"....Fifty years after the US supreme court passed the landmark decision of Brown v Board of Education, which concluded that the policy of separate schools for white and black children was unequal and unconstitutional, thus outlawing segregation, Milwaukee is the most segregated city for blacks and whites in the country, according to the US census bureau. The November 2002 report measured residential segregation in the nation's larger cities using five indices, calculating clustering, concentration, centralisation, isolation and dissimilarity in the living patterns of different racial groups. The most widely used was the dissimilarity index, which determined what proportion of a minority population would have to be dispersed within a given city for each neighbourhood to have a representative racial make-up. In Milwaukee, 82% of the black population would have to move for each area to reflect the city's racial diversity.

Milwaukee narrowly beat Detroit to finish top of the nation's segregation league. Most black people shrugged at the news. "Not much has changed here in the last 40 years, so it didn't surprise me," says Allison. ....

....The local congressman declared he would call for legislation to provide greater scrutiny of the census bureau. "We don't want a federal agency coming out with skewed data," he said.

John Gurda, a local historian, does not share that indignation, but questions a survey that places Milwaukee so far ahead of other cities he knows with strong levels of segregation, such as Boston (17th) and Washington DC (23rd). "It depends how you skin the cat," he says, referring to data selection. "But there's an American racial problem, and it's obvious here. To some degree, perception drives reality."

If the differing perceptions of April's mayoral elections are anything to go by, it is difficult to see how the city could be any more racially divided. The two candidates in the run-off were Marvin Pratt, an African-American who was already acting mayor, and Tom Barrett, a former US congressman who is white. Eight days before the election, Pratt was charged with five civil counts of breaking campaign finance rules, primarily, it seemed, due to sloppy accounting.

Both the local paper and his opponent seized on the charges, which Pratt described as "mistakes not misdeeds"; he was fined $2,500. Most African-Americans regarded these attacks as racially motivated; most whites saw them as justified. On polling day, the vote split almost entirely along racial lines, with whites voting for Barrett and blacks and Hispanics for Pratt. Milwaukee has a population of around 600,000 - 45% are white, 38% are black and 12% are Hispanic. Pratt lost the election, 46% to 54%. His campaign slogan had been, "It's Time." ...."

Knowing American history as it is taught in the UK... I ain't surprised.