Two Wisconsin Civil Rights activists reconnect, urge a new movement
By Lilah Gutlerner
Thomas Jacobson, left, and the Rev. Joseph Baring reunited at a Madison hotel in November, decades after protesting for fair housing during the Civil Rights Movement in Milwaukee.
At Temple Beth El’s Juneteenth celebration this year, Thomas Jacobson was invited to give an inspirational talk. And when he stopped for questions, an audience member quickly stood up. “You got me out of jail,” the Rev. Joseph Baring said, quieting the room. Jacobson, a Holocaust survivor and NAACP lawyer, had been speaking to the Madison crowd about his advocacy work during the Civil Rights movement in Milwaukee.
“It’s like I planted him there to give me credibility,” Jacobson said of Baring. “It was extraordinary. I mean, it was really electrifying. We haven’t seen each other for 60 years.” The two friends first met in 1968 when Baring was arrested at a Milwaukee protest for fair housing. They next met at the Juneteenth celebration this year and then reunited again this fall at Nehemiah’s Black Film Festival. “When I see him, it makes everything that happened then more vivid, more real,” Baring said.
Years before becoming a reverend and leading his own congregations, Baring followed the leadership of Father James Groppi, who led a movement rallying for affordable, accessible and equitable housing alongside former Milwaukee Ald. Vel Phillips. The 1960s protests spanned across 200 days. Young protesters like Baring dedicated their entire livelihood to activism. Baring said he spent most nights at the NAACP headquarters, dubbed the Freedom House. It was a place where activists such as Baring and Jacobson met to strategize and organize marches and rallies. “You’d stay at the Freedom House. You’d eat at the Freedom House,” Baring said. “You’d go back out and march — you were sacrificing.”
The house on Milwaukee’s North Fifth Street was where Baring had been staying on the night he was arrested on the charge of unlawful assembly outside of a church. The NAACP was prepared though. “I was the lawyer out there making sure that when they got arrested, they'd get out of jail to continue their fight,” Jacobson said. He posted the $25 bail for Baring and 55 other protesters. The next night, Baring found himself once again needing Jacobson’s help. “Over 115 people got arrested,” Baring recalled. “And we're back in jail again the next night, waiting to see the same judge again.” Jacobson filed a petition so Baring could see a different judge and succeeded.
Read more: https://captimes.com/news/community/two-wisconsin-civil-rights-activists-reconnect-urge-a-new-movement/article_468a6a28-cfe1-4bb6-a096-345b15e2d449.html