Feb. 21, 2024 – As a student, an in-house counsel, and senior counsel at Husch Blackwell LLP, Melissa Caulum Williams has seen it happen again and again: Black talent leaving Madison upon graduation or after only a few years on the job.

It’s a big reason why only 2% of the attorneys in Dane County are Black.

“Diversity is something we want to be able to retain in our firms and our companies,” Williams said. “But if we lose Black talent because they decide Madison isn’t a good place to be, that’s really a lost opportunity for the legal profession.”

Rev. Dr. Alex Gee believes that the Center for Black Excellence and Culture, an innovative cultural center planned for Madison’s historic south side, would go a long way toward reversing the flight of Black talent.

Gee, lead pastor at Fountain of Life Church and president and founder of the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development, said the center would be unique.

“Nothing like this exists in the state, the region, or the country – especially one that’s Black-led and Black-designed,” Gee said.

‘We Don’t Know Each Other’

“We want to change that narrative and make Madison feel like home to the Black community by focusing on the cultural needs of our community,” said Rev. Dr. Alex Gee, lead pastor at Fountain of Life Church and president and founder of the Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development.

The 37,000-square foot center would occupy three levels on land off West Badger Road, near Fountain of Life Church.

The center would house a kitchen, an art gallery, a recording studio, a fitness room, and two theaters. It would host lectures, performances, and film festivals and offer STEM courses.

Planning for the center’s operations is being handled by Lord Cultural Resources, a cultural planning firm that worked on the National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C.

Gee said the idea for the center grew out of conversations with community members.

“In the last few years, I’ve talked to over 700 Black Madison-area influencers and asked, ‘What would make Madison feel like home?’” Gee said.

“They said. ‘A place to meet, a place to gather … There’s a Black middle class but we don’t see each other, we don’t know each other, and there’s no place to celebrate our culture and the best of us.’”

Road Trips

Too often, Gee said, the lack of a gathering space forces Black Madisonians to travel in search of community.

“They talked about going to Milwaukee and the Twin Cities and St. Louis and Detroit for cultural gatherings, and I grew up doing that as a Madisonian,” Gee said.

According to Gee, the center would do more than provide a gathering space. It would also serve as a monument to Black achievement.

Too often, Gee said, when the majority “thinks about our community, they think about what’s pejorative and what needs to be fixed.”

Planning for the center has been propelled by a desire to flip the script on that thinking, Gee said.

“What if we strengthened our community by grounding everything in Black excellence and in our history of perseverance and innovation and vision, and what if we led from our strength and not what people perceive as our weaknesses?” Gee said. “It caught traction with folks.”

Rev. Dr. Alex Gee believes that the Center for Black Excellence and Culture, an innovative cultural center planned for Madison’s historic south side, would go a long way toward reversing the flight of Black talent.

‘She Doesn’t Want to Handle Madison’

Gee said the center would be vital to attracting and retaining Black lawyers.

He said one reason Black attorneys make up only 2% of the bar in Dane County is that while they can score interviews and get jobs in Madison, they don’t want to live there.

Gee cites his niece as an example. She works as a lawyer for a large company headquartered in Madison but lives in California.

“She doesn’t mind working in Madison but she will not live in Madison,” Gee said. “She went to La Follette High School, she went to U.W.-Madison – she can handle Madison, but she doesn’t want to handle Madison,” Gee said.

The center aims to disrupt that dynamic.

“We want to change that narrative and make Madison feel like home to the Black community by focusing on the cultural needs of our community,” Gee said.

‘Don’t Call Yourself a World-class City’

Gee said the center would also help improve the health of Black residents in Madison.

“Microaggressions are having an impact on Black wellness,” Gee said. “We want to enhance Black wellness by creating spaces for Black thriving and Black joy. The center will be that space.”

“Madison works so hard to boast about how it’s welcoming for everyone that it doesn’t take the time to ask everyone, ‘What does welcoming feel like for you?’” Gee said.

Gee said Black leaders are leaving Wisconsin and northern states for southern states. The reasons for that, Gee said, go beyond the weather or public services.

“When I talk to the people who are leaving, they’re not leaving because they can’t get bus vouchers,” Gee said. “They’re leaving for other reasons.”

To compete in an age when remote work is on the rise, Gee said, Madison and its business and legal communities must do more.

“The people who can afford to work from anywhere, are going everywhere,” Gee said. “When you don’t have [cultural resources], that’s fine, but then don’t call yourself a world-class city,” Gee said.

Attorney Initiative

The Attorneys for Black Excellence Initiative, which was co-founded by senior counsel at Husch Blackwell LLP, Melissa Caulum Williams, seeks to raise $250,000 of that remaining $3 million from Madison attorneys and law firms.

Gee and his team need another $3 million before they can break ground on the center.

The Attorneys for Black Excellence Initiative, which was co-founded by Williams, seeks to raise $250,000 of that remaining $3 million from Madison attorneys and law firms.

“We’re fundraising in firms in Madison that have the same goal as Husch Blackwell: to be a great firm and to be a place where Black talent wants to come to work and stay and be successful,” Williams said.

Other firms participating in the Attorneys for Black Excellence Initiative are DeWitt LLP, Boardman & Clark LLP, and Perkins Coie LLP.

Williams said she co-founded the initiative after being introduced to Gee by her colleague Sverre Roang, who serves on the center’s central campaign committee, and after hearing Gee speak at Husch Blackwell.

“We’ve been a connecting point between law firms and the center to create interest among attorneys and firms for this cause,” Williams said.

“We want to get other firms involved and we want them to hear from Dr. Gee and the folks on the ground level with the center, to hear them tell why this is so important for Madison.”

“If we had something like the center, it would give Madison firms and companies a better chance of attracting and retaining diverse talent,” Williams said.

‘They’ll Be Told by Us’

Gee said the center would be a boon to law firms when recruiting Black attorneys.

“When they’re recruiting clients and attorneys, they’ll have a place where they can go and say, ‘Here’s a place where Black attorneys and business leaders gather for a luncheon once a month,’” Gee said. “It will help them showcase Madison.”

Gee emphasized that the center would be a place where people from all races and backgrounds could go to learn cultural appreciation, so Madison can “grow leaders who can benefit from diversity and help accelerate diversity.”

But he said the center’s success will be tied to its status as a Black-led space.

“We’ll be able to offer our stories, our music, our plays to the broader community, but they’ll be told by us – they won’t be told in blackface,” Gee said.

“People will get to experience true Black culture as told by the Black community.”