Police, Mayor, Hospital Workers March to Sherman Park

Approximately 100 people gathered Friday afternoon outside Ascension‘s St. Joseph’s Hospital to march to Sherman Park.

Organized by the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. O’Rell Williams and City Attorney Tearman Spencer, the group consisted of Mayor Tom Barrett, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, members and rabbis from the nearby Congregation Beth Jehudah synagogue, community supporters and hospital employees, many of which wore their scrubs.

The short march was one of dozens that have taken place across the Milwaukee area in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and other police-related deaths.

But unlike the larger marches through the city, this march was held solely on the sidewalk and featured no chanting. Instead speeches were held at the start and end, many of which thanked the police officers in attendance for their support and called for action on racial injustice.

Williams said the decision to go to Sherman Park was significant, it was the site of the 2016 riots that followed the killing of Sylville Smith by a Milwaukee Police Officer, and it’s an important place for the community to heal. Barrett said it was time for the country to address centuries of racial injustice, something that has continued through the 2016 pandemic when the neighborhoods around the park were the ones greatest impacted by COVID-19 early in the outbreak.

Williams and Moore said the police and community needed to find a way to de-escalate the situation and move the community forward.

“We are here because we know there is a severe problem within our community,” said hospital chief administrative officer Kevin Kluesner. “This isn’t just a walk in the park. This is a step in a whole new journey.”

The Milwaukee Fire Department‘s Deputy Chief of Emergency Medical Services Joshua Parish made those over 40 raise their hands and informed them that they needed to accept things would be uncomfortable, but that younger people would lead the necessary change.

Photos from the March