Faces of Milwaukee: Eugene Kane

Today's subject, Eugene Kane, spoke on behalf of the Black Community in Milwaukee and beyond for nearly 30 years through his work as a journalist, columnist, and broadcaster. As one of the few Black voices in Milwaukee mainstream media, and frequently outspoken on issues of race and class, he was also a prominent target for political attacks and expressions of hatred. Kane grew up in a working-class Black neighborhood of Philadelphia. His parents valued education and, helped by desegregation laws, were able to send Kane to a predominantly Jewish school in a white area of town. He did very well there, but when he later attended a primarily white high school, he experienced racist insults and eventually transferred to the all-black Murrell Dobbins Vocational School. After majoring in journalism at Temple University with a minor in black studies, he took freelance work at Philly-area papers, and enrolled in a graduate minority journalism program at UC-Berkeley. That program lead to his eventual placement at the Milwaukee Journal, who was specifically looking for minority journalists at the time.

At the Journal, Kane worked a number of beats, and formed close friendships with other Black colleagues trying to make their way in the overwhelmingly White field. He covered federal courts, suburban government, entertainment, and became known for his humor in handling any subject. He also became increasingly outspoken on newsroom issues, such as when the Journal ran a story featuring an expert on animal training attempting to explain the behavior of urban Black youth. Kane and others strongly objected to the appalling comparison but were unable to stop the story. He left the journal for a year after receiving the prestigious John S. Knight Fellowship from Stanford University. and when he returned in 1994, the new Journal Editor tapped him to write a column. That column, Raising Kane, made him a Milwaukee household name and provided a needed diverse perspective that highlighted many issues that would otherwise have been passed over. It also twice won him the National Headliner Award for Best Local Column, and a National Association of Black Journalists award for Best Commentary among many others.

Kane's passionate critique of a variety of institutions, from local politics to sports to entertainment, always had his trademark acerbic wit and frequently delved into questions of race and injustice. Critics argued that he pulled race into the discussion when it was unwarranted, but he always spoke from his own experiences and those of his community and pointed out how those critics were too often out of touch with the reality of life in the City of Milwaukee. He was well-known for his patience and willingness to talk things through with even the angriest of writers and callers, always standing behind what he wrote. In addition to his long-running column, he hosted the show "Black Nouveau" on public television from 2002 to 2006 and was a lecturer at both Marquette University and UWM. A lifelong bachelor, he retired from the Journal in 2012 and passed away in 2020 at age 63 after years of health issues caused by complications from diabetes. To give you a taste of his work, here is a piece he wrote about watching Bowling for Columbine with the then head of Wisconsin's Pro-Gun Movement:

http://archive.jsonline.com/blogs/news/43629822.html