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28 Days of Black History

February is Black History Month, and in many ways, that history is still being written today. Again this year, in an effort to honor those notable individuals who have played a role in Black History that has touched Milwaukee, the Common Council has launched an informational campaign to spotlight several key Milwaukee Black History makers who will be profiled on the City of Milwaukee website’s main page and on the City Channel. The prominent online and broadcast spots will give students and Milwaukeeans across the city a chance to learn about – and to honor – some of the city’s notable and unsung heroes

Past honorees can be viewed here.
 

Influential Figures


Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Ruth Revels

Ruth Revels

Ms. Revels was a pioneer among Milwaukee city employees, being the first Black person to work in the mayor’s office when she started there as an office assistant in 1949. She later recalled that Mayor Frank Zeidler made a point to schedule her at the reception desk when southern politicians visited him. Some of them were shocked to see a Black person working there. In 1955 she joined the clerical staff at the Milwaukee Public Library, where she provided invaluable assistance in organizing the Local History and Great Lakes Marine History collections, both now housed in the Humanities Department at Central Library. After her retirement in 1979 she moved to Madison, where she lived until her death in 2010.



Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Connie Balthrop

Connie Balthrop

In 1991, Ms. Balthrop had already had been in the radio business for nearly 20 years when she started UNC Media, a company she formed with the help of UNC Ventures Inc., a Boston-based venture capital firm focused on minority-owned businesses. UNC Media took ownership of a few radio stations the same year, with Ms Balthrop as president and general manager at Milwaukee’s WKKV-FM 100.7. The station adopted a format of hip hop and R&B music and became known simply as “V100.” She was the second Black woman to head a radio station in Milwaukee, the first being Sandra Robinson at WNOV-AM 860. That summer, as the Jeffrey Dahmer case and other homicides were shocking the city, Ms. Balthrop and her employees brainstormed ways the station might be able to help the community. The result was the V100 Jam for Peace music festival. Held annually from 1991 to 2008, the charity event raised thousands of dollars for local agencies that aid victims of violence.


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Rev. Joel J. Kinlow

Rev. Joel J. Kinlow

Rev. Kinlow owned real estate holdings and several successful businesses in the city, but his legacy projects were in Milwaukee media. Over nine years he worked to build his own television station, successfully launching WJJA TV-49 in 1990. With a dream of bringing 24-hour gospel music to Milwaukee, he purchased radio stations WGLB-AM 1560 and WGLB-FM 100.01 in 1995. He changed the format to all gospel music for WGLB in August 1996, and also successfully established other media ventures in the southern United States. After his passing in 2016, his children carried on his work, still owning and running WGLB today.


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Willie Davis

Willie Davis

Sports fans know that Mr. Davis was a star player for the Vince Lombardi-era Green Bay Packers, but it was his post-football career as a businessman that has had a lasting effect on Milwaukee’s radio market. Davis co-owned the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, a group of four radio stations in the city that was dedicated to keeping some of the airwaves locally owned and in service to the community. Prior to becoming an area media mogul, he broke ground by being selected to sit on the board of directors for several major companies, and dealt with the awkwardness of being the only non-white person in the boardroom. Along with the accolades he received for football, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008.  Mr. Davis passed away in 2020 at the age of 85.


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Dr. Howard Fuller

Dr. Howard Fuller

Known for his work in education, Dr. Fuller has held many titles in his professional life. After working in leadership positions at Marquette University, the Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services, he served as superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools from 1991 to 1995. As superintendent he advocated for educational reforms, including the then-new ideas of school choice vouchers and charter schools. After leading MPS he returned to Marquette, where he founded the Institute for the Transformation of Learning, an agency that works to empower parents and teachers. In 2008 he co-founded Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, a high school chartered by the City of Milwaukee. In 2019 the MCA was renamed in his honor, becoming the Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy (HFCA).


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Aretha Johnson

Aretha Johnson

An accomplished gospel musician for decades, Ms. Johnson began her love of the piano at age 5, watching her jazz musician uncle rehearse and taking lessons from her grandmother, who raised her. Throughout her music career she has worked with several noted gospel artists, such as the Argo Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Maceo Woods, and the legendary Aretha Franklin. Ms. Johnson moved to Milwaukee from Chicago in 1957 and would continue to share her gifts with her new city, playing for several churches and funeral homes while she worked her secular job and raised her three children. In 2011, Ms. Johnson was awarded the Jessie Fowlkes Johnson Gospel Hall of Fame award, recognizing her contribution to the world of gospel music.  She says, “It makes me know that God is so good, for we can put a song in someone’s heart”.


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Wayne Embry

Wayne Embry

Having played several seasons in the NBA—including winning a championship with the Boston Celtics in 1968—Embry came to Milwaukee in an expansion draft to play for the newly formed Milwaukee Bucks. He retired from playing after the Bucks’ first season, but soon returned to the organization as an assistant general manager, where he helped the Bucks trade for his friend and former teammate Oscar Robertson. The Bucks won their first championship the following season. One year later, Embry was named General Manager of the Bucks, becoming the first Black person to hold that title not just in the NBA, but all professional sports.


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Kyle Haden

Kyle Haden

Mr. Hayden has been a dedicated member of the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) community, where he works as an academic advisor. Striving to enhance the academic experience for students there, he has served as an advisor for the Black Student Union, a Project Manager for the Men of Color Initiative, and an assistant coach to the women’s basketball team. He has also served fellow MATC employees as chair of the college’s Black Excellence Leadership Alliance.


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Rick Polk

Rick Polk

Mr. Polk is the founder and owner of OWN IT Mentoring Group, LLC which began out of his sincere desire to encourage, equip and empower urban teenagers to take responsibility for their own lives and their own actions. OWN IT provides students in southeastern Wisconsin school districts with one-on-one and group mentoring sessions where young people focus on communication, controlling emotions, and accountability as they build skills for life. The OWN IT Mentoring Group was featured in the HBO Max documentary “Growing Up Milwaukee.” Prior to committing fulltime to OWN IT, Mr. Polk was a 20-year employee of Milwaukee Public Schools and served in many different capacities, both academic and athletic. He lives by the motto, “Good, better, best, I shall not rest until my good is better and my better is best!”


 

Image of 2025 BHM Honoree George Gary

George Gary

Mr. Gary, the former president and CEO of Columbia Savings & Loan, retired in 2022 after 48 years with the venerable financial institution founded by Ardie and Wilbur Halyard in 1924. He was hired by Mrs. Halyard herself in 1974, and was promoted to the top job in 1991. During his tenure, Columbia was instrumental in the development of the Halyard Park neighborhood, granting loans to build houses there and proving to other banks that the area was a good investment. Besides providing financing to Black homeowners, businesses, and churches, his career highlights included programs to help individuals and families increase their savings and become smart investors.



Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Anthony Rainey

Anthony Rainey

Until his recent retirement, Mr. Rainey was an active member of the United Auto Workers (UAW), starting at Master Lock in 1988. He rose through the ranks and eventually became a regional servicing representative, assisting local chapters in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. Along the way he mentored countless fellow workers through the UAW, state workforce development boards, and apprenticeship advisory councils.



Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Sheila Cochran

Sheila Cochran

In 2017, Ms. Cochran retired as the chief operating officer of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, the largest central labor body in Wisconsin. She was the first Black female elected to this position. She first joined the United Auto Workers Local 438 in 1979 and has been active in labor causes throughout her career and beyond. She has devoted her time and energy to many organizations focused on employment and housing, and in 2007 she received the “Dr. Benjamin Hooks Keeper of the Flame Award,” from the National NAACP.



Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Greg Wesley

Greg Wesley

An accomplished attorney, Mr. Wesley is the current president and CEO of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the largest community philanthropic organization in Wisconsin. Taking the helm in 2024, he pledged to continue the foundation’s charitable work in early childhood education, equitable economic opportunity, public health and the arts.



Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Rhonda Stingley

Rhonda Stingley

In 1993 Ms. Stingley was the first to be crowned the winner of the Miss Juneteenth scholarship pageant, part of the festivities at Milwaukee’s annual Juneteenth Day festival. At the time a student at John Marshall High School, she and the other contestants had to maintain good grades, submit an essay on "What Does Juneteenth Mean To Me,” and demonstrate poise and talent. The pageant continues to this day and has expanded to include other young people making a positive difference in the community. There is a Mister Juneteenth pageant for teenage boys, and categories for younger students--Little Miss Juneteenth and Mister Juneteenth, Jr.



Image of 2025 BHM Honoree Kimberly Adams

Kimberly Adams

Ms. Adams is a local pastry artist and owner of Signature Sweets bakery, but she is also nationally known as a frequent contestant on Food Network’s baking competition shows, including "Cupcake Wars," "Holiday Wars," "Halloween Wars" (twice), and serving as a judge on “Buddy & Duff.” In 2022 she won “The Big Bake: Holiday” and more recently traveled to England to compete in “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking,” which aired in late 2024. Though her self-taught skills brought her success, her drive to know more led her back to school to pursue a degree at MATC’s culinary arts program, and then share her knowledge there and in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

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