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Capitol Personalities
Representative Lloyd Barbee (1925-2002)
Civil Rights Advocate
"We are not as well off as we could be, but we are better off than we were."
From 1962 to 1977, Representative Lloyd Barbee led the fight to desegregate Milwaukee schools.
In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled that public schools had to be desegregated, but Milwaukee officials resisted. More than 20 years of legal battling was required to force them to comply. Barbee led that effort.
In 1961, Barbee led a non-violent NAACP sit-in right here in the Capitol Rotunda to protest segregation. The next year, he moved to Milwaukee to work on desegregation there. In 1964, his neighbors elected him to the state legislature, where he drafted Wisconsin statutes by day and NAACP legal briefs at night. Barbee served in the Assembly until 1977.
After winning the school desegregation case in 1976, Barbee worked with city leaders to create a plan for implementation. It was approved by federal courts in 1976, finally ending government-sponsored segregation of Milwaukee schools after Barbee's 14 years of uphill work. |