Madison police shooting forces liberal city to look at race gap

Protestors raise their fists in solidarity outside the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in Madison, March 11, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

 She is one of about 1,000 black students at the university's Madison campus, which has 42,800 people enrolled.

Arrest, incarceration and poverty rates in Dane County - which includes Madison - tell the story of a black underclass.

A recent report by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families said that Dane County's racial disparities are more extreme than elsewhere in the state and across the United States.

ARREST DISPARITY

In 2012, the report said, eight African American adults were arrested in Dane County for every one white adult arrested, more than triple the national black-white arrest disparity of 2.5 to 1.

"We have failed to provide opportunities and we have failed to provide resources, but we do not fail to lock their asses up," said Brandi Grayson, a member of the Young Gifted and Black Coalition.

As in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, a town of 21,000 that is about two-thirds black, traffic stops show racial disparities as well.

Despite school and city initiatives to address racial disparities, half of Madison's black residents do not graduate high school, a third live in poverty and a fourth do not have a job.

Protesters have praised Madison Police Chief Michael Koval, who is white, for pledging transparency and apologizing for the shooting, but said the city still needed to make changes.