History of Milwaukee

Milwaukee has historically been a major immigrant city. During the early 20th Century, German and Polish immigrants tended to dominate, and the city still strongly identifies with its German and, to a slightly lesser extent, Polish heritage. For part of the early 20th century German was even the main language of the city, and German names are still very common.

As waves of immigrants arrived in Milwaukee they tended (and tend) to form communities in specific areas. The different areas of the city are still identified with the ethnic groups that originally populated them. The Near North and Northwest sides were originally German, but are now mainly African American with Hmong enclaves. The Near South side was originally Polish but is now mainly Hispanic. Juneautown was originally mainly populated by English immigrants as well as people from the eastern United States.

The city experienced 'white flight' during the 1960's and 70's, creating a large socio-economic divide between the inner city and suburbs. Today the city remains highly segregated with low rates of social and economic mobility within the inner city.

Milwaukee is home to some instantly recognized corporations such as Miller Brewing and Harley Davidson. Harley holds an enormous celebration on every fifth anniversary attracting riders (and celebrity riders such as Jay Leno) by the millions to Milwaukee each time. The 110th anniversary will be held in 2013.

Milwaukee was once the home to four of the world's largest breweries (Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller), making it the number one beer producing city in the world for many years. Despite the decline in its position as the world's leading beer producer through the loss of three of those breweries, its one remaining major brewery, Miller