|
The ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation is proud to Honor Milwaukee's Community
Brainstorming Conference with the ACLU's Special Recognition Award
for 20 Years of being the Premier Free Speech Forum in Milwaukee's
Central City at it's Annual
Bill of Rights Celebration Dinner 2006 on March 18, 2006
THE COMMUNITY BRAINSTORMING CONFERENCE
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
A Brief History
On the second Saturday of February 1986, fourteen individuals gathered
at 9:00 a.m. in the conference center at Saint Matthews CME Church
at 2944 North Locust Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These persons did
not all know one another. They had been invited by Mr. Samuel Johnson
and Mr. Reuben Harpole to attend a meeting for the purpose of "brainstorming" about
an array of problems, issues, and concerns regarding the African-American
community in the Milwaukee metropolitan area.
Following the ordinary courtesies of introductions, the group decided
that Mr. O.J. Johnson would chair the meeting. (Johnson would
later be named the chair of the Executive Committee of the Community
Brainstorming Conference--hereinafter CBC--and was succeeded by Judge
Stanley Miller, Dr. Marvin Hannah, Mr. Loren Willis, Judge Louis Butler,
Attorney Mildred Harpole,
and Judge Russell Stamper, Sr., the current chair.)
After a discussion
that lasted over two hours, it was decided that monthly meetings would
be held. It also was decided that provisional officers should
be selected, and that a committee would be created to formulate a
name for the group and draft a statement of purpose and a set of rules. O.J.
Johnson was named the group's chair, and Anthony Fikes its treasurer.
No other officers were named at this time. Winston Van Horne,
Monroe Swan, and Stanley Miller were chosen for the "Committee
on Naming, Purpose, and Rules." Finally,
it was decided that the group should meet the fourth Saturday of each month,
and the participation of the broader community would be sought.
Thus was the Community Brainstorming Conference (CBC), and its now well-known
and highly regarded "Fourth Saturday Breakfast Forum," conceived and operationalized. CBC now takes great pride in its openness,
the integrity of its programming, its awards (“The James Howard Baker Award” and the “Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things Award”) and the empirical fact that through February 2006 it has held
240 consecutive breakfast forums, with over 40,000 participants. Through
these participants, CBC has been able to realize one of its fundamental, animating
purposes, namely, a continuous drawing together of the visible and voiced and
the invisible and voiceless in the community, for the sake of advancing the interests
and good of African-Americans in particular, and of the city at large.
Current Officers
The Honorable Judge Russell Stamper, Sr., Chair
The Honorable Judge Dr. Vel Phillips, Vice Chair
Mr. Frank Cumberbatch, Secretary
Mr. Elmer Anderson, Treasurer
|
