Dr. Richard Harris reflected on his experience with racial discrimination through redlining and his efforts to keep South Madison safe for Black families at The Urban League of Greater Madison’s Black Business Hub last Thursday.
The Urban League’s goal is to ensure the education and employment of African Americans in the Madison area, according to its website. The Black Business Hub is a space for Black-owned businesses and retailers to expand.
Dr. Ruben Anthony, Urban League president and CEO, hosted the chat and interviewed Harris about his life growing up Black in the 1930s and his efforts to fight racial discrimination.
Harris is a Madison native. Harris said his father, a church deacon, taught him not to hurt people and to care for others, while his mother fought against racial discrimination as a member of a group called Women of South Madison.
“This group consisted of the strongest Black women I ever met,” Harris said.
When Harris was in grade school, the city of Madison embarked on an urban renewal program. A group of developers wanted to revamp an area called “the Bush” (short for Greenbush), a neighborhood at the time home to a diverse mix of people including Italian, Jewish and Black families.
Urban renewal projects wiped entire blocks from Madison’s city map and forced families out of the neighborhood. Harris said developers offered paltry prices to Black families for their houses.
“[Of] 100 people who lived in the Bush, only three of them ever got their money back,” Harris said.
In 1979, Harris found out the city was planning to shut down three South Madison schools, all of which were known for being racially diverse.
Harris said he immediately “thought about the developers and how they ran through the Bush.” If the schools shut down, he said, Black families would leave, and developers would swoop in to take over South Madison.
Harris worked alongside Sandy Solberg and led a group of people in opposition to the school closings. After three years of work and dedication, Harris and Solberg won a school board vote.
Two of the three schools remain open to this day because of their tireless work. Harris remarked that there are always “going to be racist situations to deal with” and that is why he “likes the Urban League building, because it is involved in helping Black people to become economically independent to deal with these situations.”
Harris in his remarks recognized the Urban League, saying it “has been taking action in the present day which helps Black people in South Madison develop further.”
