Benton Harbor Has a History of Racial Unrest
We drove in early to get lattes and
saw the landscaped arts district full of
white people enjoying Sunday morning.
Bearded and glowing, nodding, laughing over
local bacon and artisan jam.
On the way out, we drove past low-income housing
and broken sidewalks, past churches
with names like “Pentecostal Power” and
“Apostolic Tabernacle” and “New Mission Baptist.”
Their parking lots were scattered with the faithful
and the seekers.
Benton Harbor has a history of racial unrest.
Riots on the swampy shore of the Paw Paw
among the ghosts of wild rice and cholera.
Dan Baker is a graphic designer, website developer, and sporadic blogger. He was born in the 70s in rural Wisconsin, but has lived most of his adult life in inner-city Milwaukee where he raises two kids and a dog with his wife in a house about this big [spreads arms]. If he had his druthers, there would be less roofing nails in the alley and more climbable trees in the neighborhood.
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