If it takes beer to get people interested in history, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the view of John Harry, a history graduate student who has focused his research on beer and Black capitalism.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
As he looked into university history programs and topics he could write about, his advisors suggested that his idea of focusing on \u201cAmerican history\u201d was a bit broad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been collecting beer antiques and memorabilia for my whole life, so I said, \u2018What about beer history?\u2019 and they said that sounded fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n
That subject started Harry off in a whole new direction. While researching an old brewery in Oshkosh, he came across another long-closed brewery that had been located across the street \u2013 \u201cPeoples Brewing Company,\u201d Wisconsin\u2019s first and only Black-owned brewery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was kind of my entry into beer history, but it\u2019s not just beer history,\u201d said Harry. \u201cThat\u2019s what gets people interested, but it was more a story about Black capitalism\u2026how the Black community was trying to build its own capitalism during the Civil Rights era.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Peoples Beer only lasted a few years under Black ownership, but Harry\u2019s research led to unexpected connections and a broader exploration of Black entrepreneurship in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
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 of Peoples. A retired lighting technician, Crosby was a beer memorabilia collector himself. Although Henry Crosby had died in 2012, Craig Crosby and his family were delighted that someone was taking an interest in the company\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Crosby had a collection of Peoples memorabilia, and shared company and family history with Harry. \u201cThere were things that I knew that he didn\u2019t, and so we were able to throw some stuff back and forth, and that was kind of cool,\u201d Crosby said.<\/p>\n
Harry, a home brewer, even found the original recipe for Peoples and brewed up a batch for a project and shared a six-pack with Crosby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough this we\u2019ve become friends,\u201d said Crosby. \u201cI\u2019ve told him his research made me feel really good. I\u2019m glad that somebody took an interest in what my dad and the group tried to do. The fact that John was doing what he was doing to bring that information back out really made me happy. If my dad was still alive he\u2019d approve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of Peoples was broader than just brewing beer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMack had made large investments trying to get the beer into the urban areas that he hoped would respond to the Peoples cause. He really wanted Peoples to be the beer of Black culture in America,\u201d Harry wrote for the blog Good Beer Hunting. The brewery failed for a variety of reasons \u2013 the support from the Black community wasn\u2019t as strong as the entrepreneurs had hoped, federal contracts that had been promised didn\u2019t materialize and larger, white-owned breweries forced out many smaller brewers.<\/p>\n
In addition to working with Crosby to gather more of the oral history of the company, Harry flew to Atlanta last January \u2013 just before the pandemic \u2013 to interview 84-year-old Pearl Mack, the widow of Theodore Mack. While the Mack family is working on its own testimonial and history, she shared some of her memories of Peoples.<\/p>\n
Families can provide a unique perspective, Harry said. He hopes to continue sharing the story and working with the Black community on other research on Black business and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the duties of historians in modern times is to find the stories that have not been reported on, and Black capitalism through the lens of brewing is one of those stories. In most academic work, it might be a footnote somewhere,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing a white male who comes from privilege, I have to approach this with a sense that I have a lot of empathy, but this is not my experience. I have to tell the story from that perspective, being as respectful as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
One factor that gets overlooked in a lot of discussion about racial equity is the challenge of access to capital, Harry said. \u201cBeer history is kind of an entry into a topic that otherwise might be more difficult for some people and communities to approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry plans to receive his master\u2019s degree in public history in May 2021 and go on for a doctorate, building on his research to look more broadly at Black capitalism in his dissertation.<\/p>\n
He came to 51ÁÔÆæ for the graduate degree because he liked the program, the people in the department and the city. \u201cMilwaukee\u2019s a great city with all the festivals and concerts in normal times. Even if these aren\u2019t normal times, there\u2019s no place else I\u2019d rather be. I love being a Milwaukeean.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Harry has no regrets about his career switch. \u201cThe radio industry doesn\u2019t pay that well, so the vow of poverty you have to take as a grad student wasn\u2019t that much of a change,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cI always joke that I tried to find a career that paid less than radio and here I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has made his choice to make public history his future. \u201cI\u2019m not just stopping at a master\u2019s. My wife is very supportive of all this. I\u2019m a little older, so this is my chance to do this. Even though it\u2019s hard sometimes, it\u2019s very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Kathy Quirk<\/strong>, University Relations<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If it takes beer to get people interested in history, that\u2019s fine. That\u2019s the view of John Harry, a history graduate student who has focused his research on beer and Black capitalism. In his early 30s, Harry decided he wanted …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28112,"featured_media":15553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[1715],"tags":[1854],"class_list":["post-15547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus-2021","tag-april"],"yoast_head":"\n