Vincent Toran

Under Toran's direction, more than 1,300 Milwaukeeans - mostly men of color and women - prepared for work in skilled trades and well-providing factory jobs.

Both by his own example and his advocacy, Toran has left a legacy.

To Wisconsin trade apprenticeships, Toran is what Jackie Robinson was to professional athletics. Through talent and will, Toran broke a barrier that opened a door to previously unreachable opportunities.

Toran is the first known African-American construction apprentice in Wisconsin. Backed by an instructor and a counselor at the Milwaukee Vocational and Adult School, where he had completed carpentry classes, Toran entered the union trades in 1948 - 37 years after Wisconsin became the first state to write a law for apprenticeships.

But that wasn't enough for Toran.

Besides plying his trade for various contractors and on his own, Toran supervised the training of other apprentices and strove to help them prove themselves in inhospitable settings.

On Thursday, about 150 people turned out for a tribute to Toran and a fund-raiser for an apprenticeship preparation lab named in his honor at 3841 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Toran, who's 84 and lives with family in Milwaukee, suffers from age-related dementia. He was not available for an interview. But he told a reporter 30 years ago how his skills and credentials did not exempt him from discrimination.

"I got pushed around a lot," Toran said, "and there was no one there for me to go to."

So eventually, Toran became the one for others to go to.

Recruited for the job

In 1968, Milwaukee became a national pilot for the Labor Education Advancement Program, a federally funded effort to recruit, train and place more minority and female candidates in better-paying skilled jobs.

Elmer Anderson, then deputy director of the Milwaukee Urban League, which ran LEAP, recalls hiring Toran for the program.

"I actually sought him out. He knew the hazards they'd face, the barriers they were going to face every day on the job," Anderson says. "It's very difficult for young blacks to fit in and to be accepted in the skilled trades. Vince had been there, done that, so obviously he could impart some wisdom and his experiences on to some of the young guys. He did that for years. He did that very effectively."

For two decades, at LEAP, at a successor program Big Step (Building and Industry Group Skilled Trades Employment Program), and for the National Electrical Contractors Association, Toran gathered, groomed and mentored workers - and knocked down walls.

He got up before dawn to drive trainees to their jobs when they needed rides. He picked them up again at the end of the day. While at the work sites, he monitored the apprentices' progress.

"He checked to see if people were being treated right," says Nacarci Feaster, whom Toran had recruited to union construction work 32 years ago. And when he found trainees relegated to pushing brooms, Toran insisted that contractors provide better opportunities.

Toran appeared in court with those who got in trouble, extolling the rehabilitative qualities of responsible work.

"He put me on a good course," says Joseph Glover, who retired in 2004 after 35 years as a journeyman plumber.

"To many of the guys, he was a father figure," says Toran's son, Vince, also a journeyman plumber. "I still see guys today, they're like 57, 58 years old, they say how much my father has done for them and how they couldn't have made it without him."

Community leaders estimate that Toran was involved in the preparation of more than 1,300 men and women for work in apprenticeships, trades and manufacturing. Multiply that by the children those workers raised and the grandchildren after them, and you get an idea of the cumulative effect that Toran has had on Milwaukee.

Moreover, Toran prepared people for life itself, said Milwaukee Ald. Joe Davis, a journeyman steamfitter who followed two of his brothers and a sister into the building trades through Toran's tutelage.

Davis recalls Toran counseling him on how to deal with racism and discrimination - to focus on being unimpeachably good at his work and to respond to disrespect with reason, not rage.

"God has given him the gift of patience," Davis says, "because any time that you dwell in an environment where people are constantly trying to set you up for failure, patience has always ruled over those who have negative intentions."

Toran has preached and practiced persistence, his daughter says. As a trailblazer himself and later as an advocate, Toran could irritate both contractors and unions averse to change.

"He knew what he did was right, and he was up for the fight," Cheryl Toran Hamberlin says.

And though he had his share of detractors, Toran has commanded respect, says Anderson: "He was a very bright guy but a very humble guy, not arrogant, not pushy. I think he had that personality that made him get along with everyone."

At Thursday's tribute, Toran, accompanied by his family, accepted handshakes and hugs, leaning in and listening closely to tales of gratitude.

"I always talk about you. I keep your spirit alive. You live in me. You know that, don't you?" said Feaster, who is financial secretary of Laborers Local 113 and a director of Big Step.

After about an hour of accolades and proclamations, Toran stood up and flashed the humility and perseverance for which he is known.

"One man does not deserve an honor himself," Toran told his admirers. And though he thanked them, he added, "More work needs to be done."

Trainee diversity lacking

Earlier that day, the Transportation Equity Network, based in Washington, D.C., released university research showing that the construction work force under-represents African-American, Latino and female workers in each of 18 U.S. metro areas studied. Based on their share of the population, African-Americans lacked 42,000 jobs in the construction industry.

Milwaukee was not one of the cities studied, but last year the NAACP released a study from the Employment & Training Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee showing that southeastern Wisconsin contractors still lacked trainees of color. According to the study, contractors had 11 white apprentices for each African-American in training and 14 whites for each Latino apprentice.

The NAACP report stirred some urgency to diversify trade apprenticeships. Earl Buford, the current executive director of Big Step, cites progress.

Big Step reported this year that between August 2005 and January 2007, people of color accounted for 24.3% of new building trade apprentices - for the first time approximating the Milwaukee area's demographics.

"Everything we do now is based on the vision and model that he started with his initiatives," Buford says of Toran. He says more people should know about Toran to recognize the opportunities he opened.

Royal's story is one testimonial to Toran's work.

A high school dropout who had served in the military and then bounced around temp jobs doing hard manual labor, Royal was preparing to enter the trades through Big Step in 1979 when Toran sized him up and invited him to apply for work at Delphi Corp.

"This job not only changed my standard of living, but it changed the standard of living for my entire family," Royal says. "We came to become a middle-class family. My children are both graduates of MPS, Marshall High School, both veterans of the Navy. And both are gainfully employed."

Royal has five grandchildren. He recently completed his bachelor's degree. He also is on the board of directors of the Milwaukee Area Technical College, the descendant of the school through which Toran launched his lifework.

When he heard of plans to honor Toran, Royal volunteered to coordinate the event.

"It just inspires me to try to follow in his footsteps, to try and give back, to try to duplicate what he's created," Royal says. "And this is an opportunity to do that for me for Mr. Toran. I feel very fortunate to be able to do this."