Contact: Bill Arnold
(414)286.3285
warnol@milwaukee.gov
It is with great happiness that I can say a longtime friend and mentor figure – Jesús Salas – was honored today at City Hall (along with Reggie Jackson) with the 2017 Frank P. Zeidler Public Service Award.
Mr. Salas is rooted in the 12th District and his garnering of the prestigious Zeidler award brings great pride to the people of my overwhelmingly Hispanic district. I also congratulate Mr. Jackson, a dedicated advocate who has started a local movement that promotes equal rights and education.
Jesús Salas is a third generation migrant worker whose family had traveled from Texas to the Great Lakes region to harvest crops during the full decade of the 1950s. Eventually his family settled in Wisconsin where he graduated from high school and attended UW-Oshkosh. In the 1960s, he recruited children from the migrant worker camps to create the first day care center for migrant workers in the state. Over the years, he studied wages of migrant workers, held marches to improve living and working conditions, and carried out the first migrant worker strike in Wisconsin history. Mr. Salas has served his fellow citizens in many ways, including as a member of the UW System Board of Regents.
Jesús Salas has been there for the community over and over again and I join with my neighbors in congratulating him on receiving the 2017 Frank P. Zeidler Public Service Award.
