This is one of few diverse neighbourhoods and then you step outside of this community,
and you could basically predict someone’s race
by their zip code.
Milwaukee is one of the most segregated cities in America.
We have the North side for the Black, we got the Asians right in between
and you got the South side or the, uh, Latinos ...
You got people in the surrounding suburbs and it's like, you're not even welcome out there.
Not a lot of us live out there.
And when you do travel out there, you're targeted.
They don't want us to put the spotlight on it.
But Milwaukee is in the spotlight.
I came back home to talk with Black voters and get a sense of the energy amid
the Democratic National Convention and found ... very little.
The coronavirus forced the party to tell an estimated 50,000 visitors to stay home,
leaving only a handful of local speakers to live-stream from inside the security zone.
Welcome back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
a great city on native land, on a great lake,
it's the place where I was born and raised.
There were more police and protestors than patrons.
You can see a group of bikers that come to protest
and they come to what's left of the DNC
which is not very much.
Many voters I spoke with said outside of the convention center, and in the community.
Democrats are missing in action.
The DNC still is not here.
A perfect opportunity to come and talk to the people on the ground.
And all these people out here that are potential voters, not one person from
the DNC is over here.
With people mobilized onto the streets to have their voices heard,
I spent the week asking residents what Joe Biden and the Democratic Party
can do to truly earn their vote.
How you doing? I just thought your house was gorgeous.
I used to live on this block years ago.
So I saw this house and it doesn’t even look familiar.
It used to be white. Beautiful.
Oh, wow. And here’s my old house.
Demonstrations have accelerated after the shooting of Jacob Blake in nearby
Kenosha,
and Milwaukee has had its own history of police killings.
Charley Frazier says that’s because Black Milwaukeeans are fed up
with the two-party
political system that sees both sides ignore their issues.
It's picking the lesser of two evil and what's really happening is they don't want ...
Of course you're not going to vote for Trump.
However, you have this candidate that you also don't really want to vote for.
So then they're telling us to vote for other people.
Tonight, members of the People’s Revolution are uniting for their 81st night of protest,
this time in the suburb of Wauwatosa.
Its police department is under pressure to fire an officer who shot and killed three people
in five years.
So far, he’s only been suspended pending an investigation.
Chanting: Black Lives Matter!
Protests like this one continue to spread across the country and activists
are calling on Democrats to be more progressive on criminal justice reform in the party’s platform.
Historian Reggie Jackson says the city’s legacy of unrest dates back to the 60s
when activists protested housing discrimination by marching across the 16th street bridge,
separating Milwaukee's Black northside, from it's white southside.
People referred to this bridge.
You know, they said, this is the longest bridge in the world because
it separates Africa from Poland, right?
That was kind of the joke back then.
To Reggie, the Democratic convention going mostly virtual
is representative of the party consistently abandoning
the Black communities that get them elected.
Listen, what we’re asking for today is no different than what we’ve been asking
for 4 years ago,
10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 50.
We're just asking for the same opportunities that white people in Milwaukee have.
And we've been denied those opportunities.
We've been denied the ability to have the city leaders,
whether they be elected officials, business leaders invest in our neighbourhoods.
So now to have this pandemic hit, to have the DNC not come in the way that it did,
it's like this, like getting hit three different times …
This old saying from the black community says,
when America catches a cold, the Black community catches pneumonia.
A city that once stood to be a symbol for Democratic resilience
now stands at a crossroads.
Advocates say it’s a warning for Democrats not to take Black voters for granted.
Just miles from what’s left of the convention, Jordan Terry and fellow canvassers
are registering residents
to vote while collecting surveys on the city’s budget.
I think people are scared because we have all of these crises going up
and really people are protesting because their material needs aren't being met.
People don't have homes.
People don't have health care.
A lot of people feel hopeless around our voting and just the voting system,
because it almost feels rigged.
I feel like we’re kind of taking a lean more towards socialism
because that’s what’s going to meet our needs right now.
Our government isn't helping us out. So it's up to us.
Jordan’s distrust of the system is echoed by residents in Metcalfe Park.
What are your thoughts about the election so far?
I’m not sure which way I want to go so far, not knowing
what’s the greater evil right now within
what I’m thinking about what’s going on.
Really, the Democrats have tried more reach towards the community,
the African Americans, the Latinos.
They have tried like, you know, to reach, but I think they're over aggressive with it ...
Especially when you got our presidential candidate saying,
if you don't vote for me, you're not Black,
but you're not Black.
So it's like, why are you doing this?
If you got a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.
It don't have nothing to do with Trump,
it has to do with the fact, I want something for my community.
Support for Democrats dropped nationally among Black Americans
since the last presidential election and Milwaukee is no exception.
In 2016, Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin by only about 23,000 votes.
Around 93,000 black Milwaukeeans stayed home.
Charles Griffin says that’s because the city’s Black residents are tired
of being used as political pawns.
They don’t care about us and I feel like that no candidate cares because if you did,
you would beat the street.
You will make sure that the people that you want,
our votes, you will come down here
and see what we really want and how we really live.
And you will, it'll probably bring a tear to some of their eyes.
If they seen how some of us down here live, it's ridiculous.
And it's not like we're working, not working hard.
I work hard every day. I'm a chef.
I'm a restaurant manager.
We can do better and deserve so much more.
The campaign hopes Kamala Harris as VP will appeal
to Black Americans on the fence,
especially younger, progressive voters who aren’t excited by Biden.
That mirrors a generational divide in Milwaukee between passionate, young activists,
and their more traditional elders.
So I want to talk to my peers at this moment,
I want to talk to those of us who are in our fifties and sixties and seventies
and eighties,
some of whom have a whole lot of nonsense to say about what's going on right now.
Some of us did not become elders, we became olders.
We just got old.
We have to start showing up.
While you talking, they still walking.
Andre Lee Ellis is showing up.
He’s like Black Milwaukee’s Dad,
a mentor to many, and even my former creative arts instructor.
He and community elders mentor youth at the We Got This Garden,
located in 53206 zip code, one of Milwaukee’s poorest neighbourhoods.
He says Democrats should be passing the torch and showing
they trust the next generation’s leader.
You know I love Biden, I love Sanders ... I know you David, don't get mad at me.
But they are so old and every time you look ...
Do you even remember what he's saying?
Young people need to come forward and us old people need to push you
or lay down on the ground.
So when you fall you fall on our backs and we can lift you up faster that way.
I got you, I got you.
I’ve known David Bowen as a community activist since our teens.
Now he’s a state representative for the city’s 10th district.
Can you tap into the energy that is out there?
And I tell them all the time, you know, that this is righteous anger,
that young people are engaging of all over the country.
And that's important for Vice President Joe Biden to be able to tap into,
for Senator Kamala Harris
to tap into, to be able to carry that torch
and to say that they will be the champion
on the issues that young people are caring about.
It’s this amazing synergy that says if you don’t tap into this,
you’re going to lose us.
So they have to do it.
David’s been the only lawmaker to show up for almost every night of protests.
Tonight, the People’s Revolution is marching for their 83rd night
and aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.
A lot of the older generations, I do hear them say things like we marched
60, 70 years ago, and it didn't change.
And I say, what?
Why did you guys stop? It is always my response.
Does the Democratic party take Black voters for granted?
We sell ourselves short.
I don't think that we realise how powerful our votes really are.
I'm looking at the statistics from the last election,
based on how many black people didn't vote
and how many voters he won by.
The people do have the power.
We all have a little bit of power.
And we all have to believe that, and sometimes somebody has to show us that
or explain it to us in a way that we can understand.
Understand that politics is policy: it’s long-term,
it’s local.
It’s about uplifting the power of the people long
after a pandemic,
uprising or the next Democratic National Convention.
How do you respond to people who say, ‘Activism is voting. If you really want
to be active in your communities,
go get people to register to vote.
I think voting is important, to have elected officials that we choose.
So as far as the admins, the common council, the fire and police commission,
but those are really important ones for where you live at the fire and police commission,
the D.A. ...
Black Milwaukeeans are demanding change.
They’re tired of seeing a national party that ignores the issues that impact them
until it’s time to vote.
From generations of elders leaving their legacy, to young activists fighting for their future,
in Milwaukee the message is clear: change happens where the people are.
Come on! Stay tight, stay close!