When I arrived in Milwaukee in August of 1987 I came loaded for bear. I was teaching at one of the largest two year colleges in the nation, Milwaukee Area Technical College and after my only year there I won "Teacher of the Year" and was co-winner of "Advisor of the Year." That imprint was made on the entire Milwaukee community so from there I became editor of the largest black newspaper in the city and talk show host on a popular AM station where I dominated black nationalist thought for five years. With nearly perfect recall I began to see why Milwaukee, despite its large black population, numerous nonprofits and black political representation on the Common Council, in the Wisconsin Legislature and on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, was so bereft of awareness, so slow with progress and so easy to control by white folks who were hardly the sharpest knives in the drawer. But neither was the black leadership. Most of it was self-appointed and these are the ones that named themselves "the Black Mafia," an insult to the Italian Mafia in name and purpose. The Italians are nationalists and use their power to take care of their own people, their elders and to advance the economic base of their enclaves. These black people did nearly the exact opposite and were so poor that a "cash and carry" strategy was the order of the day. I establish this most clearly in this book. After going into detail about ideological deficiencies, I came to the conclusion that a former alderman, who was deemed a "militant" by the white power brokers and the largely ignorant black population, was really nothing more than a "radical integrationist." I prove this on the pages within. Controversies permeated the city's landscape as I was editor and lead writer for the newspaper, and top black talk show host on the air, long before McGee and his friend came up with the oxymoronic name for a show called "Word Warriors." On my watch, I galvanized the community with dozens of "SolutionFEST forums" that were jam packed, the creation of the New Kemet Planning Bureau which called for separation from the city and application for the Community Development funds that the city was ripping off, and the organizer of the first-ever and only "Tri City Summit," which brought together the black communities of Milwaukee, Racine and Milwaukee for a three-day conference held at the Masonic Lodge in the heart of Milwaukee. My work was being witnessed and I became a threat to the scam-happy Black Mafia. Controversies that led to extortion-oriented demands included the "Usinger Sausage Scare," the rise of the "De Mau Mau," Frank Crivello and McGee working to build in the black community, and housing programs like North Division Neighborhood Residents and Phoenix Redevelopment, two more groups that under-performed but were over-paid. The rest of the Black Mafia are named in the book, and the most illiterate among them had regular paychecks funned to them by Carl Gee, director of OIC, who went to prison, causing the rest of the Black Mafia to scatter like roaches. A state senator went to jail, a so-called "scholar" from UWM was part of the group before he cut and ran to North Carolina, and others shared in the bravado and threats that shook down foreign merchants, controlled liquor licenses and held huge events where they took up collection and were never accountable for what was collected.
About the Author: Matthew C. Stelly is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee working on a degree in Urban Education and Community Policy. He holds three Master's degrees: Urban Studies (1982), Urban Education (1983) and Political Science (2000). He is working toward his doctorate in Community Policy/Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is the former editor of the Milwaukee Courier newspaper, former director of the Great Plains Black Museum and the Plano (TX) African American Museum, and lead archivist for The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, Texas. Stelly has more than 2,500 articles in print and has won two national essay competitions. He is the founding director of the largest African-American neighborhood group in Nebraska, the Triple One Neighborhood Association and Parents Union. He is publisher and editor of the Triple One News, a two-time nationally recognized newsletter. He is the father of five children - Mandla, Malik, Clariece, Charisse and Shannon -- and remains actively involved in community organizing and neighborhood development in several cities, including Milwaukee and Omaha.