Resolution citing Black history gets no traction
State lawmakers skip recognizing the month
MADISON - Wisconsin lawmakers skipped passing a resolution to honor Black History Month this year, just months after a national reckoning over how Black Americans are treated.
February came and went without a measure from state legislators to recognize the month — an effort that has in recent years included clashes over objections made by some white Republican lawmakers to whom Black lawmakers wanted to honor.
This year included a similar conflict, according to four members of the Black Legislative Caucus.
“It’s the same story as before,” Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, said. “It’s exhausting. To live in a state like this is exhausting.”
Taylor, Rep. David Bowen, Sen. LaTonya Johnson and Rep. LaKeshia Myers said Republican legislative leaders sought changes to a resolution proposed by the Black caucus before allowing the measure to be put on the Assembly’s calendar to be taken up.
The resolution would have honored 35 Black Americans, including Vice President Kamala Harris and former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
It recognized baseball legend Hank Aaron, five Wisconsinites who were the first Black residents to serve in their jobs, and eight Black Wisconsin men and boys who died or were permanently injured during interactions with police, among others.
The resolution also honored Khalil Coleman, who led marches in Milwaukee to protest the death of George Floyd and was also arrested in Kentucky earlier this month on charges of second-degree robbery and second-degree unlawful transaction with a minor.
Aides to Speaker Robin Vos and Majority Leader Jim Steineke did not respond to questions about what requests or objections they made. Steineke did not return a phone call.
Myers and Johnson said GOP leaders wanted to remove names from the list, including Abrams, and to add names, including Sen. Julian Bradley, who is the first Black Republican in the Wisconsin Senate.
She said the additions would have been considered if they had come sooner and without conditions.
“I was not willing to concede and to
have us dictated to again,” Myers said. “I shouldn’t have to defend my honor of Stacey Abrams or Kamala Harris.”
Black Legislative Caucus chairwoman Shelia Stubbs, who represents an Assembly district in Madison and led the effort to draft the resolution, did not return phone calls from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
On Thursday, during the last floor session of February, Stubbs adjourned in honor of the people included in the resolution that was not taken up.
“As you know, this particular year, we do not have a Black History Month resolution which saddens my heart and those in our Black caucus who have worked so hard to decide on who we think should be honored in this month from our community,” Stubbs said.
Last year, two Black History Month resolutions were drafted before Rep. Scott Allen, who is white, ultimately decided against introducing his proposal that honored mostly white people who worked as abolitionists.
In 2019, Republican lawmakers blocked a resolution drafted by Black lawmakers to honor prominent Black Americans during February until the name of National Football League quarterback Colin Kaepernick was removed because Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem to protest racial discrimination.
And in 2018, Allen and Black lawmakers clashed after Allen pushed back against the list of honorees the lawmakers chose. The Assembly ultimately passed two resolutions, one from Black lawmakers and one from Allen.
“It’s baffling that this is what we have to go through as Black members of this body,” Bowen said. “And I would hope that it would be different but it continues to rear its ugly head every time, every year.”