City Streets
Custer’s Last Stand in Milwaukee
There’s still a city street that honors him. Or is it named after a Town of Granville settler?
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There’s still a city street that honors him. Or is it named after a Town of Granville settler? Back to the full article.
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I’ve always assumed that the original Custer High School building (on N 37th St, which later became Edison Jr High) predates the 1929 merger of the Village of North Milwaukee into the City of Milwaukee. If so, the high school (pre-merger) would have been named “North Milwaukee High School”.
When North Milwaukee was absorbed into Milwaukee, that name would have to go since Milwaukee already had “North Division High School” (aka “North”) and it would be very confusing to have 2 schools with such similar names.
Even if Custer High School wasn’t named for the infamous general, it certainly acted as if it were by using names and symbols that would be considered racist today: Custer Indians (sports teams), Custer Warrior (yearbook), its logo (a Native American in full feathered headdress), and tomahawks displayed on football players’ helmets. The school colors (red and white) were even considered to commemorate the Battle of Little Bighorn.
A TV show (“Branded” ??) had an episode or two involving General Custer, and somehow Custer High managed to obtain those episodes on film (a very big deal before the inventions of video streaming, DVDs or even VHS) to show them in the school auditorium.