we put a released prisoner on parole or probation after serving his crime, what success rate does he have? How can he get a job? It then becomes a jungle, a dog eat dog world. When he gets out of prison, the resources need to be available.
But you have to think of the welfare of the majority of the residents who live in neighborhoods like 53206 where crime is common. They don’t want drug dealers, car thieves, gang violence.
Criminals are not in the majority. I worked as a parole officer. I can tell that mental health was a huge issue. All my clients were mental health patients, and they were in prison instead of in treatment. We need mental health facilities.
A lot of young Black men and boys look up to the gang leaders and drug dealers because they don’t have strong male role models.
Who’s glorified on TV? The media glorifies the gangsters, we got all these gangster movies and TV shows, and news is filled with crime. Without fathers, mothers may be on assistance, and then the kids do anything to help mom out. Next thing you know, a gang leader puts a bag in their hands and they are making more money than their moms. African Americans are working at poor jobs, warehouse jobs.
What would you have them do?
What happened to unions? What happened to carpenters, plumbers, electricians? Apprenticeship programs in the DWD are great, but some employers won’t accept a man with a prison record.
Two Black leaders I’ve gotten to know, Vaun Mayes and Frank Nitty. They want to see money spent to train Black men in the trades.
That is exactly what is needed. Along with that, landlords and slumlords should be held accountable, and also the tenants who also have to take care of the places. Cops need to protect and serve, not just arrest people. As a cop, you should be walking the streets, shaking hands, getting to know the residents, helping, not punishing. It’s called protect and serve.
The Use of Public Money
Here is an idea I’ve heard from on the ground leaders. The city of Milwaukee has all kinds of abandoned buildings and houses. Why can’t they be given to residents, educational entities, and business people who will fix them up, make improvements, actually use these buildings?
I tried that with the old Bain Elementary School in Kenosha. City told me no, and then they tore it down and made a new fire department when the police department was still in the county building. They tell me I need the money to purchase it. I go to a bank and find the overhead is too high for me to make it work. Just give me a 2-year contract of rent to own and let’s see what I can do with it. If I can get a small shopping center, I can make businesses work for our community. Think about this. We put $2 million in a trolley streetcar that makes older Blacks think about the time they had to ride on the back of the bus.
You should hear the Black city council members scramble when I ask them how they could have voted for the trolley when the streets of the inner city are cracked and pot-holed and the alleys are filled with garbage and many buildings are abandoned.
Nobody rides that trolley. It’s just running. They made jobs for a driver to run it, a few mechanics to maintenance. Couldn’t we use that money for something better?
Changing gears, you said you are a motivational speaker, that you speak at the Sturtivant Institution, Racine Correctional Institution, KCDC, the Milwaukee pipeline program. You told me you will be a graduation speaker at a Racine high school in January. What is the message of your speeches?
My biggest message is stay motivated. First, you gotta break down and then build back up. I get the participants to break down their doubts and fears, and then I tell them to get rid of them. They have to realize that they are worthy. I get them to do that. Then, I get them to over-stand until they understand. The goal is to get you to realize you have capabilities and you are just as worthy as anybody else. Why don’t you feel like voting matters or getting a regular job matters? Why don’t you realize that homes, families, fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, wives matter? No, currently being a playboy is in, and being a hot girl is in. Now we got women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, then we got blue lives matter, but we need to realize that African American men’s lives matter too. My message? If we create peace and we create true unity, and if we finish with what JFK, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, if we finish their work, then imagine the legacies we can leave for our children.
Prejudice and Systemic Racism
Here is something I’ve done, though sporadically. When I talk to some Black inner city residents and we have a connection, I will admit that I am prejudiced, that I’m an older white man who grew up in an all-white small town and that I do have prejudice against some Black people, mainly younger Black men who make me afraid. I tend to assume they are gangbangers. This opens a dialog where the residents tell me they have prejudice against some white behavior. OK, let’s start the understanding from there. This doesn’t mean we can’t get along and respect each other’s cultures.
Prejudice and systemic racism are two different things. You can be prejudiced toward fat people or people who are too loud. I need to honor your honesty. That’s cool, you feel me? But the systemic portion means you whites control the bank, the jobs, the money, the housing. We are trying to break down social injustice. In an AA meeting, you admit that you are an alcoholic. So then admit you are part of systemic racism and then help fix it.
Systemic racism is also where some whites have white guilt but they rope themselves off into closed neighborhoods, profess they support BLM but don’t get involved with Black people on the ground.
Because they know it will mess with their livelihoods. Any time somebody like you or me stands up for justice and civil rights, we are at risk of being a martyr and being hurt or killed. I’ve even had death threats.
