He started a walk aimed to get Black men in Milwaukee to improve their health. It’s now a community event.

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During a walk along Milwaukee’s Riverwalk, Matthew Johnson had an epiphany. Johnson, who lives in the Halyard Park neighborhood, often walks the riverfront and noticed something perplexing — too few Black people doing the same. “It is just so beautiful in the morning,” he said. “You see the sun coming up over the trees. The geese flying down the middle of the river. Marquette (University) rowers rowing down the river. I just thought people need to know.” That’s when the epiphany hit him — start a walk not only to expose people to the Riverwalk but to promote men’s health. The idea for what has become the annual MKE5K Men’s Walk/Run was born. That was in 2013. A year later, Johnson had his first walk, which now includes a run. In its eighth edition — it stopped for three years around the COVID-19 pandemic — the event has attracted between 275 and 350 people a year. Johnson said he hopes to reach 1,000 for this year’s event, which is Aug. 24. There’s one change from Johnson’s original vision. The walk goes along King Drive instead of the river. That’s intentional — rioting after Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968...

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