MLK Vignettes: One African-American family's involvement in Milwaukee's civil rights movement

It was Christmas 1967 when the Carr family gathered with tinsel, lights and ornaments to decorate, not a tree, but a tall, potted ficus. 

That was the year the Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council announced an economic boycott, "Black Christmas," where African-American families were encouraged to abstain from holiday festivities.

Carol Carr remembers decorating the ficus as a compromise to show support for the movement while still holding some celebration — she thought her two boys, ages 10 and 11, were too young to understand the reasoning for the boycott.

While Carol is American Indian, she said she wanted to show support for the movement with her family.

"My people have experienced the same segregation for years," Carol said. 

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Brian Carr, now 59, remembers his mother tucking the Christmas ficus away in the back bedrooms of their house on N. 13th and W. Concordia Ave. Involvement in the civil rights movement, Brian said, was encouraged in the Carr family. 

"The civil rights movement at the time affected a lot of black communities in ways other than civil rights," Brian said. "There were times that we were proud and very interested and times that we feared the violence that came with it."

It was his father, Glenn Carr, that brought Brian and his brother, Kevin, to demonstrations and marches in the city. The two brothers eventually joined the Commandos — a group that worked to protect those participating in the open housing marches, led by Father James Groppi and the the NAACP Youth Council.

Brian and Carol still live in Milwaukee. Glenn Carr works and lives in Chicago, while Kevin Carr is the U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Brian and Carol both remember the patrols, car checks and curfew that came as a response to riots in Milwaukee (1967) and Chicago (1968). Carol worked for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and remembers the National Guard patrolling N. 3rd St.,  now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. 

"I remember seeing the devastation from the riots on Third Street." Carol said. "You drive a car, you could be stopped and they could search your trunk and the inside of your car."

Brian said he saw a change in black culture from the movement. He remembers even small things, such as James Brown's "Say it Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud," helping to change attitudes in his neighborhood.

"As we became more and more involved with the Commando youth project and as the culture of music changed around us, we went from being a Negro community to a black community," Brian said.