Urban League 40th Anniversary Celebration
The context of the times
The context of the times
born out of the turmoil of the civil rights movement. “Back then, there was a residual attitude from the real civil rights movement that occurred in the 1960s and
1970s when there was insidious institutions actually,” Thomas said. “And although the 1964 Civil Rights Act on paper gave people rights, you can’t legislate a
person’s attitude. A lot of negative, former attitudes about race relations that are still very much persisting in the minds of people manifest in their actions
whether it was in the areas of hiring or social settings.”
Due to the impact of slavery and Jim Crow, the African American middle class was negligible. By law or by practice, many African Americans has been kept
out of many occupational areas. Hill was born and raised in Beloit, Wisconsin. While the city had a sizeable African American community — attracted there
from the South by the promise of factory jobs — they could only go so far in the Beloit labor market. “I was a product of the Beloit school system,” Hill said.
“Even when I was there, it was probably 20 percent Black. I went for kindergarten to grade 12 and there was never a Black person who taught in the school I was
in, let alone, taught me. I never saw a Black teacher in a town where minimally, the student population was 20 percent Black. I knew of one Black teacher in
the district. I never had her as a teacher, but I knew she taught in the district somewhere. Ironically, it was almost as though she was ashamed of being Black.”
As the legal shackles of Jim Crow segregation began to come off beginning with the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown versus Board of Education, the
expectations of a better life for African Americans began to rise. Thomas grew up in a poor family in Georgia. His father was illiterate and his mother made it
through the eighth grade. “We had very humble beginnings,” Thomas said. “The whole concept of an education, ironically enough, came from them because
they could explain the fact they were unable to achieve or really progress because of the lack of an education. That, in turn, stressed to us the need to get an
education. That was all the incentive I needed. I didn’t want to be poor. So it was pretty easy to go to school when you knew that was the vehicle to use to leave
that poverty. I was determined to go to college in order to not only benefit my own family, but also to set an example for others.”
Thomas used his athletic ability to land a basketball scholarship at Marquette University and played for the Warriors under Al McGuire. Thomas then went on
to the Marquette Law School, from which he graduated in 1975. He graduated without any debt.
Hill also found education to be his escape from poverty. After he graduated from high school in Beloit, Hill attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
from 1966-1970 before going on to law school.
With the rising expectations of the African American community — especially as it met resistance to its demand for equal rights — there began to be a
general call for change. And as the community became unleashed, multiple means to achieve those rights began to be expressed.
“What impressed me was there were things going on nationally and locally,” Hill recalled. “When you look at them, what eventually got to be local, typically
started someplace else in the country and eventually found its way to the Midwest. What was going on in terms of lifestyle for Black people in America during
the early 1960s was pretty much the same everywhere. We were in the midst of an undeclared, in some instances, revolution. People were talking about
change. I remember I entered high school as a Negro and I left as a Black student. It’s funny because it seems like you don’t say much when you say that, but in
reality, it talked about self-determination. It talked about politics. It talked about economics. It talked about social justice. All of those things were in demand by
people of color, particularly Black people, during that time frame. I think about the folks who had a big impression on my thoughts during that time. One was
just here in town, Amiri Baraka. When I first came into it, he was LeRoi Jones. Then before I knew it, he became Amiri Baraka. When he explained why he
adopted the name, people were thinking like that. Who did we have walking around having influence over young Black people then? We had Huey P. Newton,
Eldridge Cleaver, Stokley Carmichael, Angela Davis and on and on. We had Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. But everyone was talking about
the same thing, changing the standard of life for Black people in America.”
And with the call for change came a lot of turmoil.
1970s when there was insidious institutions actually,” Thomas said. “And although the 1964 Civil Rights Act on paper gave people rights, you can’t legislate a
person’s attitude. A lot of negative, former attitudes about race relations that are still very much persisting in the minds of people manifest in their actions
whether it was in the areas of hiring or social settings.”
Due to the impact of slavery and Jim Crow, the African American middle class was negligible. By law or by practice, many African Americans has been kept
out of many occupational areas. Hill was born and raised in Beloit, Wisconsin. While the city had a sizeable African American community — attracted there
from the South by the promise of factory jobs — they could only go so far in the Beloit labor market. “I was a product of the Beloit school system,” Hill said.
“Even when I was there, it was probably 20 percent Black. I went for kindergarten to grade 12 and there was never a Black person who taught in the school I was
in, let alone, taught me. I never saw a Black teacher in a town where minimally, the student population was 20 percent Black. I knew of one Black teacher in
the district. I never had her as a teacher, but I knew she taught in the district somewhere. Ironically, it was almost as though she was ashamed of being Black.”
As the legal shackles of Jim Crow segregation began to come off beginning with the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown versus Board of Education, the
expectations of a better life for African Americans began to rise. Thomas grew up in a poor family in Georgia. His father was illiterate and his mother made it
through the eighth grade. “We had very humble beginnings,” Thomas said. “The whole concept of an education, ironically enough, came from them because
they could explain the fact they were unable to achieve or really progress because of the lack of an education. That, in turn, stressed to us the need to get an
education. That was all the incentive I needed. I didn’t want to be poor. So it was pretty easy to go to school when you knew that was the vehicle to use to leave
that poverty. I was determined to go to college in order to not only benefit my own family, but also to set an example for others.”
Thomas used his athletic ability to land a basketball scholarship at Marquette University and played for the Warriors under Al McGuire. Thomas then went on
to the Marquette Law School, from which he graduated in 1975. He graduated without any debt.
Hill also found education to be his escape from poverty. After he graduated from high school in Beloit, Hill attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
from 1966-1970 before going on to law school.
With the rising expectations of the African American community — especially as it met resistance to its demand for equal rights — there began to be a
general call for change. And as the community became unleashed, multiple means to achieve those rights began to be expressed.
“What impressed me was there were things going on nationally and locally,” Hill recalled. “When you look at them, what eventually got to be local, typically
started someplace else in the country and eventually found its way to the Midwest. What was going on in terms of lifestyle for Black people in America during
the early 1960s was pretty much the same everywhere. We were in the midst of an undeclared, in some instances, revolution. People were talking about
change. I remember I entered high school as a Negro and I left as a Black student. It’s funny because it seems like you don’t say much when you say that, but in
reality, it talked about self-determination. It talked about politics. It talked about economics. It talked about social justice. All of those things were in demand by
people of color, particularly Black people, during that time frame. I think about the folks who had a big impression on my thoughts during that time. One was
just here in town, Amiri Baraka. When I first came into it, he was LeRoi Jones. Then before I knew it, he became Amiri Baraka. When he explained why he
adopted the name, people were thinking like that. Who did we have walking around having influence over young Black people then? We had Huey P. Newton,
Eldridge Cleaver, Stokley Carmichael, Angela Davis and on and on. We had Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. But everyone was talking about
the same thing, changing the standard of life for Black people in America.”
And with the call for change came a lot of turmoil.
| Joseph Thomas was the board chair or the Madison Urban League (Since named Urban League of Greater Madison) from 1986-1991. |
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 1 of 3
On February 20, 1968, the Madison Urban League became an affiliate of the National Urban
League. A multicultural group of Madisonians from different faith communities established the
Urban League affiliate — which underwent a name change in the 1990s to the Urban League of
Greater Madison — to help the growing African American community become a part of Madison.
Over the course of the next 40 years, the agency served thousands and thousands of African
Americans and others who were trying to better themselves through education, employment and
training and social service programs so that they could become independent, contributing
members of the Madison community.
And in many ways, the Urban League has undergone transformations during its history as the
context and dynamics of the local and national civil rights scenes changed over time and the
agency responded to that change or was changed by it. In commemoration of the Urban League’
s 40 year history, The Capital City Hues sat down with Joseph Thomas who was the board chair of
the Urban League from 1986-1991 and Joseph Hill who was the board secretary during roughly
that same period, to talk about the Urban League and the societal context it has found itself in.
While it may not always look upon itself as a civil rights organization, the Urban League was
discrimination in all of our
Part 1 of 3
On February 20, 1968, the Madison Urban League became an affiliate of the National Urban
League. A multicultural group of Madisonians from different faith communities established the
Urban League affiliate — which underwent a name change in the 1990s to the Urban League of
Greater Madison — to help the growing African American community become a part of Madison.
Over the course of the next 40 years, the agency served thousands and thousands of African
Americans and others who were trying to better themselves through education, employment and
training and social service programs so that they could become independent, contributing
members of the Madison community.
And in many ways, the Urban League has undergone transformations during its history as the
context and dynamics of the local and national civil rights scenes changed over time and the
agency responded to that change or was changed by it. In commemoration of the Urban League’
s 40 year history, The Capital City Hues sat down with Joseph Thomas who was the board chair of
the Urban League from 1986-1991 and Joseph Hill who was the board secretary during roughly
that same period, to talk about the Urban League and the societal context it has found itself in.
While it may not always look upon itself as a civil rights organization, the Urban League was
discrimination in all of our