In 1967, Milwaukee was one of the most segregated cities in the nation. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, blacks accounted for more than 15 percent of the population, but efforts to desegregate housing and schools led nowhere.

The anger and frustration over segregation laws led to riots in the city’s black neighborhoods, and in August 1967, the NAACP Youth Council marched through Kosciuskzo Park, a predominantly white neighborhood, to protest the Common Council’s refusal to pass an open-housing ordinance, which was first introduced in 1962.

The demonstration in the white neighborhood of Milwaukee was a turning point in the state’s history, empowering blacks to march daily through the winter of 1967-68. Finally in the spring of ’68, the federal open housing law passed, preventing discrimination in 80 percent of the nation; and in April, Milwaukee’s Common Council approved a desegregation law stronger than the nation’s.

Regardless of the progress, the city still faced legal loopholes in segregation laws – but the black community in Milwaukee made itself heard to white residents. Similarly, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) advocated for nonviolent direct action protests in white neighborhoods. In the 1960s, the chair of CORE, Robert Lucas, was critical of the civil rights movement, and led a march through Cicero, Ill., where whites were hostile to blacks, throwing bottles and bricks and shouting obscenities. Despite the march’s ultimately violent turn, CORE’s mission was accomplished: blacks became visible in white neighborhoods, and the seeds for change were planted.

Since Proposition 8 passed a little more than two weeks ago, supporters of same-sex marriage have marched and rallied in, of all places, San Francisco’s Castro district, West Hollywood, and, locally, in Hillcrest and in District 3.

The trouble is: those locales are predominantly gay or gay-friendly. Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein said it best, days after the election: “Since they lost the right to marry in California, gays appear to have no game plan, marching around West Hollywood and Silver Lake with their old ‘No on 8’ signs, which makes about as much sense as holding a John McCain rally next month at John McCain’s house.”

Similar to the marches in the Civil Rights Movement, which eventually filtered into the white neighborhoods, we must take our movement into more conservative, less gay-friendly areas.

We made the point in last week’s editorial; our marches need to become outreach tools and opportunities to educate voters outside our communities.

Saturday’s march, which infiltrated the streets of Downtown San Diego and drew more than 20,000 participants, was a start – though, ideologically, Downtown’s residents are far more likely to support same-sex marriage than residents in East County or North County.

Jennifer Schumaker, a lesbian mother of four in North County, took the fight for same-sex marriage to Escondido’s streets before the Nov. 4 election. She stood at a busy intersection in Escondido every day after work for weeks holding a sign that read, “Hi! I’m your neighbor! Protect my right to marriage: Please vote no on Prop. 8.”

Schumaker’s brand of activism – though it drew support from a number of her friends and family members and others in the conservative outlying areas – wasn’t popular with the businesses at Escondido Boulevard and Valley Parkway. One in particular posted a “Yes on 8” sign to counter Schumaker’s message. Regardless, Schumaker made her message about same-sex marriage clear to an audience who might otherwise not have known an opposing view.

It’s inevitable. The media is going to lose interest in our marches and rallies; Saturday’s march, with the largest number of participants in marches nationwide, may be the crescendo to the story on Proposition 8’s aftermath. It’s likely, now, fewer people will march, and fewer media outlets will take notice.

That is, unless our community begins to think outside the box; unless, like demonstrators during the Civil Rights Movement, we take our marches into uncharted territory, and we’re persistent, marching until progress is made.

Marching through the streets of Hillcrest, people gave us thumbs up and honked horns to show their support. Sure, it made us feel good. But did marching in our neighborhoods change minds, or prompt anyone to pause and reconsider his or her vote? Perhaps a few, but it’s not likely.

A march organized to educate people in more conservative areas would be more effective; demonstrators could carry flyers with quotes from the late Coretta Scott King and from Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, all who opposed Proposition 8. Wouldn’t that be an opportunity to change more hearts and open more closed minds?