What to know about Milwaukee's Hillside neighborhood

Milwaukee's Hillside neighborhood sits at the center of the city's vibrant and historic African-American community called Bronzeville.

Today, Hillside is a residential island surrounded by industry and freeways. But as much as the area has been shaped by racially discriminatory and segregation policies, it has also been forged by residents’ resilience and fierce commitment to each other.

There are more than 75 distinct neighborhoods throughout the city of Milwaukee. If you're new to the area, planning a visit or simply curious, here's what to know about Hillside:

More: How many neighborhoods are there in Milwaukee? Here's why there's no 'right' answer.

Where is Hillside?

Hillside is bordered by Interstate 43 to the north and west, by State 145 to the south and by North Sixth Street to the east.

It's part of what's considered the Bronzeville community — a predominantly Black area with thriving businesses and entertainment.

In more recent years, the City of Milwaukee has reimagined Bronzeville as distinct neighborhoods, including Haymarket, Hillside, Halyard Park and Triangle North.

History emerged from Hillside while residents faced hostility and racist policies

In the oral history of Bronzeville, conducted by anthropologists at Urban Anthropology Inc., many former residents recalled the strength of this community — the scores of businesses, the sense of friendship and solidarity, and the way residents looked out for each other.

The community commitment in Hillside gave rise to Vel R. Phillips, a Hillside resident who has been described by many as a trailblazer, a culture shifter and a woman who made history again and again. Phillips was the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin law school, the first woman — and first African-American — elected to the Milwaukee Common Council, the first woman judge in Milwaukee County and the first Black person elected to statewide office, as secretary of state.

Throughout her career, Phillips’ work throughout the state aimed to address women’s rights, barriers to housing and racial inequality — issues that plagued the community she grew up in.

Hillside was one of Milwaukee’s first neighborhoods to have substantial numbers of Black people, as worsening racism in the South, higher wages in the North and the wartime decline in European immigrants fueled the early 20th-century Great Migration.

The population of African Americans in Milwaukee grew over 100-fold over the next half-century, but discriminatory racial ideas created barriers for Hillside residents.

Local and federal policies often worked to segregate Black communities in most instances and to break them up in others. Milwaukee zoned industrial areas surrounding Black neighborhoods to contain them and passed restrictive covenants excluding Black people from buying property. Financial institutions also largely refused to approve mortgage loans for Black people and prevented them from entering the private housing market.

Between 1948 and 1956, the city’s recently established housing authorities cleared several blocks and built over 600 public housing units. These housing projects included the home NBA basketball player Freddie Brown grew up in and the Hillside Terrace Housing Project — one of the few residential areas that would survive what was about to happen to Bronzeville overall.

In the 1950s and ‘60s, nationwide urban renewal and highway construction efforts led Milwaukee to put its eyes on many blocks in Bronzeville for revitalization. Around the same time, Interstate 43 was being built through the Hillside neighborhood.

Residents on these blocks were forced to move to other parts of the city at a time when many suburban neighborhoods still had racial covenants that banned Black residents from owning houses.

Community organizing has strong legacy in Hillside

Hillside has also been home to Milwaukee groups engaged in organizing and empowering many who’d been left behind by city leaders, including the Organization of Organizations.

Sometimes referred to as Triple O, the group was formed in the mid-1960s from a proposal of the Northcott Neighborhood House near the Hillside Terrace Housing Project.

Its purpose was to help low-income Milwaukeeans organize for their social and economic interests, which included involvement in civil rights activism in Milwaukee. The group organized 200 consecutive days of marches to support then-Alderwoman Vel Phillips’ call for fair housing and promoted Black involvement in local government, public school systems.

Though Triple O no longer exists, its achievements left permanent imprints across Milwaukee’s social justice landscape.

Hillside was a destination for European immigrants, including a future Israeli prime minister

Before there was Bronzeville, there were other communities in today’s Hillside area.

During the early 1800s, what's now Hillside was used extensively by various indigenous groups such as the Ho-Chunk, Menominee and Potawatomi for their fur trade.

Developing during the latter half of the 19th century, Hillside's first white settlers were almost entirely German immigrants, like many other neighborhoods in Milwaukee at the time.

One such family, the Uihleins, owned the Schlitz Brewery on Third Street and were so prominent in the area, the neighborhood picked up the nickname Uihlein Hill.

By 1900, many of these families had moved north and west of Hillside, and new populations were arriving, including African-American and Eastern European immigrants, especially Jewish ones.

Among this wave of newcomers was Golda Meir, a future prime minister of Israel who was 8 years old when she and her parents moved into an apartment on Sixth and Walnut. She attended Fourth Street School, which was renamed to honor her in 1979.

Hillside neighborhood today

Today, Hillside’s history is still palpable, evident in its freeway borders and continued calls for investment into the community.

During the 1990s, the federal Hope VI program revitalized the Hillside Terrace Housing Project, adding green space and larger porches, and remodeled interiors. Community centers and amenities were built in the area, including a day care center, the Hillside Boys & Girls Club and the Hillside Terrace Family Resource Center.

Yet today, about two-thirds of the population remains low-income, with annual household incomes of $25,000 or less. Eight in 10 residents are Black.

With the availability of public housing in the neighborhood, homeownership is very low compared to Milwaukee overall. Over 90% of the property units in Hillside are likely to be rented. But rents are a bargain, with the majority of rental units costing under $500 a month.

New to the neighborhood? Here's what you need to know

• Carver Park is bordered on the north by Brown Street, on the east by Eighth Street, on the south by Walnut Street and on the west by Interstate 43.

• The Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club, at 1558 N. Sixth St., offers a multifaceted itinerary of programs for young people and families.

• The Hillside Terrace Family Resource Center, at 1452 N. Seventh St., is a community center offering a wide variety of health, family, youth and day care programs.

• Hillside is in Aldermanic District 6. You can contact your local alderperson for more information about the neighborhood at https://city.milwaukee.gov/CommonCouncil/CouncilMembers/District6.

• Hilllside is in Milwaukee Police Districts 3 and 5. The districts can be contacted at https://city.milwaukee.gov/police/districts/District-5.

• You can find your garbage and recycling schedule at  city.milwaukee.gov/sanitation/GarbageRecyclingSchedules.

• Learn how to register to vote and find your polling place at city.milwaukee.gov/election/Voter-Info.

• To get email updates about police activity, new developments in your neighborhood, sign up for the city's e-notify system at city.milwaukee.gov/News-Events/enotify.

Tell us about your Milwaukee neighborhood

Tell us about what makes your Milwaukee neighborhood special to you. Share more at bit.ly/MKE_Neighborhoods.

Need more help with housing questions? The Milwaukee Resource Guide is here to help. Have something you want answered? Submit a question.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, Milwaukee Neighborhoods, Urban Anthropology Inc.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee's Hillside neighborhood guide