Author

Eugene Kane

Eugene Kane

Eugene Kane is a national award winning journalist and former longtime columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He has received awards for his journalism from the National Headliner Awards, the National Association of Black Journalists, The Society of Professional Journalists and is a member of the Milwaukee Press Club Media Hall of Fame.

COMMENTARY
U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris flank former Vice President Joe Biden at the second Democratic presidential debate in Detroit. (Photos by Andrew Roth)

Black voters to the rescue 

By: - April 1, 2020

When senior campaign advisor Symone Sanders threw herself at a vegan protester who disrupted Joe Biden’s Super Tuesday victory speech, it was a fitting metaphor for the 2020 presidential campaign. Once again, an African-American saved a Democratic presidential nominee in peril. It was particularly fitting that it was an African-American woman, part of a group […]

COMMENTARY
The Legislative Black Caucus hosts a Black History Month kick-off press conference with guests LG Mandela Barnes & Gov. Tony Evers

Black History Month revisited

By: - February 19, 2020

During one of his frequent visits to Milwaukee, the late African-comedian Dick Gregory cracked a joke during a Black History Month ceremony:  “Y’all know they just had to give us the one month with all them messed up days, don’t you?” The joke, in front of a predominantly African-American audience, received the expected laughs and […]

COMMENTARY
28th August 1963: American minister and civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929 - 1968) waves to the crowd of more than 200,000 people gathered on the Mall during the March on Washington after delivering his 'I Have a Dream' speech, Washington, DC. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

What would MLK make of our current politics?

By: - January 20, 2020

What would Dr. Martin King Jr. have thought about the 2020 Democratic presidential field? My guess is King would look at the current roster of Democratic candidates and wonder aloud: “Where are the candidates of color?” He would likely be excited at a woman being a top contender and encouraged that there have been Asian, […]

COMMENTARY
Rep. Gwen Moore at a Milwaukee early vote rally (Creative Commons CC BY 2.0)

It’s all about Black Milwaukee

By: - December 19, 2019

Apparently, the 2020 presidential election is all about Black Milwaukee. The national consensus, after the 2016 election that delivered Donald Trump to the White House against most predictions of a Hillary Clinton landslide, is that the relatively low turnout in several Midwest states — including Wisconsin — caused the stunning results that turned America on […]

Red image of the letter "N"

The N word

By: - November 14, 2019

It has just two syllables but the word itself has a power fraught with history and pain. As an African-American journalist, I have observed over the decades as the word has been used to both to galvanize and to inflame. It is a word that has spawned multiple essays, opinion pieces, books and even university […]

Sheriff Earnell Lucus in a suit in a library setting

New sheriff in town 

By: - October 15, 2019

Earnell Lucas has been Milwaukee County sheriff for less than a year but he celebrated an anniversary recently. Lucas recognized his 44th year in a professional law enforcement career that began when he was a Milwaukee Police Department officer, later a police captain and then a professional security manager for Major League Baseball that led […]

COMMENTARY
Tom Barrett talking with an African American factory worker while campaigning for governor in 2010

Tom Barrett’s black voter problem 

By: - September 10, 2019

Could 2020 be the year Milwaukee finally elects a black mayor? Mayor Tom Barrett will run for his fifth term as mayor next year. As the incumbent, he is and is the commonly accepted favorite, but changing demographics and political realities in the city could make a difference. State Sen. Lena Taylor is the first […]

COMMENTARY
Mandela Barnes and Tony Evers in Milwaukee

Mandela Barnes’ rocky start

By: - August 28, 2019

When Mandela Barnes was elected lieutenant governor of Wisconsin on a ticket with Gov. Tony Evers, it was an historic occasion in Wisconsin politics. Barnes wasn’t the first African-American ever to hold the title of lieutenant governor nationally —there have been numerous lieutenant governors in other states who have been minorities—but for Wisconsin, it was […]