Literary Collections

The history of Chinese Milwaukee begins in April 1874, with the opening by Wing Wau of a Chinese laundry at 86 Mason Street. Other Chinese soon followed, and by 1888, there were at least 30 Chinese laundries operating in the city. Charlie Toy moved to Milwaukee in 1904 and within two decades had built both one of the largest Chinese trading businesses in the United States and a six-story Chinese-style building in downtown Milwaukee described as the largest and most luxurious Chinese restaurant building in the world. An example of the community's influence as a whole is the period 1937 to 1940, when the community of less than 300 residents contributed more money to the Chinese war effort against Japan than any other Chinese community in the United States except San Francisco.

Part of Belt's City Anthology Series. [A] mosaic of a book.--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Anthology is a book about hope and hurt in one of America's toughest zip codes. In the essays, narratives, poems, and art included here, you won't find Summerfest or Laverne and Shirley, but you will find honest first-hand stories about Riverwest, Sherman Park, Hmong New Year's shows, 7 Mile Fair, and the Rolling Mill commemoration. Edited by Justin Kern, and with more than 50 contributors including Dasha Kelly, Pardeep Kaleka, and Michael Perry, this collection includes stories about:

- Redlining in the city

- Painting a community mural in Sherman Park

- Reflections after the Oak Creek Sikh Temple Shooting

- The city's upstart microbrewing industry

- The rise of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

It's an anthology about a place on the lake that can make you say yes and wonder why in the same thought. A place that's both a big town and small city, run down and redeveloped, tararrel and terror.

A collection that shows the Cream City is much weirder and more wonderful than you may think it is.

With the migration of African American sharecroppers to northern cities in the first half of the 20th century, the African American population of Milwaukee grew from fewer than 1,000 in 1900 to nearly 22,000 by 1950. Most settled around a 12-block area along Walnut Street that came to be known as Milwaukee's Bronzeville, a thriving residential, business, and entertainment community. Barbershops, restaurants, drugstores, and funeral homes were started with a little money saved from overtime pay at factory jobs or extra domestic work taken on by the women. Exotic nightclubs, taverns, and restaurants attracted a racially mixed clientele, and daytime social clubs sponsored "matinees" that were dress-up events featuring local bands catering to neighborhood residents. Bronzeville is remembered by African American elders as a good place to grow up--times were hard, but the community was tight.

In the early 1960s, as members of Milwaukee's growing African American population looked beyond their segregated community for better jobs and housing, they faced bitter opposition from the real estate industry and union leadership. In an era marked by the friction of racial tension, the south side of Milwaukee earned a reputation as a flashpoint for prejudice, but it also served as a staging ground for cooperative activism between members of Father Groppi's parish, representatives from the NAACP Youth Council, students at Alverno College and a group of Latino families. Paul Geenen chronicles the challenges faced by this coalition in the fight for open housing and better working conditions for Milwaukee's minority community.

This visual history captures the story of Milwaukee's Irish community in photographs, covering everything from the early wave of immigration to today's annual Irish Fest.

Milwaukee's Irish can claim a long and distinguished heritage throughout the city's history. The fact that Irish immigrants could speak English gave them an advantage and enabled them to become community leaders and gain economic independence. Irishman Thomas Gilbert was village president in 1844, two years before Milwaukee became incorporated. In 1839, Fr. Patrick Kelly built Milwaukee's first Catholic Church, St. Peter's.