A Milwaukee project exploring and highlighting the historical contributions of Black LGBTQ+ people received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

The House of History project is one of three projects awarded in Wisconsin this round. The Journal Sentinel published an editorial last year highlighting two members of the House of History project team.

Diverse and Resilient, a local LGBTQ+ advocacy group, was awarded $149,969 by NEH to launch an interactive website filled with oral history interviews on topics such as racism, homophobia and transphobia, COVID, HIV/AIDS, love, religion, family, and what is special about Milwaukee.

“Milwaukee is home to amazing Black LGBTQ+ Milwaukee leaders whose stories must be more broadly known,” U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, said.

“This project is a wonderful opportunity to share their efforts to create community and networks of support, challenge racism, homophobia, and transphobia while seeing the impact of the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 public health crises. Hearing these oral histories can be both educational and inspirational, which is why this grant is so important.”

Funding for the project came from the NEH’s Cultural and Community Resilience program and the agency’s initiative, American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future.

Brice Smith, project director, said it seemed like a long shot that the project would be selected, but it was “definitely a shot worth taking.”

“Black LGBTQ+ people deserve their rightful place in history,” Smith said. “Helping to make that happen is an honor and a privilege.”

House of History will launch the website on June 5 and in the meantime is sharing videos on their YouTube channel House of History MKE.

UW-Milwaukee project mapping racism and resistance in Milwaukee County awarded major grant

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee project team received a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant to map racism and resistance in Milwaukee County.

The goal of the project is to develop a platform to map and visualize racial covenants in early 20th century Milwaukee. The project was awarded $147,412.

The project will encourage community engagement and dialogue about racial segregation and struggles for housing in Milwaukee, according to Anne Bonds, member of the project team and professor of geography at UWM.

“It is vital for all of us to know the history of housing discrimination in Milwaukee and how these policies and practices helped create housing disparities we see today,” Moore said.

“It is also important to lift up the stories of residents in our community who pushed back against discriminatory policies to create change. I am thrilled that the NEH funding is helping support a digital platform that will allow people to see this history in such a creative way.”

UW-Madison received funding for fellowship to research socialism

University of Wisconsin-Madison was awarded a fellowship to research and write a book on European socialist politics in the context of economic decolonization.

The project title is Failed Globalists: European Socialists, the Global South, and the Struggle for Economic Decolonization, 1945–2008.

Giuliana Chamedes, associate professor of history at UW-Madison, was awarded $30,000 in funding for the fellowship.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Project exploring contributions of Black LGBTQ+ Milwaukee win grant