On the summer night in 1930 when a crowd of thousands lynched two young men in Marion, Indiana, a third narrowly escaped the same fate.
A noose was already placed around the neck of 16-year-old James Cameron. Assailants had yanked him from a jail cell, beat him and were about to hoist him on a rope to his death. The crowd chanted Cameron’s name over and over.
A last-minute shout of reprieve from the jeering throng spared the teenager. No trial preceded the public, terrifying and barbaric death of his two older friends, accused of shooting a white man and raping his girlfriend when a robbery attempt went awry. Cameron, who left the scene before gunfire yet served time as an accessory to the crimes, vowed the horrors he witnessed would never be forgotten.
The terrible events went on to elicit a poignant response from Abel Meeropol, whose resulting poem became lyrics to “Strange Fruit.” In the song’s most iconic rendition, jazz great Billie Holiday laments “blood on the leaves and blood at the root” of poplar trees as spectators watch Black lives end brutally.
It also set Cameron on a path that would cement his place in history, as well.
After his release, Cameron set up NAACP chapters and was appointed Indiana’s director of civil liberties. With the activist’s work came threats, which led to a move to Milwaukee and his most lasting legacy, the opening of America’s Black Holocaust Museum in 1988.
When Cameron died at age 92 in 2006, the museum almost died, too. It closed in 2008, then grew virtually. But on Feb. 25 — the founder’s birthday — an expanded America’s Black Holocaust Museum will open once more in Milwaukee, thanks to an anonymous $10 million donation.
Inside, storyboards efficiently compress 400 years of history into 5,000 square feet, tracking the transition of Black Americans from independent and prosperous to enslaved and at the mercy of abductors.
Issues are old, new and repeated at their core. Triumphs prevail, too. There is space for President Barack Obama and Colin Kaepernick here. Behind some faces — Oprah Winfrey, Al Jarreau and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — are Milwaukee (and Chicago) connections.
“We want to tell the truth as it is through the lens of African Americans,” says Robert “Dr. Bert” Davis, museum president and CEO. “This is the history of America that people want to eliminate or diminish.”
One example: lynchings. Photo postcards of the executions were circulated or kept as souvenirs. The atrocities were treated as public spectacles, with invitations to pack a picnic and attend. Not just in the Deep South, Davis emphasizes, but the Midwest as well.
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Nazi obliteration of Jews during World War II is our most common example of a holocaust, but Cameron felt strongly about using the word to describe the plight and injustices of his race, too. Davis says the founder was asked to drop holocaust from the museum name, or move the museum to a different city, but Cameron refused.
“A self-taught, self-made historian” is how Davis describes Cameron, whose museum exhibits were built with volunteers and without “the advantage of technology” to enhance or engage.
The $10 million infusion makes much more possible. Online and physical museum exhibits will complement rather than duplicate displays of pivotal moments of history. Next up: A neighboring warehouse will be converted into a museum auditorium, classrooms and community gathering space.
“What we envision is an academic center of excellence on the study of race in America,” Davis says. “What we really want to create is an awareness” so history doesn’t keep repeating itself. “These are systemic things that we need to come to grips with” by creating a safe and respectful environment for discussion, he says.
“You may not be the son of a slave, or a slave owner, but that ancestry still permeates who we are now,” Davis says. Work will happen in partnership with Marquette University, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Milwaukee Jewish Federation and others.
It’s all a huge step from the museum’s birth, in a former boxing gym Cameron bought from the city for $1 in Bronzeville, north of downtown. The once-bustling Black neighborhood was torn apart by urban renewal projects that demolished 8,000 homes; then Interstate 43 construction in 1981 physically split the community.
Ongoing is the neighborhood’s resurgence, and this museum is an anchor for it.
$7 admission; $5 for children 3 and older. 401 W. North Ave., Milwaukee; abhmuseum.org
If you go: Black culture in Milwaukee
Across the street from the museum is Bronzeville Collective, where at least two dozen makers, self-described as Black, brown and queer, create and sell merchandise that sometimes carries a message. Buy “Be the Change” candles, “I am More Than Enough” journals, affirmation cards, chakra bracelets, inspirational T-shirts, art prints, herbal soaps, crystals and jewelry. 339 W. North Ave., bronzevillecollective.com
Two blocks away is Gee’s Clippers, where pro athletes — and average folks, too — get their hair cut and styled. The Black-owned barbershop is among the largest in the Midwest. What began with three barbers 25 years ago has expanded to 30 in roomy digs of a former bank styled with sports décor. 2200 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, geesclippers.com
West of Interstate 43 is the Wisconsin Black History Society and Museum, in a former theater and public library. Founder Clayborn Benson, a longtime WTMJ-TV photojournalist, presents artifacts, photos, personal narratives and more to explain issues, struggles, heritage and daily life. The building is one part museum, one part neighborhood space for Kwanzaa, Juneteenth and other cultural gatherings. Tours available. 2620 W. Center St. wbhsm.org
Less than 1 mile northwest of this museum is Sherman Phoenix, whose 20-some tenants are people of color and a mix of food vendors (spring rolls, burgers, bakery), personal services (lash extensions, tattoos, art therapy) and retail (consignments, customized airbrushed shoes). The project began in response to violent unrest triggered by a fatal shooting by police in 2016. 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., shermanphoenix.com
Less than 2 miles south is No Studios, which turns 40,000 square feet of the former Pabst Brewery campus into outlets for art shows, stage performances, film screenings, conferences, work and lounging (at a cafe and rooftop bar with cityscape views). Native son John Ridley, whose adapted screenplay for “12 Years a Slave” won an Oscar, is responsible for the development where artists and activists converge. 1037 W. McKinley Ave., nostudios.com
For more about other Black-owned businesses in and near Milwaukee: mkeblack.org.
Mary Bergin is a freelance writer.