UMOS Cultural And Historical Mural Gets Information Plaque In Milwaukee

WI: Information plaque added to the United Migrant Opportunity Services Mural located at S. 1 St. and W. Historic Mitchell Street in the Southside of Milwaukee.

H. Nelson Goodson, an Immigrant rights and Civil Rights advocate checking out the Southside scenic murals on Tuesday, February 8, 2022.

Goodson's mother, Marla O. Anderson is included in the UMOS history mural that was install on May 20, 2017. Anderson was a well known Immigrant rights and Civil Rights advocate including a higher educational advocate and a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) activist among hundreds of Latino and non-Latino community members who advocated and succeeded in eliminating the unwritten racist barrier that kept Latinos from enrolling at UWM in 1970. https://bit.ly/3rEkgvf

Brief history:

"Discriminatory treatment was the norm," cited from Myraid Magazine UWM 1990.

Anderson's decision to join Jesus Salas, the late Roberto Hernandez, Armando Orellana, the late Dante Navarro and Ernesto Chacon in 1970 led to the actiive participation of hundreds of families to back, join and march in support of the UWM takeover of Chapman Hall to gain access to higher education for Latinos and their children.

Anderson originally from Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico was well known for her leadership and instrumental role in the August 27, 1970 University of Wisconsin Milwaukee takeover of Chapman Hall, where she along with four men, Jesus Salas, Dante Navarro Gregorio "Goyo" Rivera and Jose Luis Huerta-Sanchez were arrested in a peaceful protest. They were protesting UWM's discriminatory policy that prevented Latinos from enrolling.

In 1970, only 14 Hispanic students including Hernandez,  Salas and De la Cruz were enrolled compared to 25,000 White students and there were no Latino faculty at UWM at the time. Anderson's role helped open the doors of education for thousands of Latinos in the state of Wisconsin UW-System. 

Their success in 1970 helped create the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute (SSOI) at UWM, which focus on recruitement, advising and retention of Hispanic university students. The SSOI was later renamed in 1996 the Roberto Hernandez Center and since 1970 thousands of Hispanics have graduated.

Anderson enrolled at UWM and later graduated from the School of Education with a Bachelor of Science degree in May 1978, while raising six children.

UMOS Mural unveiled: https://bit.ly/3syjDCq

Source: Hispanic News Network U.S.A.