"Not a color, but an attitude": Father James Groppi and black power politics in Milwaukee

Groundwork: Local Black Freedom Movements in America

Volumn , Issue , 2005, Pages 259-281

  Jones, Patrick ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN   (United States)

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EID: 84898271270     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (51)

1. Milwaukee Journal, October 1, 1967, 12.
2. Concern, October 15, 1967, 8;
3. Milwaukee Journal, September 29, 1967, 1;
4. Milwaukee Journal, October 1, 1967, 1.
5. Concern, October 15, 1967, 9.
6. Catholic Herald Citizen, October 7, 1967, 5;
7. Milwaukee Journal, October 9, 1967, pt. 2, 1.
8. In particular, the story of Robert F. Williams, president of the Monroe, North Carolina, branch of the NAACP in the 1950s has made us reconsider the origins of the Black Power movement. See Timothy B. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001);
9. Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998).
10. See "Father Groppi," typescript of the irst chapter of an autobiographical sketch, n.d. but ca. 1971,Groppi Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin (SHSW), Madison, Wisconsin, box 14,folder 7, 7-8 (hereafter, "Groppi Autobiography"). See also James Groppi interview with Frank Aukofer, October 13,1967,in Aukofer Papers, SHSW.
11. Frank Aukofer, City with a Chance (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing, 1968), 8990.
12. "Groppi Autobiography," 14-15.
13. "Groppi Autobiography," 19-20.
14. "Groppi Lecture at East Library," February 15, 1984.
15. Milwaukee Journal, April 4, 1965, 2.
16. Special Committee on Equality of Educational Opportunity Minutes, December 10, 1963,Lorraine Radtke Papers, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Lloyd Barbee interview with Patrick Jones, January 30, 1999;
17. Milwaukee Journal, December 11, 1963, 31.
18. Tom Jacobson interview with Patrick Jones, November 1, 1999;John Givens interview with Patrick Jones, November 17, 1999; Milwaukee Sentinel, March 26, 1963, 8;
19. Milwaukee Journal, March 26, 1963, 14;
20. "Why We Demonstrate," Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council flyer, ca. March 1963,Milwaukee NAACP Papers, SHSW, Madison, Wisconsin;
21. Milwaukee Sentinel, March 28, 1963, part 2, 1;
22. Milwaukee Journal, March 28, 1963, part 2, 2;
23. Milwaukee Star, April 6, 1963, 2.
24. For more than a decade Lloyd Barbee spearheaded a legal ight to integrate the Milwaukee Public Schools. In 1976 a federal court judge ruled that Milwaukee public schools were indeed segregated. Two years later the court ruled that the segregation was the result of intentional policies by the school board, not simply housing patterns, and ordered the two sides to come up with a remedy. Barbee and Milwaukee school officials agreed to a broad-based desegregation plan, including limited busing. For a full documentary overview of the school desegregation case, see the Barbee Papers. Also see Jack Dougherty, "More Than One Struggle: African-American School Reform Movements in Milwaukee, 1930-1980" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 1997);
25. William Dahlk, "The Black Educational Reform Movement in Milwaukee, 1963-1975" (M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1990).
26. Milwaukee Eagle, March 19, 1966, 1;
27. see also Milwaukee Journal, March 16, 1966, part 2, 1.
28. Milwaukee Journal, August 9, 1966, 1, 10.
29. Milwaukee Journal, August 10, 1966, 1;August 11, 1966, part 2, 2.
30. Time magazine, September 9, 1966, 23-24.
31. Milwaukee Journal, August 25, 1966, part 2, 10;
32. Aukofer, City with a Chance, 101.
33. Milwaukee Journal, October 6, 1966, part 2, 1;
34. Milwaukee Courier, October 8, 1966, 1.
35. Militant self-defense groups also existed in Bogalusa, Louisiana; Oakland, California; Tampa Bay, Florida; Dayton, Ohio; New England; and Long Island. In Bogalusa and Oakland these groups carried weapons and often shot it out with the KKK or local police. In the other cities these groups did not carry weapons but rather sought to defend civil rights activists from hostile crowds and violent police. Milwaukee Journal, October 6, 1966, part 2, 1;June 16, 1967, 4;June 17, 1967, 8.
36. "Groppi Lecture at East Library," February 15, 1984.In fact, Betty Martin was the only official female Commando. During the open housing campaign, the Commandos also elected Vel Phillips an "honorary Commando" as a symbolic link between their direct action campaign and her work in the Common Council. By and large, though, the group was exclusively male.
37. "Groppi in Black for Yule Mass," National Catholic Reporter, January 3, 1967, 7;
38. Karen Kelly, "The Scene-Milwaukee," Community, October 1967, 3;
39. Aukofer, City with a Chance, 83-84.
40. In part, this peculiarity comes from the fact that we have yet to explore the Christian roots of Black Power, even though there are a number. For example, see Angela Dillard, "Religion and Radicalism: The Reverend Albert B. Cleage, Jr., and the Rise of Black Christian Nationalism in Detroit," in Jeanne Theoharis and Ko-mozi Woodard, eds., Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles outside the South, 1940-1980 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2003).
41. Milwaukee Journal, May 8, 1967, part 2, 1.
42. Milwaukee Courier, July 29, 1967, 1;
43. Milwaukee Star, July 29,1967, 1.
44. Henry Maier, The Mayor Who Made Milwaukee Famous (Lanham, Md.: Madison Books, 1993), 8;
45. see also Karl Flaming, "The 1967 Milwaukee Riot: A Historical and Comparative Analysis" (Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1970);
46. Idem, Who Riots and Why? Black and White Perspectives in Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Urban League, 1968).
47. The following narrative of open housing activism relies on various news accounts and personal interviews with participants. See Milwaukee Journal, August 30, 1967, 1;
48. Milwaukee Sentinel, August 30, 1967, 1;
49. Milwaukee Star, September 2, 1967, 1;
50. Milwaukee Courier, September 2, 1967, 1.In addition, see Betty Martin interview with Arlene Zakhar, January 20, 1984;Vel Phillips interviews with Patrick Jones, December 3, 1999, and April 20, 1999;Joe McClaine interviews with Patrick Jones, December 3, 1989, and March 29, 1999;Prentice McKinney interviews with Patrick Jones, January 11, 1999, and March 27, 1999.
51. Andrew Witt, "Self-Help and Self-Defense: A Reevaluation of the Black Panther Party with Emphasis on the Milwaukee Chapter" (M.A. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1999).