“I have an urgency around helping black women and mothers,” says Annie Weatherby-Flowers. “We can do all of the research we want to do in terms of third grade reading scores, disparities in schools, etc., but until we help and equip single, young mothers who have not been prepared themselves … we will still be struggling for the next 10 years and beyond.”

Weatherby-Flowers has spent most of her career trying to make a difference in people’s lives who need it the most in Madison whether it be through her work at the City of Madison’s Department of Civil Rights Equal Opportunities Division or as founder (along with Mona Adams Winston) of Kujichagulia-Madison Center for Self-Determination, a non-profit that promotes African-American cultural and educational events here in Madison.

“I want to make a difference because it was women in Milwaukee who grabbed hold of my hand and helped me over the hurdles that I faced,” Weatherby-Flowers tells Madison365. “We have to do that as a community. We have the resources and influential allies here to do that … but how do we engage them in true change? How do we make outsiders insiders and how do we make insiders outsiders? How do we connect folks so they can see the humanity of others?”

Weatherby-Flowers grew up in a very segregated Milwaukee which differs from Madison in that the black community leaders often lived right down the street from the poorest families in the neighborhood. Weatherby-Flowers has been in Madison for decades but she says she’s a little disappointed with progress that the City of Madison has made in lessening its racial disparities.

“People can be well-intentioned here in Madison, but many do not have any idea what the day-to-day struggle is like for a poor single mother in this city,” she says. “I’ve been there. I know the struggles of a teen mom and a single parent. I know the struggles of a black woman. I think those of us who have found the pathway out, we need to reach back and help.”

Annie Weatherby-Flowers (right) and Mona Winston at Madison's Juneteenth Celebration
Annie Weatherby-Flowers (right) and Mona Winston at Madison’s Juneteenth Celebration

For 26 years, Weatherby-Flowers has organized Madison’s Juneteenth Festival — a celebration in Madison that features exhibits, soul food, music, performances, kids’ events and a whole lot more on Madison’s south side. Despite her decades of work in Madison, not many people outside of the African-American community have never heard of her. But Weatherby-Flowers is OK with that. She’s a person who does a lot of her work and advocacy behind the scenes. She doesn’t seek the spotlight. “I’ve always admired the quiet, gentle giants like the Rev. [James C.] Wright and Dr. [Floyd] Rose who do so much behind the scenes things to make Madison a better city for everybody,” Weatherby-Flowers says. “So, that’s where I am at, too.”

A graduate of Edgewood College (bachelor’s of science in psychology and a master’s of arts in education), Weatherby-Flowers is a licensed clinical substance abuse counselor and worked for a number of years in human services as an AODA prevention/intervention specialist and substance abuse counselor, primarily with the Dane County Mental Health Center (Journey Mental Health Center). She has worked for other agencies including UJIMA Counseling Services, ARC Community Services, ATTIC Correctional Services, Stoughton Hospital Share Program and Madison Inner City Council on Substance Abuse, Inc.

She is currently employed in the city of Madison Department of Civil Rights in the Equal Opportunity arm where she is an Investigator/Conciliator II. Through the years, she has worked under Madison civil rights activists like Dr. Rev. Richard Wright and Dr. Anthony Brown. “They both worked very hard to always keep civil rights issues on the forefront,” Weatherby-Flowers says. “I feel like we’ve moved away from that and we really need to re-brand ourselves in some ways.

“Social justice is a notion that people buy into but civil rights are the law. They are solid. They won’t necessarily shift by whatever the political climate is like,” she adds. “But the bottom line is that poor folks and people of color are not progressing at the rate of their more affluent counterparts. It’s the laws that give them a boost moreso than initiatives.”

Weatherby-Flowers was involved extensively in many of the initiatives that the City of Madison has had over the years around race and equity, particularly under former Mayor Sue Bauman in the ‘90s with the Taskforce on Race Relations Recommendations. “After being around these tables for 20-something years, it’s sad to see that we are still dealing with the same communities and the same issues,” she says. “But now, we are dealing with the grandchildren of the folks from the ‘90s. In some ways, as a city we just haven’t gotten it.

“People are now responding to the Race to Equity report, but I don’t think that was new information …not in our communities, anyways,” she adds. “Dr. Zachary Cooper was dealing with that in 1980 prior to the big migrations of people from larger municipalities like Chicago. It’s not a new thing.”

“People need to be intrinsically motivated for change to happen in Madison. If I never know what it’s like to live in bad housing, with trauma, with zero safety net, it’s hard to truly make change … somehow, we need to bring our overall community closer to the reality of what that is. As long as I know I can see something that is troublesome but then go back to my nice, comfortable home, it becomes difficult more me to have passion to fix it. We need to become committed to really understanding what people go through in this city.”

With all this in mind, Weatherby-Flowers says her next step in life is to develop her own non-profit that uses her access and her unique experiences to make a difference in the community. Weatherby-Flowers’ passion has always been around black women and she wants to use her wisdom, experience, and skills to help improve the community in a significant way. Her new non-profit, she says, would be called something like “Village Advocate.”

“Women in our community need advocates who can help them navigate through the social service system, employment, the criminal justice system, housing, etc.,” she says. “What are the rules of engagement in the city of Madison? We welcome people to Madison but we never really tell them about what Madison is really like and some of the intrinsic racism here.

“Many of us, unfortunately, are two or three paychecks from poverty. That’s the reality of it … the reality of not having wealth to fall back on,” she adds. “Not having all of the boosts that other folks have that they take for granted. So, we need to make it a priority to educate our people and deal with issues of self-worth.”

Weatherby-Flowers would like to see a more constant focus and determination to fix the racial disparities here in Madison. To put an end to this constant ebbing and flowing of Madison “concern” for racial disparities in Madison, Weatherby-Hayes feels that, ultimately, people need to spend more time in other’s people’s shoes.

“Back when I was working with AODA, they brought these goggles out where you could simulate what it’s like to be drunk and driving. I’m not a drinker, so the reality of what I experienced through those goggles was amazing in terms of changing your mind and experience … the reality that it connected you to,” she says. “So, if there was some way we could put some goggles on folks here in Madison so people could walk down the road in black shoes, I think it would make a tremendous difference.

“People need to be intrinsically motivated for change to happen in Madison,” she adds. “If I never know what it’s like to live in bad housing, with trauma, with zero safety net, it’s hard to truly make change … somehow, we need to bring our overall community closer to the reality of what that is. As long as I know I can see something that is troublesome but then go back to my nice, comfortable home, it becomes difficult more me to have passion to fix it. We need to become committed to really understanding what people go through in this city.

“And at some point we have to do something different,” she adds, “…because we’ve been drinking the same coffee for too long.”