August 28, 1967

"On Monday, August 28, 1967, more than one hundred Youth Council members and supporters, flanked by Youth Council Commandos, proceeded from the 15th Street Freedom House to the 16th Street viaduct. At the north end of the viaduct stood a contingent of members from St. Veronica parish on the far south side, Alderman Anderson’s territory, but also the place where Father Groppi had been assigned fresh from ordination. They held signs reading “We South Siders Welcome Negroes.” Theirs were the last friendly faces the Youth Council met.

"At the south end of the viaduct, crowds of counter-demonstrators were being held back from the marchers by a line of Milwaukee police officers. The marchers were able to move past them, and past those sitting on used cars in the lot at Crazy Jim Motors. Then they advanced to the Kosciuszko Park picnic area for which they had a picnic permit.

"At the park, the Youth Council huddled around several picnic tables. Father Groppi stood on top of a picnic table so that the marchers could see and hear him. A district park supervisor interrupted him, shouting that a picnic permit did not permit speeches. Father Groppi replied, “We want our picnic area. When you enforce the law on them,” gesturing toward the 5,000 counter-demonstrators surging just beyond the picnic area, “you can enforce it on us.” Urged by police to return to the north side quickly before the hostile crowds could break through police lines, Father Groppi led the Youth Council in a short prayer, and then they began the three mile march back to the north end of the viaduct.

"On 16th Street, as the marchers approached the south end of the viaduct, they were met by a crowd that hurled a barrage of rocks, bottles, and garbage at them, and those who carried picket signs held them over their heads for protection. At times the marchers, especially those at the back of the line, had to run. Television camera crews holding heavy film cameras ran alongside. As the line of marchers made its way back to the north side, Father Groppi labeled the actions of the unruly counter-demonstrators on the south side a “White riot.”

"In his unpublished autobiography, Groppi remembered that he tried to telephone Mayor Henry Maier to urge him to call for the National Guard to reinforce the Milwaukee Police, the same strategy that the mayor had implemented during the north side riot. Fair and equal treatment demanded the same response to white rioting as to black rioting. The rights of the marchers to assemble and to speak for their cause, he said, were in jeopardy. The city needed the presence of the National Guard at this point even more than before. Groppi also tried to call Governor Knowles, whose office said, “We cannot send the National Guard out for just anything.” Knowles, who was out of the state at the time, told the newspapers that he had offered the National Guard to Maier if he wanted it, but the mayor did not accept the governor’s offer." -- From Margaret Rozga's "March on Milwaukee," Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 90, Number 4, Summer 2007

Watch Dr. Rozga talk about the march at https://www.facebook.com/FatherGroppiFilm/videos/2317167098592487/

Cal. Patterson. “Where do we go from here?” Milwaukee Star, September 2, 1967. Milwaukee Public Library Microfilm Collection, Microfilmed by the Wisconsin Historical Society.