MLK Vignettes: Reuben Harpole Jr. and Milwaukee's Freedom Schools

When asked what he remembers most from his involvement in the civil rights movement in Milwaukee, community educator and activist Reuben Harpole Jr. pointed without hesitation to one thing:

The Freedom Schools. 

The Milwaukee United School Integration Committee (MUSIC) had launched a series of school boycotts in the city to protest racial segregation in Milwaukee Public Schools. The MUSIC-sponsored boycotts started May 18, 1964, and lasted into 1965.

Harpole, along with dozens of community members, launched the Freedom Schools to keep students of color engaged in education during the boycotts. 

RELATED: Commemorative section

With the civil rights movement taking off in Milwaukee, Harpole said that he wanted to show support in more ways than just marching and attending demonstrations. 

"I started doing something to help the students," Harpole said.

Held in various community centers and church basements on Milwaukee's north side, the Freedom Schools also offered a curriculum that emphasized African-American history and activism.

Harpole stressed that the schools did not happen by his efforts alone. Community members, including Ald. Vel Philips and her husband, attorney Dale Philips, helped teach during boycotts. Organizations such as the Urban League provided help. And churches such as Mt. Zion Baptist and Calvary Baptist Church offered space. 

Harpole said that it was the civil rights movement and the Freedom Schools that pushed him to create other educational programs.

In Racine, Harpole worked on a homework help program for students called Homework First. In 1968, Harpole started a college prep program at Marquette University High School, a program still in operation today. 

In discussing the importance of having the Freedom Schools, Harpole quoted an interaction he once had with Benjamin Mays, a civil rights leader and mentor to Martin Luther King Jr.:

"The purpose of education is to keep the world from cheating you."