2007 Senate Resolution 15
ENGROSSED RESOLUTION
Relating to: commending the life an public service of Father James Edmund Groppi.
Whereas, Father James Edmund Groppi was born on November 16, 1930, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and
Whereas, in 1959 he was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood after studying at St. Francis Seminary; and
Whereas, in 1963 Father Groppi, when transferred to St. Boniface parish which had a predominantly African America congregation in Milwaukee, became actively involved in the Civil Rights Movement and participated in the March on Washington during said year; and
Whereas, in 1965 Father Groppi also participated in marches from Selma to Montgomery on behalf of the Voting Rights Act; and
Whereas, upon his return to Milwaukee later in 1965, Father Groppi began organizing protests against the segregation of Milwaukee public schools, and he lead marches across the 16th Street Viaduct, which was later renamed in his honor, spanning the Menomonee River, which was a half-mile wide valley and considered to be a symbolic divide for the city; and
Whereas, in 1967, when Father Groppi discovered that several judges in the Milwaukee area held memberships with an organization that did not admit non-whites, he questioned their ability to rule impartially in cases involving African Americans and reacted by organizing pickets at the homes of the judges; and
Whereas, Father Groppi continued such pickets off and on for two years; and
Whereas, Father Groppi along with Vel Phillips, the first African-American Milwaukee alderperson, worked for the passage of legislation which outlawed discrimination in the buying and renting of homes, and in 1968 such a law was passed on the federal level, known as the Fair Housing Act; and
Whereas, in 1979 he became a bus driver for the Milwaukee Transit System and remained in that capacity until his death in 1985; and
Whereas, the adoption of this senate resolution is supported not only by the senate, but also by members of the assembly, including specifically Representatives Sheridan, Schneider, Young, Grigsby, Sinicki, Mason, Fields, Benedict, Turner, and Hintz; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the senate, That the senate of the state of Wisconsin honors the remarkable life and achievements of Father James Edmund Groppi as an ecclesiastical leader during the Civil Rights Movement, as well as an advocate for equality in the areas of housing, education, and justice for citizens in Milwaukee and across the nation.
