Racine, Wisconsin

Racine (/rəˈsin/ rə-SEEN, also /ˈreɪsin/ ^ⓘ RAY-seen) is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River, 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and 60 miles (97 km) north of Chicago. It is the fifth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 77,816 at the 2020 census. The Racine metropolitan statistical area, consisting solely of Racine County, has an estimated 199,000 residents.

Racine is the headquarters of several industrial companies, namely Case IH, Dremel, InSinkErator, Modine Manufacturing, Reliance Controls, and S. C. Johnson & Son. Historically, the Mitchell & Lewis Company began making motorcycles and automobiles in Racine at the start of the 20th century. Racine was also home to the Horlicks malt factory, where malted milk balls were first developed; the Western Publishing factory, where Little Golden Books were printed; and Twin Disc transmissions. Prominent architects in Racine's history include A. Arthur Guilbert and Edmund Bailey Funston, and the city is home to works by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, most notably the Johnson Wax Headquarters.

Human prehistory in Racine began with Paleoindians after the last Ice Age. After the arrival of Europeans, the Historic period saw the Miami and later the Potawatomi expand into the area under the pressures of the French fur trade.

In November 1674, while traveling from Green Bay to the territory of the Illinois Confederation, Father Jacques Marquette and his assistants, Jacques Largillier, Pierre Porteret, and Nathan Kowitt camped at the mouth of the Root River. These were the first Europeans known to visit what is now Racine County. Further expeditions were made in the area by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1679 and by François Jolliet De Montigny and Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes in 1698. Nearly a century later, in 1791, a trading post would be established along Lake Michigan near where the Root River empties into it.

Following the Black Hawk War, the area surrounding Racine, which had previously been off-limits, was settled by Yankees from upstate New York and New England. In 1834 Captain Gilbert Knapp USRM, who was from Chatham, Massachusetts, founded the settlement of "Port Gilbert" at the place where the Root River empties into Lake Michigan. Knapp had first explored the area of the Root River valley in 1818, and returned with financial backing when the war ended. Within a year of Knapp's settlement hundreds of other settlers from New England and western New York had arrived and built log cabins in the area surrounding his own. Some of the settlers were from the town of Derby, Connecticut, and others came from the New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The area was previously called "Kipi Kawi" and "Chippecotton" by the indigenous peoples, both names for the Root River. The name "Port Gilbert" was never really accepted, and in 1841 the community was incorporated as the village of Racine, after the French word for "root". After Wisconsin was admitted to the Union in 1848, the new legislature voted in August to incorporate Racine as a city.

In 1852, Racine College, an Episcopal college, was founded; it closed in 1933. Its location and many of its buildings are preserved today by the Community of St. Mary as part of the DeKoven Center.

Also in 1852, Racine High School, the first public high school in Wisconsin, opened. The high school operated until 1926, when it was torn down to make way for the new Racine County Courthouse, an Art Deco highrise. Washington Park High School was built to replace the original high school.

Before the Civil War, Racine was well known for its strong opposition to slavery, with many slaves escaping to freedom via the Underground Railroad passing through the city. In 1854 Joshua Glover, an escaped slave who had made a home in Racine, was arrested by federal marshals and jailed in Milwaukee. One hundred men from Racine, and ultimately 5,000 Wisconsinites, rallied and broke into the jail to free him. He was helped to escape to Canada. Glover's rescue gave rise to many legal complications and a great deal of litigation. This eventually led to the Wisconsin Supreme Court declaring the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 unconstitutional, and later, the Wisconsin State Legislature refusing to recognize the authority of the U.S. Supreme Court. This saga played a significant role in the building up of tensions that preceded the Civil War.