SR15,1,43 Whereas, Father James Edmund Groppi was born on November 16, 1930, in
4Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and

SR15,1,65 Whereas, in 1959 he was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood after
6studying at St. Francis Seminary; and

SR15,1,107 Whereas, in 1963 Father Groppi, when transferred to St. Boniface parish which
8had a predominantly African America congregation in Milwaukee, became actively
9involved in the Civil Rights Movement and participated in the March on Washington
10during said year; and

SR15,1,1211 Whereas, in 1965 Father Groppi also participated in marches from Selma to
12Montgomery on behalf of the Voting Rights Act; and

SR15,2,213 Whereas, upon his return to Milwaukee later in 1965, Father Groppi began
14organizing protests against the segregation of Milwaukee public schools, and he lead
15marches across the 16th Street Viaduct, which was later renamed in his honor,

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1spanning the Menomonee River, which was a half-mile wide valley and considered
2to be a symbolic divide for the city; and

SR15,2,63 Whereas, in 1967, when Father Groppi discovered that several judges in the
4Milwaukee area held memberships with an organization that did not admit
5non-whites, he questioned their ability to rule impartially in cases involving African
6Americans and reacted by organizing pickets at the homes of the judges; and

SR15,2,77 Whereas, Father Groppi continued such pickets off and on for two years; and

SR15,2,118 Whereas, Father Groppi along with Vel Phillips, the first African-American
9Milwaukee alderperson, worked for the passage of legislation which outlawed
10discrimination in the buying and renting of homes, and in 1968 such a law was
11passed on the federal level, known as the Fair Housing Act; and

SR15,2,1312 Whereas, in 1979 he became a bus driver for the Milwaukee Transit System and
13remained in that capacity until his death in 1985; and

SR15,2,1714 Whereas, the adoption of this senate resolution is supported not only by the
15senate, but also by members of the assembly, including specifically Representatives
16Sheridan, Schneider, Young, Grigsby, Sinicki, Mason, Fields, Benedict, Turner, and
17Hintz; now, therefore, be it