Nate Gilliam is the co-founder and director of Milwaukee Freedom Fund and a Public Voices Fellow of Transformative Justice with The OpEd Project.
Established in May 2020, the organization is a response "to the Uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd, and builds on decades of work to defend and protect Black Lives."
I spoke with Nate on a recent episode of the Fulcrum Democracy Forum (FDF). The program engages citizens in evolving government to better meet all people's needs. Consistent with the Fulcrum's mission, FDF strives to share many perspectives to widen our audience's viewpoints.
We started the conversation with Nate, explaining how the Milwaukee Freedom Fund helps people against the discriminatory cash bail system. "There's a huge incarceration problem around the country, (and) also in Milwaukee, that primarily impacts Black and Brown folks in our city," he said.
According to the organization, in Wisconsin, about one-third of all county jail inmates were locked up because they couldn't pay low-cash bail, and the fastest growing population in the state's jails is people incarcerated without a conviction.
The Fulcrum published Nate's column: Selling Out? The Rightward March of Black Elected Politicians. He wrote: The Black voting bloc is ostensibly the most progressive political bloc in the U.S. Yet many Black politicians appear disconnected to the needs, desires, and aspirations of Black people."
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Nate shared more insights about a column he said was born out of love and frustration. "Love for the people that I am in community with, but also frustrated with Black elected officials. I think particularly here in Milwaukee we have a Black mayor, a Black county executive, Black police chief, Black sheriff, and other high-ranking Black officials, but yet the disparities, the socioeconomic disparities have not lessened, and in some cases they've gotten worse."
Nate's background includes graduating from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, serving on an advisory board, being a lead organizer in the healthcare industry, and being a baseball coach. He told me about his upbringing and what motivates him to do the work he leads. "My parents instilled a great sense of pride in me being Black and loving Black people. I think that is foundational to who I am and how I observe the world. I think another thing that has motivated me is being a parent. Once you start caring for something greater than yourself, then you start logically thinking about the world that they're in. You want to try to help make it better for them."
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Editor's Note: Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network and an accredited Solutions Journalism and Complicating the Narratives trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.
