It was a warm afternoon in the summer of 1948 when four young women took a leisurely stroll down Walnut Street. They were headed west near Eighth Street, enjoying cups of ice cream that might have been scooped at any one of four parlors within two blocks of them.
Walnut Street had long been a destination for much more than frozen treats. It was the main business district for the area’s first German residents, then for eastern European Jewish families, and finally, beginning in the 1920s, for African Americans. Walnut, particularly the stretch between Third and 12th streets, became the commercial heart of the Bronzeville neighborhood, where the vast majority of Black Milwaukeeans lived for generations.
The 1949 city directory listed Walnut Street as the home address for three Black churches, two Black newspapers, a Black musician’s union, the Milwaukee Brown Brewers Baseball Club, and music clubs that attracted Milwaukeeans of all backgrounds. One magnet was the Regal Theater, whose jitterbug contests drew throngs of young people every weekend…