Republicans opened a ‘Black Community Center’ in Milwaukee. It’s not going well.
MILWAUKEE — About a mile north of where Republicans will nominate Donald Trump for president, in a neighborhood where most residents are Black, a storefront with big windows and brightly colored signs stood as a curiosity to people waiting at a bus stop just outside along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
“WISGOP,” the sign says. “Republican Party of Wisconsin Community Center.”
“That’s strange, ain’t it?” said Isaac Dickey of Milwaukee, who was walking in the area. “That (stuff) makes no sense. This is a Black neighborhood.”
But despite the Republican National Convention taking place literally down the street, and Trump regularly boasting that African Americans are supporting him in greater and greater numbers, the Republican Community Center wasn’t open Sunday.
Or Monday.
“CLOSED, Please Call Again” read a sign hung from the front door.
In fact, several community residents interviewed by Raw Story this week couldn’t recall the last time they saw anything going on at the Wisconsin GOP Community Center.
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Asked what the GOP Community Center does, Sharon Bowens, sitting on the community center’s window sill, didn’t know.
“You know what, I was wondering about that myself,” she told Raw Story. “I didn’t think nothing of it in the beginning. It used to be a Subway here. It’s a good sitting spot, I’ll tell you that. I never seen nobody in there. Never.”
Vickie Hobbs echoed the sentiment, saying, “I’ve been at this bus stop a lot. I never seen nobody.”
Hobbs and a reporter looked through a window to see what’s inside. On a back wall, large drawings of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump are displayed on a wall.
She laughed contemptuously.
Segregated city
Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in the country, according to a Brown University survey. The GOP community center is located in the northeast corner of the city’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood, a Black “city within a city.”
Milwaukee voted almost 79 percent for Joe Biden over Trump in 2020, although Wisconsin overall is one of the most purple states in the nation — and will likely be critical to the fortunes of the eventual winner of the 2024 presidential election.
Clayton Patton, who drives a shuttle bus from a downtown bar to Milwaukee Brewers baseball games, described the neighborhood as he waited for the bus.
“It’s a Democratic area,” he said. “I’ve never seen any foot traffic going in that place, and this is a well-traveled corner. You would think with the convention in town, something would be happening. You don’t see picnics, raffles, community events. You don’t hear nothing. There are community newspapers. Nothing.”
Bowens scoffed at a poster in the window for Republican congressional candidate Tim Rogers, who spent three years in prison on drug charges and was trounced in previous runs for Congress.
“Never heard of him,” Bowens said.
On the Wisconsin Republican Party web page, the community center is referred to as the “Black Community Center.” Khenzer Senat, who’s listed as the “office contact,” apparently left the Wisconsin GOP more than a year ago to join the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
Raw Story’s emails and phone calls to the Milwaukee County headquarters of the Wisconsin GOP, listed as West Allis, Wis., were not returned.
It’s unclear what the Republican Party’s current strategy is regarding this and other community centers they opened early this decade in majority-minority neighborhoods where conservatives believed they could make political inroads.
In March, several media outlets reported that the Republican Party would be shutting these centers down, but other, more recent reports, including from Reuters, indicated they’d largely stay open — but that no new ones would be launched.
"We have seven community centers. They will remain open," Republican National Committee spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said at the time. She added that "minority community outreach is more than brick and mortar."
The first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday featured Black speakers including Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and gubernatorial candidate and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
‘Not doing a good job’
Through a window, you can see a few tables apparently from the old Subway sandwich shop.
A poster with a timeline said, “The Republican Party---Fighting Racism since 1854.”
Another poster, showing the U.S. Capitol, said, “All of us are better than 1. Republicans working to unite all Americans.”
“EVERY FAMILY DESERVES FINANCIAL FREEDOM” reads a poster featuring a smiling man, woman and child.
A table had stacks of campaign fliers from the U.S. Senate campaign of Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde, who’s running against Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin.
Advertising for a protest march during the Republican National Convention in front of the Wisconsin Republican Party Community Center in Milwaukee. Mark Alesia/Raw Story
But just outside, a sign taped to an electrical box advertised a protest march Monday, a stark counterpoint to the pro-Republican signs in the community center window.
“Stop racist Republicans,” it said. “Red Arrow Park, Rally & March.”
Before Hobbs had to board her bus, she turned around a question asked by a reporter for the reporter to answer: What is the GOP trying to accomplish?
It was suggested that they think they can make inroads in a community not typically supportive of Republicans.
“Well,” she said. “they’re not doing a good job.”
One door down from the GOP community center, a sign informs passers-by that it is Black-owned building and asks people not to litter or tag it with graffiti.
The sign had hashtags that surely won’t be on signs at the Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention is taking place nearby:
#JUSTICEFORGEORGE
#BLACKLIVESMATTER
#BLACKWOMENMATTER