“I became engaged in the movement there in Birmingham in 1963,” says Pastor Joseph Ellwanger. “That was the year that big demonstrations and bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in September. And I mentioned that because that's really a seminal moment.”
Ellwanger is describing how he came to be part of the Civil Rights movement in the early '60s while leading an all Black congregation in Alabama.
“A father of one of the four girls who was killed was a member of my congregation,” Ellwanger continues. “To this very day, those four girls, Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carol Robertson and Ada Collins, are on my mind and my heart and remind me of what happens when folks and especially white folks are silent about the injustices that exist in our country.”
In the late '60s, Ellwanger moved to Milwaukee to be the pastor of Cross Lutheran Church, a mixed-race congregation where he was tasked with growing and sustaining the church. Now retired, he is a board member of Project Return. He’s been a part of the board for over 40 years and helped it launch in the 1980s.
Project Return is a nonprofit that helps those formerly incarcerated adjust to life outside of prison.
“We discovered very quickly that people returning needed to have the support and the resources to find a job, to find the housing and to find that emotional support that everybody needs to make it and in the community,” says Ellwanger.
He says that there’s a lot of differences between today’s movements for social justice and those of the past, but one shared challenge they face is the subtle but effective laws that keep people of color from advancing.
Incarceration is one. Today, Wisconsin is number two in the country for the highest amount of African Americans in prison.
While cities like Milwaukee were more open to mixed race congregations like Ellwanger’s ,northern cities and states still had prejudice that can carry on and linger present day. Consider the Voting Rights Act’s history in Wisconsin. Ellwanger sets us up with a scenario in the past.
“If a Black person contacted the Equal Opportunity Commission in Washington, DC, saying, ‘I tried to register to vote and they wouldn't let me register,’ a federal marshal would come down and make sure that at the next election, everybody wants to register and vote,” Ellwanger says. “That's how strong that voting rights law was.”
But it was a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that took an important clause out of the voting rights act, allowing 20 states to develop voting restrictions. Wisconsin is one of the states requiring photo IDs for voting, which can make it harder for minorities and those of lower income to vote.
“That's what's happening now. It's more subtle and it's difficult for some people to see what's happening, but most people I think both Black and white realize what's happening,” Ellwanger says.
Though it’s not just voter ID laws that’s subtle. The lack of support people receive once they have served time.
Rodney Evans’ story as board president of Project Return and former outpatient explains more.
Evans was first introduced to Project Return as someone in need of their services.
“I got started with Project return as an alternative to revocation,” Evans says. “I was on probation. I had gotten arrested. And instead of my probation officer sending me back to the penitentiary, she sent me to a 12 week outpatient program at Project Return. And that's how it all started.”
Before being an outpatient Rodney says he had a lot of trouble staying out of prison.
“As a matter of fact, there was a period of time in my life where I had a debilitating drug addiction,” says Evans. “And so I was in and out of jail. I would be on probation, I would violate my probation, and end up going back to jail. And that was that went on for like, 15 to 20 years.”
When he was an outpatient at Project Return the counselor treated him like a person, in that he wasn’t talked down or diminished.
The love and support Rodney experienced was strong enough that he kept returning to Project Return when he was discharged, taking every course they offered.
He says it helped him face adversity like that of his son passing in which his son was robbed and shot to death by a few younger boys.
“The day before, in 2010, was the horrible flood in Milwaukee,” Evans says. “So that Friday, a lot of lights were out in the city. And so some people hid off in this corner, waiting for somebody to come past, it happened to be my 17-year-old son. They were running away from him pointing the gun backwards and shot him and he died because there were no lights. Nobody saw him. He bled to death.”
Rodney says that while in grief, he was still emotionally able to go to Madison a few months later to testify against a law where 17 year olds would be automatically waived into adult jails.
During that hearing, Rodney says he got a full scope of the way prison impacts inmates and particularly youth.
Now, as board president of Project Return, Rodney is directing doctors, professors and pastors, in their mission to help those formerly incarcerated. With an online gala coming up on Oct. 27, Project Return aims to continue to help people through the pandemic and share some of the stories and triumphs they have faced throughout their time, including stories like Rodney’s.