Racine, Wisconsin

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Coordinates: 42°43′34″N 87°48′21″W / 42.72611, -87.80583
Racine, Wisconsin

Nickname: The Belle City of the Lakes^[1]
Location of Racine, Wisconsin
Country	United States
State	Wisconsin
County	Racine
Government
- Mayor	Gary Becker (D)
Area
- Total	18.7 sq mi (48.4 km²)
- Land	15.5 sq mi (40.2 km²)
- Water	3.1 sq mi (8.1 km²)
Elevation	617 ft (188 m)
Population (2006)
- Total	79,592
- Density	5,267.5/sq mi (2,033.8/km²)
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
FIPS code	55-66000^[2]
GNIS feature ID	1572015^[3]
Website: www.cityofracine.org/

Racine is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, located beside Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River.^[4] As of the 2006 census, the city had a total population of 79,592.^[5] It is the county seat of Racine County.^[6]

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Government
5 Education
6 Notable businesses
7 Media
8 Sister cities
9 Notable people from Racine
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

[edit] History

On October 10, 1699, a fleet of eight canoes bearing a party of French explorers entered the mouth of Root River. These were the first known Europeans to visit what is now Racine County. Led by a man named Jonathan Paradise, they founded a French trading post in the area which eventually became a small settlement on Lake Michigan near where the Root River empties into Lake Michigan. "Racine" is French for "root."

In 1832, just after the Blackhawk War, the area surrounding Racine was settled by Yankees from upstate New York.

The mouth of the Root River, Racine, Wisconsin

Gilbert Knapp, a Lake boat captain in 1834, founded the settlement of Port Gilbert at the place where the Root River empties into Lake Michigan. The area was previously called Kipi Kawi and Chippecotton by the indigenous peoples, both names for the Root River. The name "Port Gilbert" was never really accepted, and in 1841 the community was incorporated as the village of Racine. After Wisconsin's statehood was granted in 1848 the new legislature voted in August to incorporate Racine as a city.

Before the American Civil War, Racine was well known for its strong opposition to slavery. Many slaves escaping to freedom via the Underground Railroad passed through the city. In 1854 Joshua Glover, an escaped slave who had made a home in Racine, was arrested by federal marshals and taken to a jail in Milwaukee. One hundred men from Racine, and ultimately 5,000 Wisconsinites, rallied and broke into the jail to free him. He was helped to escape to Canada. Glover's rescue gave rise to many legal complications and a great deal of litigation. This eventually lead to the Wisconsin Supreme Court declaring the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 unconstitutional, and later, the Wisconsin State Legislature refusing to recognize the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Waves of immigrants, including Danes, Germans, and Czechs began to settle in Racine between the Civil War and the First World War. African Americans started arriving in large numbers during World War I, as they did in other Midwestern industrial towns, and Mexicans started migrating to Racine from roughly 1925 onward.

Unitarians from New England initially dominated Racine's religious life, as they did in other parts of the Upper Midwest before 1880. Racine's Emmaus Lutheran Church is the oldest Danish Lutheran Church in North America, founded on August 22, 1851. Emmaus Lutheran, originally a founding member of the Danish American Lutheran Church, has subsequently been a member of the United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (UDELCA), the American Lutheran Church (ALC), and, since 1988, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Racine was a factory town almost from the very beginning. The first industry in Racine County included the manufacture of Fanning mills, machines that separated wheat grain from chaff. Racine also had its share of captains of industry, including J. I. Case (heavy equipment), and S.C. Johnson (cleaning and chemical products). Racine's harbor was very central to the shipping industry in the late 1800s. Racine furthermore was an early car manufacturing center. One of the world's first automobiles was allegedly built there in 1871 or 1872 by Dr. J. W. Cathcart,^[7], as was the Pennington Victoria tricycle,^[8] the Mitchell,^[9] and the Case^[10]

In 1887, malted milk was invented by Englishman William Horlick in Racine, and Horlicks remains a global brand. The garbage disposal was invented in 1927 by architect John Hammes of Racine. He founded the company InSinkErator in Racine, which still produces millions of garbage disposers a year. In addition, Racine is the home of Johnson Wax, with its headquarters designed in 1936 by Frank Lloyd Wright, who also designed the Wingspread Conference Center and two homes in Racine. The city is also home to the Dremel Corporation as well as Twin Disc.

Racine claims to be the largest North American settlement of Danes outside of Greenland. Racine is particularly known for its Danish pastries, especially kringle. Several bakeries have been featured on the Food Network.^[11]^[12]

The city is also known for its large prom celebration, which combines the students from all the high schools in the city at an after party. This was featured in the radio show This American Life in Episode #186 "Prom", originally aired on June 8, 2001.^[13]

[edit] Geography

Racine is located at 42°43′34″N, 87°48′21″W (42.726052, -87.805873).^[14]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.7 square miles (48.4 km²), of which, 15.5 square miles (40.2 km²) of it is land and 3.1 square miles (8.1 km²) of it (16.76%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

City of Racine Population by year ^[15] [2]
1880	29,105
1890	32,934
1900	38,076
1910	46,532
1920	58,638
1930	67,592
1940	67,217
1950	71,543
1960	89,107
1970	95,234
1980	85,796
1990	84,367
2000	81,855
2005	77,277
2006	79,592

As of the census of 2000,^[5] there were 81,855 people, 31,449 households, and 20,405 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,267.6 people per square mile (2,033.7/km²). There were 33,414 housing units at an average density of 2,150.3/sq mi (830.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 68.91% White, 20.32% African American, 0.40% Native American, 0.61% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 7.14% from other races, and 2.57% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.95% of the population.

There were 31,449 households out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.2% were married couples living together, 17.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 29.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.15.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.7% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 19.2% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 95.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,164, and the median income for a family was $45,150. Males had a median income of $35,079 versus $24,279 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,705. About 10.8% of families and 13.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.6% of those under age 18 and 6.6% of those aged 65 or over.

[edit] Government

The government of the City of Racine is divided into executive and legislative branches. The mayor is the chief executive, elected by general election for a term of four years. The mayor appoints commissioners and other officials who oversee the various departments, subject to Common Council approval. The current mayor is Gary Becker, a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition^[16], a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In addition to the mayor, Racine's other citywide elected official is the Municipal Judge. The City Council is the legislative branch and is made up of 15 aldermen, one elected from each district in the city. The council enacts local ordinances and approves the city budget. Government priorities and activities are established in a budget ordinance usually adopted each November. The council takes official action through the passage of ordinances and resolutions.

[edit] Education

[edit] Higher Education

University of Wisconsin-Parkside on the border of Racine and Kenosha. The two cities fought over naming the university due to its geographical location. Since it was located in Kenosha, the city wanted to name the university, the University of Wisconsin-Kenosha; however, Racine wanted to name it the University of Wisconsin-Racine. To accommodate both cities, the university was named for its location near Petrifying Springs Park in Kenosha County.
Gateway Technical College

[edit] Public schools

Racine's public schools are managed by the Racine Unified School District, which oversees twenty-one elementary schools, seven middle schools and five high schools with a combined student population of around 21,000 students.

[edit] High Schools

[edit] Middle Schools

Walden III Middle School
Jerstad Agerholm Middle School
Gilmore Middle School
Henry Mitchell Middle School
McKinley - Middle Charter School
Starbuck Middle School
R.E.A.L. School Middle/High School

[edit] Private Elementary Schools

St. John's Lutheran
St. Lucy's
St. Edward's
St. Joseph's
St. Richard's
Trinity Lutheran School

[edit] Notable businesses

Wind Point Lighthouse

Wind Point Lighthouse – Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
S.C. Johnson and Son Administration Building and Research Tower – Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Racine Zoological Gardens
Historic Horlick Field - Home to the Racine Belles of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and, currently, the Racine Raiders of the North American Football League (NAFL).
Rajo Motor and Manufacturing - a high performance Model T cylinder head manufacturer
Case Corporation - a tractor manufacturer
Rogans Shoes - Family owned, shoe selling company with 32 stores in the Midwest

[edit] Media

Racine is served by the daily newspaper the Journal Times, which is the namesake (but not current owner) of radio station WRJN (1400). The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel publishes a Racine-specific page on Thursdays and a Racine County section on Sundays, while The Insider News covers issues specific to the African-American community.

The city has one television station owned by Weigel Broadcasting, WBME-TV (Channel 49), a station which airs classic drama and sitcom reruns and has their analog transmitter just north of the Milwaukee County line in Oak Creek. For all intents and purposes the station serves all of southeastern Wisconsin, with the station offices located in West Allis and the station's digital transmitter to be located in north Milwaukee's Lincoln Park by the end of 2008. WBME does air a Sunday morning public affairs program called Racine & Me which is devoted to topics of interest to Racine residents.

Other radio stations serving the area are adult contemporary WEZY (92.1) and urban contemporary WKKV (100.7). WEZY specifically targets Racine and Kenosha and is owned locally, while WKKV is a station owned by Clear Channel Communications that although it is licensed to Racine and with a transmitter in the north-central part of Racine County, is targeted towards Milwaukee audiences and has their station offices in Greenfield. Carrier current student radio station WIPZ serves the UW-Parkside area.

[edit] Sister cities

Racine has five sister cities:^[17]

[edit] Notable people from Racine

Harold C. Agerholm, PFC, USMC, World War II marine and Medal of Honor recipient
James Roy Andersen, Brigadier General U.S. Air Forces Pacific 1945, Andersen Air Force Base was named after him
Lillian Andersen, 1933 World's Fair Queen
Kristin Bauer, actress
Chester Beach, inventor (AC/DC electric motor)
Frank Bencriscutto, composer
Olympia Brown, minister and champion of women's suffrage
Caron Butler, NBA basketball player
Joyce Carlson, artist
Jerome I. Case, industrialist (threshing machines)
Jim Chones, NBA basketball player
Laurel Salton-Clark, astronaut; died on reentry in her first space flight on Space Shuttle Columbia
Chester Commodore, Cartoonist - nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twelve times
Ellen Corby, television actress
Marguerite Davis, Codiscoverer of Vitamins A and B.
Albert Dremel, founder of the Dremel company
George N. Gillett Jr, owner of the ice hockey team Montreal Canadiens and co-owner of English Premier League team, Liverpool F.C. and the NASCAR auto racing team Gillett Evernham Motorsports.
Norman Golden II, screen actor
Walter Goodland, oldest Wisconsin governor
George Gorton, inventor and manufacturer of machines
Greg Graffin, lead vocalist of political punk rock band Bad Religion
Ben Greenebaum, emeritus physics professor at University of Wisconsin-Parkside and president of the Bioelectromagnetic Society
Edward P. Haas, investor, industrialist and entrepreneur Haas Tractors
John Hammes, inventor (InSinkErator)
Max Hardcore, porn star
Paul P. Harris, founder of Rotary International
Ben Hecht, author and playwright
Chase M. Hendrix, entrepreneur - Adaptive Easel, Creative Goodwill
Sonja Henning, WNBA player
Kevin Henkes, author and Caldecott Meldal winner
William Horlick, malted milk magnate
Joe Jagersberger, early racecar driver and founder of Rajo Motor and Manufacturing
Abdul Jeelani, NBA basketball player
John L. Jerstad, Major, USAAF, World War II aviator and Medal of Honor recipient
Samuel C. Johnson, industrialist (wax)
William K. Johnson, circus ringmaster
Karel Jonas, Bohemian author and statesman
Jim Jorgensen, entrepreneur – Discovery Zone, AllAdvantage & AllAdvantage.de and Women's Sports Foundation
Gerald L. Karwowski, historian and author
Duane Kuiper, Major League Baseball player
Larry Kusche, commercial pilot and author
Craig Leipold, majority owner of NHL ice hockey team, Minnesota Wild
T.P. Lucas, nationally renowned comedian, founder of 3-M.C. Entertainment
Eric Nelson, award winning performances as a PGA golfer
Fredric March, screen and stage actor
Jim McIlvaine, NBA basketball player
Barbara McNair, television and screen actress
Robert McRay, television and screen actor
Frederick Osius, inventor (electric appliances)
John Oster, manufacturer of the Osterizer (blender appliance)
Edward Piel, Sr, screen actor
Steven Poplawski, inventor of drink mixers and the blender
Shane Rawley, former major league pitcher
Warner Richmond, screen actor
Jack Rogan, founder of family owned business Rogan's Shoes
Johnny Saputo, producer for the Ron & Fez show.
Tom Sorensen, American volleyball player
Keith Stattenfield, Lead Engineer, Apple Computer, Inc
Rose Thering, Racine Dominican Sisters, professor Seton Hall University
Edward H. Wadewitz, Whitman Publishing Company and Golden Books
John Dearborn Walker, Drummer attached to 22nd Regiment. At age 11, the youngest person to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Jamey Walter National Soccer Referee registered in Wisconsin
Lisa Wells, wife of REO Speedwagon lead singer Kevin Cronin
George Wheary, inventor and industrialist