Rafael Smith is Helping Restore his North Side
“My passion comes from being a Black man born in the city of Milwaukee during a period of time where deindustrialization was destroying all our institutions that we held dear,” says Rafael Smith, the Civic Engagement Program Director at Citizen Action of Wisconsin. Smith is deeply committed to moving Milwaukee forward on climate action and equity by helping his North Side, community understand how climate change impacts their lives.
For Smith, taking action on climate is personal—it’s not just about saving the planet, it’s also about building back an economy and restoring middle class jobs to areas, like the North Side that were left behind when the industrialization boom ended.
Smith’s story starts with his grandfather, who has a similar story to many Black men in Milwaukee. His grandfather came to the city when he got a manufacturing job at the historic A.O. Smith plant, which still sits on 27th and Hopkins as an ominous reminder of what the neighborhood used to be. He worked there for 35 years before retiring in the ‘70s, but tens of thousands of other workers lost their jobs in the early 2000s when A.O. Smith shut its doors and left families in the surrounding neighborhoods with a broken economy. “What was left was what I grew up in,” says Smith. “I grew up sharing this deep grief, this loss of what was.”
Similar to many people in his community, Smith never felt strongly about climate change because he was focused on, what he thought, were more pressing needs like housing and utility disconnections. His understanding shifted when he got to Citizen Action and met Executive Director Robert Kraig. “I realized we are a frontline community and we’re already dealing with the effects of climate now—we just don’t understand it,” says Smith.
Countless studies have shown that “climate change disproportionately affect[s] communities of color—particularly Black Americans,” as stated in the recent study published by the Nelson Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 2018, Smith has been at the center of the climate justice movement in Milwaukee, ensuring that communities of color have a seat at the table as the city makes plans to improve the climate and build new jobs.
He was there for the initial discussions that established the City-County Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity, which the City and County of Milwaukee created to meet the goals of the Paris Accord. When he came to Citizen Action, he helped establish the North Side Rising Co-op, which is an initiative that works with Milwaukee’s North Side residents to encourage engagement in climate initiatives.
Having grown up on the North Side, Smith understands the message that resonates with residents: “We are connecting the lost history of what used to be to what could be again.” Smith and his growing team of organizers are meeting with residents to learn how they want their future to look. The Citizen Action team is providing resources to help the community give their input on the City-County Task Force plan and show them other ways they can get involved in the climate movement.
Over the last few years working with his community, Smith says he has been awed by the resilience in his community. “Even in the middle of a pandemic and the George Floyd protests, people still found time to care about other people… I think we got deeper in community.” It seems the challenges of 2020 only made his community stronger and their efforts to build back the neighborhood are only just beginning.
Learn more about Rafael Smith’s current work with the North Side Rising Co-op.
Read this story on the Shepherd Express, part of the column Hero of the Week.