Our story
From an email to a movement, in under three years.
It began with a conversation. In the summer of 2023, a handful of Black men in Milwaukee started talking about the range of talent and power among us and what it could become if we moved together. That early circle included Minister Byron Johnson, Minister Derrick Rogers, Rev. Walter Lanier, Rev. Greg Lewis, and Equan Burrows, Dean of Students at MATC. On August 25, a letter went out. One month later, nearly fifty men stood in a church basement. This is the record of what followed — gathering by gathering, year by year.
Summer 2023 — some of the brothers who began the conversation. From left: Equan Burrows, Greg Lewis, Derrick Rogers, Byron Johnson, and Walter Lanier.
Each milestone is tagged by the kind of work it represents — a picture of how much moves across how many fronts. Tap any one to see the photos.
The letter that started it all
Then President & CEO of AALAM, Rev. Walter Lanier drafts the call to organize Black men, and it goes out to men across the city
View photos →First convening — Progressive Baptist Church
Nearly fifty Black men gather in the basement to name the state of Black men in Milwaukee and commit to organizing together. The beginning of everything.
View photos →Breakout visioning session
A virtual session with about thirty men shapes the early themes: youth development, health and wellness, economics, and civic power.
View photos →"Black Men & the State of Black Milwaukee"
A second in-person convening, hosted with AALAM, produces a draft Black Male Achievement timeline spanning 1980 to the present.
View photos →Advocacy: support letters for Vaun Mayes
Walter Lanier and Derrick Rogers submit letters of support ahead of a federal court hearing — BMO's first public advocacy on behalf of community members.
View photos →MKE Black Male Empowerment Summit
Roughly 150 men gather at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Surveys capture the priorities of the room — including the vision responses BMO still quotes today.
View photos →Local primary — voter mobilization
BMO begins organizing around civic engagement and turnout.
View photos →Civic & voter education event
Co-organized with AALAM and the Greater Milwaukee Urban League to mobilize men around accountability and participation.
View photos →Candidate forum at MATC
Hosted in partnership with 100 Black Men and the Greater Milwaukee Urban League — about sixty attend.
View photos →Advocacy: juvenile justice
A letter to Judge Carroll urging treatment over incarceration for a young person.
View photos →State of Black Milwaukee convening
A gathering at Progressive Baptist Church (~55–60 men) names the issues: education, civic engagement, financial empowerment, incarceration, reparations, and health equity.
View photos →Financial literacy webinar
On economic justice and wealth-building — the economics committee's early public work.
View photos →Steering committee formalized
Lanier, Lewis, Barnett, Winston, Rogers, Lawson, Jackson, Burrows, and Addison anchor the leadership roster. Weekly Friday calls become the movement's engine.
View photos →State of Black Milwaukee Convening
Community gathering and strategic alignment session focusing on local empowerment and action plan for Black Milwaukee.
View photos →Black Men Vote — general election
Get-out-the-vote activity across the city — fellowship, and a group photo.
View photos →Advocacy: SDC support letter
A community-wide letter supporting the revival of the Social Development Commission, signed by BMO and more than fifty organizations and leaders.
Read the letter →Committees formally launched
Standing committees are established. Three become the active engines — Youth & Education, Health & Wellness, and Black Wealth & Economics — while Brotherhood, Organizing, and Action stand as the movement's core values. The mantra: less meetings, more action.
View photos →Committee build-up & launch
At Progressive Baptist Church, teams work three questions — what do we need to learn, to share, to do — and move to monthly action meetings.
View photos →Committee leads debrief
Chairs align on summer programming: the walk/run, a unity gathering, and youth advocacy.
View photos →Monthly gathering: Building Brotherhood
Fellowship, storytelling, financial literacy, and a youth-violence dialogue, with school-board representation present.
View photos →Men's Gathering — 400 strong
More than four hundred men are counted among the brotherhood. Focus areas: Brotherhood, Youth, Health.
View photos →Running Rebels intergenerational meeting
Youth speakers and committee report-outs across health, wealth, and youth & education.
View photos →Youth Justice memo
Strategy with Victor Barnett on a county grant, with connections to David Muhammad and Ray Banks.
View photos →Matthew Johnson's 5K Walk/Run
BMO men turn out for the walk/run — the health committee's flagship public moment, and the event BMO would later take on as its own.
View photos →Intergenerational Dialogue on Black Health
Co-hosted with Running Rebels and led by Kevin Izzard, as the health & wellness committee's partnership with the Medical College of Wisconsin on prostate-cancer awareness deepens.
View photos →Advocacy: the WHEDA housing letter
Through GLUE, BMO's Black Wealth & Economics Committee writes to the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Agency — proposing that WHEDA leverage its surplus dividends to expand housing access across urban and rural Wisconsin, and opening a dialogue that reaches the agency's board and Governor Evers.
Read the letter →First Annual Gathering
The full body convenes at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society with national leader Shawn Dove (Campaign for Black Male Achievement) as keynote. BMO is recognized as part of the national My Brother's Keeper movement, and Great Lakes Urban Empowerment (GLUE) steps forward as institutional backbone.
View photos →The youth enterprise launches
A youth lawn-care and mentorship program begins — young men earning real money under the guidance of mentors.
View photos →The rhythm takes hold
First-Saturday men's wellness gatherings at Running Rebels, monthly intergenerational dialogues, and a prostate-cancer awareness event with live screenings.
View photos →The MKE 5K becomes ours
After turning out for the walk/run, BMO takes it on as its own flagship event — carrying forward Matthew Johnson's work, and the clearest sign yet of the shift from convening to operating.
View photos →Building toward the 5K
Weekly coordination, vendor outreach, city permitting, and registration build toward the MKE 5K Walk/Run in September — alongside a Harry Belafonte documentary screening in the works.
Coming this fallStill being written
The foundation is laid. Now we build and organize.
From one letter to more than four hundred men in under three years. The next entry belongs to the men who show up.