August 29, 1967

NAACP Youth Council Member Margaret Rozga describes: "On Tuesday, August 29, the night of the second march, crowds on both sides swelled. Almost 13,000 counter-demonstrators, according to a Milwaukee Sentinel estimate, lined the south side route of the march. Youths among the counter-demonstrators chanted “E-I-E-I-E-I-O. Father Groppi’s got to go.” According to Milwaukee Sentinel reporter Bernice Buresh, some shouted kill… kill… kill. “That word was shouted over and over again Tuesday night by white teenagers and white children—some no older than 7 or 8 years—as they ran alongside the civil rights picket line.” At another point, Buresh saw a small boy, about three years old “wearing a white sweatshirt on which was lettered in black paint, ‘Go Home, Nigger.’”

"The police used tear gas to disperse the counter-demonstrators. In his book City With a Chance, Milwaukee Journal civil-rights reporter Frank Aukofer summarized what he saw that night: “By the time the marchers reached the safety of the viaduct, they looked like refugees from a battle. They were dazed and bewildered, some still suffering from the effects of tear gas that had hung in the air. Some could not walk and had to be carried by other marchers. Blood streamed down the face of a young white seminarian who had been hit by a bottle."

"...that night there was to be no respite when the NAACP Youth Council members and their supporters returned to the North 15th Street Freedom House. Police reported sniper activity in the area and cordoned off nearby streets. They patrolled in front of the Freedom House with shotguns and, trying to disperse the crowd, fired tear gas into the Freedom House. The house burst into flames. Those inside scrambled out. The crowds outside pushed backward toward the street. Flames engulfed the house, but the fire department was nowhere to be seen. Later fire chiefs reported difficulties getting to the scene since key thoroughfares were still closed. Before the night was over, all that was left of the 15th Street Freedom House was a charred and crumbling frame."

Margaret Rozga, "March on Milwaukee," Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 90, Number 4, Summer 2007, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/wmh/id/49374/show/49343/rec/6