Found at the Wisconsin State HIstorical Society

     James Edmund Groppi was born in Milwaukee on November 16, 1930, to Italian-American parents. Because of that, he experienced racial discrimination from a young age. At that time, Italians were often subjected to the same discrimination that many African Americans suffer to this day. His family was forced to attend Catholic church services with other Italians in a nearby shoemaker’s shop because of their ethnicity. This and other discriminatory events contributed to his lifelong activism, as well as his strong faith in the necessity of equality.

     The discrimination that he suffered as a child shaped his life and probably made him stronger in his belief that segregation was a sickness in society. It gave him the courage to protest when he knew there would be social blowback towards him and his supporters.

     Groppi attended St. Francis Seminary, near Milwaukee, before being ordained as a priest in 1959. While a priest, he preached at the St. Boniface parish in a poor black neighborhood in Milwaukee. Seeing and experiencing the discrimination firsthand had a profound effect on Father Groppi’s life.

     He tried to convince his superiors in the Church that the Bible emphasized that all people are created equal and therefore civil rights was a just and worthwhile cause. The Church prevented him from going to protests on a few occasions and many people in his congregation hated his activism. Still, he was able to convince some of the highest-ranking clerics that he was correct.

     Groppi was confident in his opinion on civil rights and knew his activism was for a fair and just cause. He considered it everyone’s duty to protest against injustice and to bring about change. He marched for the desegregation of schools, the right to vote, and the right to fair housing for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity. He was not always successful, but the civil rights cause ultimately achieved many of its goals.