MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The 500 tuxes found inside Milwaukee’s Italian Community Center on Saturday night, symbolized much more than a fashion statement.
“This suit inspires me that I can do good and that all young boys is not bad we can dress up and look nice,” said participant Latrelle Johnson.
That’s the goal of the annual 500 Black Tuxedo Event: dressing up young men to provide them a physical reminder of what they’re worth and what they can be.
Andre Lee Ellis has been putting on this event for the past 5 years. It featured 250 young men and 250 older men dressed to the nines and enjoying a meal together to promote community.
“Often times when [Black men are] in the news, they’re in orange jumpsuits. But this time they’re in tuxedos,” explained Ellis. “That’s why it was important to take a picture on the steps of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, cause they were not in orange jumpsuits, they were in something better.”
Participants at the annual event shared with TMJ4 that having a place to celebrate the Black community is vital to its strength in the city.
“This is so essential,” shared Samuel Alford, a participant in Saturday’s event. “It’s a healing, dignifying space for Black men to be together in unity and peace. Not just to be in fine clothing, but in fine company.”
The evening featured fine dining and powerful performances aimed at inspiring the men in the room to lean on each other to better the Milwaukee community.
“I hope that they learn that they are better than what somebody else calls them,” shared Ellis. “It’s not who you say I am, it’s who I show you I am. And I am great. I am here.”
Ellis says little moments of hope and kindness are enough to change a person’s life for the better.
“If you stop a young man and say hello that might be the change that he needs in his life. But you let him just keep walking by and you never say nothing to them, you never give them a hug, then where does change come from?”
The constant cheers and roaring applause heard around the ballroom Saturday were proof to spectators that something as small as putting on a suit is enough to bring a community together.
