Milwaukee novel Continued from Page 9
Historian tells a story
My family immigrated from Ukraine when I was five and my sister was seven, similar ages to the characters in the book. We didn’t speak any English at first. I was obsessed with going back home and wouldn’t accept that we wouldn’t go back home.
If it takes beer to get people interested in history, that’s fine.
I remember spending a lot of time with my grandparents. They basically raised us. My parents worked two jobs and attended UWM to get English versions of their Soviet degrees, so they were busy. I learned English over the summer in JCC camp, and when I started school at the Atwater kindergarten, I was already fluent. Kids learn so fast.
In his early 30s, Harry decided he wanted to take his life in a different direction. He had an undergraduate degree in communications and had been working as a radio disc jockey when he took a trip to Germany with his sister. She was so impressed by his descriptions and knowledge of the sites they visited that she asked if he had ever thought about teaching history.
The downside, of course, is that my Russian is now very bad. It started going downhill when we moved to Hartland when I was 10 and were no longer around my grandparents or other Russians. My parents also insisted that we speak English in the house. I still understand enough to get by, but I don’t feel comfortable having deep conversations. It’s a huge theme of my book, actually. It created this wall between me and my grandparents. I could never really talk to them in the way that I wanted to as an adult. Why should people read your book? It’s a very fun read. I’ve heard that from a few early readers. It grabs you from the first page – it’s a mystery; you want to know what happens! Second, it’s an interesting cross-section of cultures. There’s Riverwest, there’s Russian immigrants, Jews, artists. It’s not normally what you would read in a mystery book or even a literary book. That makes it very fun too. Also, it’s representing Riverwest and UWM. Milwaukee people should enjoy the local tidbits.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science 10 • IN FOCUS • April, 2021
That’s the view of John Harry, a history graduate student who has focused his research on beer and Black capitalism.
As he looked into university history programs and topics he could write about, his advisors suggested that his idea of focusing on “American history” was a bit broad.
Black leaders bought brewery As summarized in a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in November, Black community leaders and businessmen formed United Black Enterprises to invest in businesses that would support employment and growth in the Black community. They bought the brewery, which was originally founded in 1913, in 1970. Among the partners were Theodore Mack, a community activist and social worker who had worked as a production supervisor at Pabst, and Henry Crosby, a successful life insurance salesman. Peoples Beer only lasted a few years under Black ownership, but Harry’s research led to unexpected connections and a broader exploration of Black entrepreneurship in Wisconsin.
“I had been collecting beer antiques and memorabilia for my whole life, so I said, ‘What about beer history?’ and they said that sounded fascinating.”
When Harry gave a talk on the subject of Peoples at Vennture Brew on North Avenue, he met a guy wearing a Peoples Beer jacket. That was Craig Crosby, the son of Henry Crosby, one of the founders That subject of Peoples. A retired started Harry off lighting technician, in a whole new Crosby was a beer direction. While memorabilia collector researching an old himself. Although Henry brewery in Oshkosh, Crosby had died in 2012, Craig Crosby he came across another Craig Crosby and his family long-closed brewery that were delighted that someone had been located across the street was taking an interest in the – “Peoples Brewing Company,” company’s history. Wisconsin’s first and only Blackowned brewery. Crosby had a collection of “That was kind of my entry into beer history, but it’s not just beer history,” said Harry. “That’s what gets people interested, but it was more a story about Black capitalism…how the Black community was trying to build its own capitalism during the Civil Rights era.”
Peoples memorabilia, and shared company and family history with Harry. “There were things that I knew that he didn’t, and so we were able to throw some stuff back and forth, and that was kind of cool,” Crosby said.
