Black Union prepares to tackle difficult issues

The State of Milwaukee's Black Union (S.O.M.B.U.) was launched recently, and the group hopes to have a profound effect on the city.

"The group started a good four months ago, but you could say it's been in the making for the last two to three years," says Troy Shaw, host of "Focus on Diversity," a weekly program on CBS 58 and WMLW and one of the group's creators.

The recent verdict in the trial of three former police officers charged in the beating of Frank Jude, Jr. has provided the perfect opportunity for the group to get involved. Shaw, representing S.O.M.B.U., was one of the speakers at an NAACP press conference held in the wake of the not guilty verdicts.

Media personality and author Tavis Smiley inspired Shaw to create S.O.M.B.U. The group uses Smiley's book, "The Covenant," as a basis for its mission. "We're predominantly using the text of the book to fix some of the problems here in Milwaukee," Shaw says.

There are 10 areas the group is focusing on for Milwaukee: Health care, public education, criminal justice, community-centered policing, affordable housing, voting rights and participation, strengthening rural communities, jobs and economic prosperity, environmental justice and closing the racial digital divide.

Shaw says, "Those are the 10 areas in the book of 'The Covenant.' We're focusing on five different areas for this year and this year alone: education, healthcare, jobs and economic prosperity and, since it's a voting year, looking at voter rights and registration."

But what S.O.M.B.U. needs most, Shaw says, is public participation.

"We need so many people involved. They can participate in our networking events themselves; (or at) town hall-type meetings," Shaw says. "The reason why we are having so many events is because we really want to see progress in a real-time fashion. We want to see people stimulated in real time rather than annually."

Shaw says that what he has found is that most black people are not happy living in Milwaukee, and polls show that Milwaukee is the worst place in America for blacks to live.

"Milwaukee is so depressed when it comes to black people," he says. "It's not just poor people who are not happy living here, but black professionals as well. They are leaving quickly just as quickly importing them. They don't see hope in this city."

"We want to empower (African-Americans) to enact change in political realm and the social realm and the corporate realm as well. The current black leadership in clergy or political or social realm, whatever they've done in the past has failed. Something new has to happen."

S.O.M.B.U. hopes to bring that knowledge to the public sphere through advertising in the media as well as at the networking and town hall events. The next networking function is April 28. Shaw says that the group expects 200-300 people to attend. The next town hall meeting is slated for May 25. Shaw has said that more than 200 people attended the first such event.

"We're hoping to increase the number of people who will be involved with this each and every time we do one. We want people to see and understand what we are trying to do," he says.

S.O.M.B.U.'s networking event takes place at 6737 W. Washington St. in West Allis. Registration is required and it costs $12 to attend. The phone number is (414) 475-3552. The Focus on Diversity Web site is focusondiversity.com.