"They're Moving North": Milwaukee, the Media, and the Murder of Barbara Anderson

Acknowledgements

    First and foremost, I could never have begun this project without my parents, Elizabeth Bast and Ronald Schultz, both of whom were sociology graduate students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at the time of the Anderson case. Tristan Adams, a film student at UWM, filmed the interviews with Doug Hissom and David Bernacchi, as well as footage of the mall itself which is not used in this incarnation of the project.

    A large part of this project was based on primary sources, especially files released by the Milwaukee Police Department Open Records office, and those received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation through a Freedom of Information Act request. The police records particularly form the basis of “Chapter 1: ‘A real family man’.” Other primary sources include articles from the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel, accessed via microfilm at the Milwaukee Public Library and the Seeley G. Mudd Library at Lawrence University. Articles from other newspapers were generally retrieved from Newspapers.com.

    “Chapter 2: Race relations and retail locations” substantially uses Bootstrap New Urbanism: Design, Race, and Redevelopment in Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Lexington Books, 2014) by Joseph A. Rodriguez as a source, especially the chapter “Shopping Malls, New Urbanism, and Bronzeville” (pp. 161-184).

    Since a primary focus of this paper is the role of the Milwaukee media, particularly local television news, in the murder’s after-effects, it is unfortunate that all of the major Milwaukee television stations (WTMJ, WITI, WISN, and WDJT) declined requests for access to their relevant archival recordings. By contrast, National Public Radio, and its Milwaukee member station WUWM, were cooperative and together provided four archival recordings.

    At Lawrence University, my advisor Professor Jerald Podair helped guide this project toward a manageable scope and size, alongside reference librarian Gretchen Revie. Andrew McSorley coordinated the interactive digital component of the project, which runs on Scalar, a platform created by The Alliance for Networking Visual Culture at the University of Southern California. A full bibliography can be found at the end of the traditional paper-format version of this project, accessible here. I hereby reaffirm the Lawrence University Honor Code.

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