Reflections/Jonathan Gramling
Ada and Roberto
Usually when I read through my emails these days, I get a little depressed after reading about what is going on in the U.S. and abroad, primarily through the promulgation of the Trump Administration. And so I was particularly delighted when I got the press release from the Madison Metropolitan School District that they have approved the renaming of three Madison schools. One was named after the late Jeffrey Erlanger, who appeared on Mr. Rogers as a child and became a prominent civil rights champion for disability rights in Madison. While I read a lot about him, our paths never really crossed.
The second was named after the late Roberto Sanchez, a UW-Madison professor who was devoted to the academic success of Latine students.
When I was the accountant for Centro Hispano in the early 2000s, Sanchez had been a big supporter of Centro. In honor of him, Centro created the Sanchez Award given annually to community leaders who advance educational and career opportunities for Latine individuals in the Madison area.
As he retired, Sanchez wanted to continue his legacy of providing support to Latine students.
When I was the accountant for Centro Hispano in the early 2000s, Sanchez had been a big supporter of Centro. In honor of him, Centro created the Sanchez Award given annually to community leaders who advance educational and career opportunities for Latine individuals in the Madison area
As he retired, Sanchez wanted to continue his legacy of providing support to Latine students. Scholarship programs were set up at UW-Madison and Madison College as well as a college in Texas. Most importantly, Sanchez endowed the start of the Sanchez Scholars program at MMSD. This program provides financial and academic support to Latine high school students during their high school careers. It makes a huge difference in the academic success of the Latine students it touches.
The third school was renamed after the late Ada Deer, someone with whom I crossed paths with many times over the course of over 30 years. I can truly speak to Ada’s integrity and impact on the lives of many people.
Back in the 1980s when I was the director of operations at the Madison Urban League when the late Betty Franklin-Hammonds was the CEO, Betty, who had a master’s in social work, supervised UW-Madison social work interns at the League. Two of these interns did the work to produce the Madison Urban League’s reports on the disparities experienced by Black students in MMSD. The first time, the report was ignored. The second report made MMSD realize the Urban League wasn’t going away and created its own reporting and efforts to close the achievement gap. And MMSD put Dr. Virginia Henderson in charge of those efforts.
Well the UW-Madison internship program was administered by Ada Deer. Ada would often times come to the Urban League to meet with Betty and I sat in on the meetings. That’s how I first got to know Ada.
Of course Ada, with her community social work orientation organized the Menominee Nation’s efforts in the 1970s to regain their tribal status after the federal government rescinded it in the 1950s as an effort to blend Indigenous people into the American mainstream. Their status was restored in 1973. After the Menominee reformulated their tribal government, they named Ada the tribal chair, the first woman to hold that position.
Ada had also been the first Menominee to earn a BA degree from UW-Madison in 1957. She went on to earn a master’s degree at the New York School of Social Work
And after Ada lost her campaign to be elected Congressperson for Wisconsin’s third district in 1992, President Bill Clinton named her director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the first native person to hold the post. Being “The First” is an intricate part of Ada’s legacy.
While Ada was proud to be a Menominee woman, she approached life with a very multicultural perspective, perhaps a reflection of her community social work activism. When Ada was at the New York School of Social Work, she did her practicum in the Black community. She also worked in Puerto Rico as a Peace Corp volunteer. She enjoyed the company of a diverse group of people.
Over the years, Ada and I became good friends, especially after Betty Franklin-Hammonds died and I became the editor of The Madison Times in 1999. And when I founded with 11 partners The Capital City Hues in 2006, Ada was one of our first subscribers and remained a subscriber until her death in 2023.
A few times a year, Ada and I would have lunch at Quivey’s Grove. During COVID, we met outside her house off of Lacey Road with UW-Madison Professor Larry Nesper and others.
While Ada had done some great things in her life, she never wore them on her sleeve, so to speak. Her attitude was she was just one of the folks and was always interested in what I was doing. Ada had a great sense of humor and so we would spend part of our time laughing. And part of the time, I became the student as Ada reflected on her life. It was a lesson on history and the Menominee people as well as contemporary politics.
I ended up writing several stories about Ada including an almost biography, when she was honored by UW-Madison back in 2019 and then when she died in 2023.
Ada was a magnificent, down-to-earth person who whose positivity was infectious. Ad’s life will be a treasure trove of lessons about life, believing in yourself, the value of community and being a trailblazer. Most importantly, she believed in education.
Kudos to MMSD for honoring Ada in this way.
