St. Matthew C.M.E. Church, Milwaukee: Headquarters for School Integration

St. Matthew Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is an African American church founded in the early 1900s. Its congregation played a central part in the city's Civil Rights Movement.

A growing congregation

In 1918, Reverend W.S. Ferguson and about seven other members founded St. Matthew C.M.E. in Ferguson's home. A year later the congregation moved to another building, where it stayed until the late 1950s. In 1958 it moved again, to make room for its growing membership.

Headquarters for school integration

Under Reverend B.S. Gregg, the church became an important contributor to Milwaukee's Civil Rights Movement. It served as headquarters of the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee (M.U.S.I.C.), a coalition of several organizations working to end segregation in Milwaukee's public schools.

M.U.S.I.C. met at the church regularly, and three times the church hosted the group's Freedom Schools. M.U.S.I.C. opened them to keep students learning while it organized boycotts of the city's schools. The Freedom Schools taught African American history and culture and the methods of nonviolent direct-action protest.

When these efforts failed to move the school board, the coalition went to court, and in 1976 it won its federal lawsuit.

Recognition

St. Matthew C.M.E. Church joined the African American Civil Rights Network in 2024. Created by the African American Civil Rights Act of 2017 and coordinated by the National Park Service, the network recognizes the movement and the sacrifices of those who fought discrimination and segregation, and tells the stories of its people, places and events through public and private properties, facilities and programs.

Sources

Based on "St. Matthew Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)," African American Civil Rights Network, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.