(soft instrumental music)
(dramatic theme music)
- Welcome to Black Nouveau.
This is our edition
for March 29, 2017.
I'm Joanne Williams.
This week, we'll preview
a new documentary
about the Warning
Basketball League.
It was started in
Milwaukee in 1974.
We'll meet Milwaukee's first
Black Panther Party member,
and I'll take you to
the A. Philip Randolph
Pullman Porter
Museum in Chicago.
Now, about your health.
Sickle cell anemia, often
called sickle cell disease,
is a condition of
the red blood cells.
Normal cells are
shaped like disks,
which let them move easily
through blood vessels.
In sickle cell anemia,
however, the red blood cells
have a crescent or sickle shape.
This makes them
sticky and rigid,
and can cause pain
and tissue damage.
Liddie Collins has more
on sickle cell disease.
- [Rodney] There isn't
a typical crisis.
It can range anywhere
from being very fatigued,
so fatigued that you
can't get out of bed.
- I was not feeling
well all the time,
and it really started to
play a role in my grades.
I had a lot of chronic
fatigue and pain.
- [Liddie] These people are
living with sickle cell disease.
It's an inherited blood
disease that can affect
every organ in the body.
- People with sickle cell
disease have problems with pain,
and that's when not
enough blood flow
is actually getting
to the bones.
And they also have
problems with their organs.
So, there's a high
incidence of stroke,
there's problems with the lung,
there's problems
with the kidneys,
there's problems with the heart.
Nearly every organ
system is affected.
- I take a lot of pain medicine,
narcotic pain medicine.
They have side effects
within themselves,
so not only are you
dealing with the disease,
now you're dealing
with the side effects
of all the treatment.
But, anything that people
think as far as even
having a social life
or grocery shopping,
doing my laundry or
cleaning my house,
things that you say is
normal are difficult.
But when you look at me,
you're not really seeing,
oh, she has a handicap, so to
speak, or a difficult life.
But because you're
in chronic pain
and you just kinda
learn to live with it,
and I don't do too much
complaining myself,
but it's quite difficult.
- Probably the biggest
impact around the stigma
for sickle cell is people, one,
it's an invisible disability
that people don't recognize.
So they look at me,
especially if I'm in a crisis,
and they think,
oh, you look fine,
there's nothing wrong with you.
And that has gone anywhere
from friends and family,
people who have known
me my entire life,
to even people when
I've come into contact
with medical professionals
who are not familiar
with sickle cell disease.
And they have, I've heard
it more from other friends,
but it's happened
to me on occasion
where they say, well, we
don't see anything wrong,
or they'll just send you
home with an aspirin,
and say that they're not
having much of a problem here.
- [Liddie] The major barrier
is people who do not see
the pain, and it's
difficult to treat.
But there are treatments,
blood transfusions,
and one that has been
used to prevent pain
and even potentially
improve survival.
- Hydroxyurea is one
therapy that we've had.
If you had to take that therapy
which has been around since,
well, the hydroxyurea has
been around for many decades.
But for sickle cell disease,
it's been FDA-approved
since 1998.
- When it comes to
sickle cell disease,
because it's an ailment that
affects mostly African-American
and people of African heritage,
it doesn't get a lot of
attention in terms of research.
- [Liddie] Recently, there
have been a lot of research
for this complex disease
and a lot of new therapies
in the pipeline.
- There also have
been new trials
that are either being started
or planned on being started
in doing different forms
of bone marrow transplant.
So that's very exciting.
And then there are even
trials that are going on
concerning gene therapy,
where you're actually trying
to fix the genetic defect
in patients with
sickle cell disease.
- [Liddie] People are
dying from sickle cell
because of misinformation
between patient and provider.
Now there is a
clinic in Milwaukee,
the Froedtert Adult
Sickle Cell Clinic
that has dedicated providers
that understand people
living with sickle cell.
- Our patients feel
comfortable coming here,
they know that we understand
and know their illness.
We care for them
not just physically,
but mentally, emotionally.
- [Liddie] They are also
trying to make the community
more aware of how many
people are suffering
from this disease
and how you get it.
Like AIDS, you must
know your status.
- The biggest
concern that I have
is about passing along
the sickle cell trait.
- Sickle cell trait is
when you're a carrier
of the sickle cell gene.
So you yourself may
have no symptoms at all
and do have no symptoms at all.
But the important thing is,
if you have sickle cell trait
and your partner has
sickle cell trait,
you're gonna have a
one in four chance
of having a child with
sickle cell disease.
That's critical, because I
think a lot of individuals
do not know, and I think
this is in large part
the fault of the medical
community for not educating
people appropriately that
they have sickle cell trait.
So, this is something,
if you're a person
of African-American
descent, and you don't know
whether you have
sickle cell trait,
finding that out and
finding out the trait status
of your partner, it's
a simple blood test,
it's really important.
Because most of our patients
who have sickle cell disease,
their parents did
not have the disease.
Their parents were
completely asymptomatic
and their parents were
carriers with the trait.
- And I wouldn't risk this
struggle or this pain on anyone.
- There's never gonna
be a time where I think,
especially at my age, and
with the type and severity
of my sickle cell, there's
not gonna be a perfect day.
And you just kind of
learn to live with it.
- In 1974, Alderman
Michael Magee, Sr.
started the Warning
Basketball League.
He wanted to help less fortunate
kids stay off the streets
and aim for college careers.
It's now the nation's
third-longest running
amateur basketball league.
It's produced hundreds of
college and professional
basketball players, and
successful men and women.
On April 6, the Landmark
Oriental Theater
will hold a
screening of Warning,
the Basketball Documentary.
Here's a preview.
(dramatic piano music)
- [Victor] A lot of times
here, you didn't have to be
in the NBA to be known, like,
if you were known from
the Warning league, hey,
that will get you in some
places around the city,
you know what I'm saying?
Like you were the man.
I played Warning.
I'm Terry Porter,
University of Portland
men's basketball coach.
- Warning was running that long.
I know I've been playing,
I'm 20 years old,
so I've been playing for
like the last 10 years.
- I played Warning because
Warning was my life.
I lived to play Warning,
I loved Warning,
Warning is in me.
- Mike Wilks, former NBA
player, former NBA champion.
I played Warning basketball
because it was a way of life
growing up, you know,
it was the thing to do.
All the guys I looked up to
and idolize, they played.
So, I was just following
the guys' footsteps.
- Man, I played Warning
because of the people.
I played because
of the atmosphere,
I played because
of the environment.
I played because it was like
the Milwaukee Rucker Park.
- Warning started in
'75, and there was only
two other leagues that were
in existence before it.
The Drew League and
Rucker, in LA and New York,
so Milwaukee, man, in the
middle, it's an awesome thing.
Just showing that we
got a lot of talent,
a lot of people that
made it to the league.
- When I hear people talk
about Rucker Park, New York,
back in the day,
and I always say,
if they would have came
to Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
in the early '80s, and came to
them playgrounds on Warning,
they would have seen
Rucker Park, I promise you.
And I'm not saying, you know,
we was better than New York,
but we were just like them.
- [Joanne] Victor
Barnett, founder and CEO
of the Running Rebels
community organization
joins us today to talk
basketball, welcome.
- Thank you.
- [Joanne] Have
you seen the movie?
- Yes, I have.
- [Joanne] What did
you think of it?
- I'm very excited to
be a part of something
that is so special and
brings so many years
of brotherhood and bonding
through basketball.
- 1974, that's a
lot of years ago.
- 42 years, yes.
- 42 years, wow.
Did you play in this league?
- No, I didn't play, I coached,
way back in
1980-something, maybe, '84,
when I was really getting
started with the organization.
So, I was a coach
for many years,
and after success a
little bit on the court,
I was able to get a job actually
helping to run the league.
So, I've had different
capacities that I've
been involved in
and so I'm just
excited and honored
to be a part of something
that is so special
and has saved so many
lives in our city.
- Where was this
basketball played?
What playgrounds, what
parks, what courts?
- You know, the history,
back in the day,
we used to play at
different parks.
We'd go from Green
Bay to Columbia and
just traveled around.
Now the games are
held at Lincoln Park,
Meaux Park, rather, it
was Lincoln at that time
but now it's Meaux Park,
on Green Bay Avenue.
- I've seen them playing
there for years and years,
and I'm sure lots of
folks have seen kids
with the t-shirts that
say Warning on them
and probably wondered
what that meant.
Why was it called Warning?
- It was started as a
league to raise awareness
and attention to
our young people,
keeping away from some of the
violence way back, 42 years,
and now, as you'll see
in the documentary,
there's a lot of gentlemen
that state how important it was
in their lives to get
something positive to do,
twice a week, two hours
they were on that court.
And when they weren't
playing, they were spectators
to see the other people.
So, it was very
instrumental in the success
of a lot of ballplayers that
went on to college and pros.
But even some of our politicians
and successful businessmen,
definitely, owe a lot of
it to the Warning League.
- Are there any names
you can call that played?
- Yeah, yeah, there's
some politicians.
Alderman Willie Wade was
one that really worked hard
to keep it going.
Mike Magee, Jr. was an
alderman that kept it going
and did a lot for the league.
And some of the ballplayers,
we have professional
ballplayers.
Kevon Looney plays for
the Golden State Warriors,
played in it.
Terry Porter, who went
on to coach the Bucs
and did some great things.
Brandon Joseph, one of
the players that just won
the state championship
with Destiny High School,
played Warning when he
was seven years old.
So, the history goes
way back for Warning
and it's just a special
thing in our community.
So, we're hoping to get the
community to rally behind it,
come out and see the movie,
and see some of the
great, exciting basketball
but just some of the
storylines that go with it.
- When I come to see the movie,
I'll recognize a lot
of locations, right?
- Mhm, yeah, it'll be different
parks around the area,
and like I said, just some
of the people talking,
you can just tell in
their conversation
just how special this
league was for them
when they were a kid.
To see a lot of them
now being teachers,
and went on to have successful
professional careers,
Warning's a very special
thing in our city
and we're definitely
hoping to get everybody
to rally around it.
- It's still going on, yes?
- Yes, yes, we have the
great history of Warning,
but then we also have
the present right now.
The league is still continuing.
We are working with politicians
and community leaders,
because Warning has
always been something
that's of our community.
So there's guys that have
bonded and formed brotherhood.
They went on and were in each
other's weddings and things.
One of the things that
touched me the most
is when someone passed that
was a ballplayer in Warning,
to just see the players that
come and support the family
at the funeral and
different things like that.
So, it's just built
such brotherhood.
And there's people now,
when you say Warning,
they're gonna turn their
head and pay attention.
- How does somebody
get involved in it?
How do the young men who
play join this league?
- Well, it's a league that's
continuing to be funded
by the city of Milwaukee.
In June, we start
getting things ready,
so late June, get ready to
play, and it goes until August.
But Running Rebels will
be involved with assisting
with the league again,
so 414-264-8222 for
anyone interested
in getting an early
start, wanting to sign up.
One of the things that
we wanted to stay true
to the history, so a lot
of teams are actually based
upon some of the parts
that were a part of Warning
42 years ago, we try to go
back to that neighborhood feel.
- [Joanne] Give us the
phone number again, please?
- Running Rebels
organization, 414-264-8222
for any questions related to
the Warning Basketball League.
- [Joanne] And always, there
are girls who can play,
too, right?
- Yes, we had a girls' league
that participated last year
and we are looking
forward to expanding it
and trying to do
more with the girls.
So, anyone out there wants
to assist with the girls'
basketball growing in
regards to Warning,
please give us a call.
- All right, thank
you very much, Victor.
- [Victor] Thank you.
- Warning, the
Basketball Documentary.
It'll be screened on
Thursday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m.
at the Landmark
Oriental Theater.
Tickets are available
through Eventbrite.
- The Second Amendment
guarantees the citizen
a right to bear arms
on public property.
- We're gonna carry our guns,
and we're gonna
follow the police.
We're gonna maintain
a legal distance.
Ready to throw
down, if necessary.
- We think of the
Black Panther Party
as this ultra-radical
organization,
and they definitely
had an element of that
when you're picking up the gun,
talking about offing the pig.
That's very radical.
However, when you spend the
vast majority of your energies
on breakfast for
children programs,
on busing the prison programs,
on a free medical clinic,
well, how revolutionary are you?
Or are you just a community
service organization
that, yes, we picked up the gun
because we wanted
to defend ourselves,
because that's also
a community service?
- Historian Andrew Witt
details the Milwaukee
Black Panther Party in The
Black Panthers in the Midwest.
It's a history that
Walter Chesser,
who owns Milltown
Apparel and Printing,
helped to create.
In the fall of 1968,
he and two friends
talked about creating a Black
Panther Party in Milwaukee.
Chesser called the main
headquarters in Oakland,
and Bobby Seale
invited him to visit.
- Stayed there for
a couple of weeks,
got exposed first hand to the
things that they were doing.
The free breakfast
program for children.
They were actually
doing some tutoring.
And still doing their nightly
patrols in the neighborhood.
So, I participated in
all of those activities.
And after a couple of
weeks, Bobby stated,
well, you see what
we're doing here,
and he asked if it was something
I was committed to doing.
And I said that I was,
and he authorized me
to charter a Black Panther
Party in Milwaukee.
And so, I returned to Milwaukee
the latter part of December
and began to organize
a Panther Party.
We started the free
breakfast program,
that was a big part of
the initial activity.
Because it was
something concrete to do
and to show people
what we were doing.
And so that was really
the focus of the party
for several months, to get
a successful free breakfast
program for children.
We started a study group.
Many people were like myself
who had no previous experience
of doing any type
of social activity.
Being involved in the
struggle in any aspect.
And so we started up
a tutoring session
to make people aware
of what was going on,
to actually raise our
level of consciousness.
- The FBI wanted to
destroy the Panthers.
- [Reporter] How about justice?
- Justice is incidental
to law and order.
- This was all-out attack
on the Black Panther Party.
Every significant office
was gonna be raided,
bombed, shot, mass arrests.
- [Everett] Milwaukee's
police chief, Harold Breier,
was no fan of the Black
Panther Party either.
- There is this long
history of animus
between the overwhelmingly
white Milwaukee P.D.
and the black community.
And this manifested itself
in many different ways.
Just in general harassment,
in assaults on the black
community by the police.
But then there is of course
throughout the historical record
in the '50s and the '60s
and the '70s and the '80s,
so forth, there is
murder of black people.
Out and out murder.
- That racism that existed
in the police department,
I think was fully tolerated.
And it had I think a profound
effect, at least on me.
I never felt secure as
a black man in Milwaukee
as long as Chief
Breier was chief.
And when he finally
left the force,
I actually felt at least
a psychological burden
being released because
I just never felt
that he had any good intentions
toward the
African-American community.
- You didn't stay
in the party long.
What happened?
- Fred Hampton, who
was actually, I believe
was the Deputy Defense
Minister for the Panther Party
in Chicago, and was also
the regional authority
for the Midwest,
came to our location.
At that time I think we
had moved from Atkinson
over to a property, a
single-family property
on North First Street,
I'm not quite sure,
at this time I can't remember
exactly where that was.
But he came into the
chapter at that time,
at our location at that time,
and stated that we were not
a legitimate Panther Party.
Accused me of being a
counter-revolutionary.
And within five minutes,
I was put in house arrest.
I was taken to the basement.
And for 36 hours, I was
held in the basement
before I decided that I would
escape that confinement.
When I left my
confinement, returned home,
within a half an hour I had
gotten a call from the FBI.
They were aware that
I was being held
and that I in fact had left.
And informed me that there
was a contract to kill me,
that they wanted me to
accept their protection
and actually go back
into the Panther Party
and inform for them.
That essentially
ended my participation
in the Panther Party.
It was a very strange situation.
But as time went on,
I began to understand
that that was really a
part of the disinformation
by law enforcement in the city.
- [Everett] Before
the end of 1969,
Milwaukee's Black Panther
Party had been eliminated.
But Walter Chesser continued
to work for his community.
- Within a year's
time after that,
I actually started up
the Black Masters Party,
and we continued to
do the kind of things
that the Panther
Party was doing.
We started a free
breakfast program
and we were very successful
with that program.
So successful, as a
fact, that that SDC,
I think it was called the
Social Development Commission
at that time, asked
for our participation
in starting a free
breakfast program
for the city of Milwaukee.
And subsequently, that's
in fact what happened.
- [Everett] In 1973,
another Milwaukee chapter
of the Black Panther
Party came into existence.
It lasted a couple of years.
Yet the legacy
continues into today.
♪ You've got to give
the power to the people
- So frequently, we take
the Black Panther Party
and we say, oh,
that was a completely
out there organization.
Well, no, they weren't.
They fall in the long
line of African Americans
who have picked up the gun
and defended themselves
and defended their communities
and provided for
their communities.
- All aboard.
All aboard.
- [Joanne] The story
of the Pullman Porters
is truly an all-American
example of pride and prejudice.
- Service over
servitude is the goal.
It's okay to be a
regular working person.
You can still be a super hero,
you can still be a superstar
by doing regular things.
We want regular people to
do extraordinary things.
- [Joanne] The men who cooked
and served on the trains,
shined the shoes of
the rich and famous
who rode the trains,
made the beds,
and cleaned the compartments
for $68 a month,
were proud of the quality
of service they provided
on the Pullman cars.
But they were also
extremely underpaid,
disrespected by the
management of the company,
and often rudely treated
by the passengers
who called them all George.
If you had a relative who
worked on the railroads,
like I do, you may know
a little about the union
of the porters.
But most people don't know this
chapter in American history.
Lynn Hughes was one of them,
until she bought three houses
in the Pullman district
of Chicago in 1994, strictly
as a business investment.
She took a guided tour
of the neighborhood
and learned about the buildings,
about founder George Pullman,
about the architecture.
But nothing about the
families who lived there
while working for
the Pullman company.
- I raised my hand and
I asked the question,
"Excuse me, can you tell me
what role African Americans
"played in the Pullman story?"
And there was a hush
that went over the room
that was deafening, and
I though, oh my goodness.
What did I do, what did I say?
But because I didn't
know, I didn't know.
And so, when he paused
for a very long time,
he came back, which to me
seemed like an eternity.
He responded by saying,
"Well, I believe they worked
"on the trains."
And so, I thought he was
going to say something else
and go further, but he didn't.
- [Joanne] So, to educate
herself, she got library books
on the Pullman Porters.
And when she read this
one, her life changed.
- And it was called
A Long Hard Journey.
I took the book and went home,
sat down and read the book,
and I found myself
weeping out loud.
The story was so well-written,
it was if the content of the
story leapt from the pages
and just pierced my heart.
It occurred to me that
none of that information
that spoke about the
struggle that they had
trying to break
into organized labor
and being recognized
into organized labor
was given on the tour.
And I heard myself saying,
"well, that's a, mmm, shame."
- [Joanne] Hughes
decided that the story
of A. Philip Randolph
and the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters
needed to be told.
And needed to be on display
right here where it all started.
So she turned this building,
one of the row houses
built by Pullman, into a museum.
- I did not have the money,
I did not have the
technical expertise,
I did not have the education
in terms of museumology.
But it was on my heart to do,
because in my opinion they
deserved the recognition.
All of the African Americans
who worked on the railroad
who created the foundation
for the black middle class,
their story should be
told and incorporated into
information that is given
to people about Pullman.
- She called around
the country for advice
from other museums
on what to do,
and remodeled the building
into a two-story display
of the history of
the Brotherhood.
What drove you?
- Anger.
(laughs)
Somebody saying to me that
I didn't have credentials
to do a museum.
And what it said to me was
that I did not have the right
to honor the history and
the legacy of these men.
(piano music)
- [Joanne] A. Philip Randolph
fought the Pullman Company
for 12 years for the right
to organize the porters
into a union.
Along the way, he negotiated
with the American Federation
of Labor, the AFL, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt,
and George Pullman.
Many of the porters lost
their jobs because they wanted
to organize, they were
beaten, they were bribed.
But in the end, the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters
was recognized,
becoming the first
black labor union in America.
Lynn Hughes has put her heart
and soul into the museum
for almost 20 years.
But it's time to
look to the future,
and she's passing the
torch of leadership
onto David Peterson, Jr.
- It's a blessing and an honor.
- [Joanne] Why is it an honor?
- It's an honor because
I feel that I am standing
on the shoulders of giants.
And I have the opportunity
to take forward a story
that has not been told
to the next generation.
- [Joanne] Peterson grew
up around the corner
from the museum, but
learned nothing about
A. Philip Randolph or the
Pullman porters in his school.
- I hadn't studied
about it at all.
It just came about because
being a neighborhood kid,
Dr. Hughes, and we were
all just interested
in what she was doing over here.
So, she kind of just mothered
the entire neighborhood.
- [Joanne] On display is
equipment used by the porters,
keys to the overhead
beds and compartments,
lamps to see in
the darkened cars,
a uniform worn by a porter.
There's also ample information
about Randolph's leadership
in organized labor
and his critical role
in the 1963 March on Washington,
which was aimed at
securing jobs and freedom
for all Americans.
- [Randolph] There's
an urgent need
for strong voices to be raised
from all areas of our society,
of the varying
traditions and interests,
to arouse the
conscience of our land
in order to achieve, in
fact, that which has already
been won in law.
And what always has been
in the hearts of good men.
Equality, justice, freedom,
and human dignity for all men
regardless of color or country.
- They were men of respect,
honor, and dignity.
And they maintained their
integrity while doing so.
Even while being disrespected.
- For more information about
the A. Philip Randolph Museum,
go to
www.aphiliprandoolphmuseum.com.
Before we close tonight, a
reminder that next Tuesday,
April 4, is election day.
Every vote counts.
Please remember to
make your voice heard,
and go out and vote.
And that's our
show for this week.
For Black Nouveau, I'm Joanne
Williams, thanks for watching.
(dramatic theme music)
