Courtesy of the Milwaukee County Historical Society
Father James Groppi marching in Milwaukee
Here's a timeline of prominent protests from Milwaukee's past.
Milwaukee on Strike
May 3, 1886
A general strike brought the city to a standstill as factory workers and employees of all kind, even newsboys, walked off the job as word of the action spread across Milwaukee. The unplanned, unanticipated event spun out of May Day protests on behalf of better working conditions and a shorter workday. The strike was peaceful until May 5, when Wisconsin Gov. Jeremiah Rusk arrived in town with the militia. He ordered troops to open fire on Polish immigrant workers at the Bay View rolling mill, killing at least five.
Civil Rights Protests Begin
Aug. 23, 1963
The eyes of America were on Washington, D.C, as Martin Luther King Jr. declared, “I have a dream.” On that same day, the Civil Rights Movement emerged in Milwaukee when the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) staged a sit-in at the County Courthouse and occupied the City Hall office of Mayor Henry Maier. CORE demanded the resignation of sausage tycoon Fred Lins from the city’s Social Development Commission (SDC) after Lins said that many blacks had “an IQ of nothing” and look “so much alike that you can’t identify the ones who committed the crime.”
Courtesy of Milwaukee Historical Society
Open Housing for All
Aug. 28, 1967
Father James Groppi led an NAACP youth group across the 16th Street Viaduct, a bridge symbolic of the divide between the black North Side and the white South Side. The march to protest racial discrimination in housing was opposed by demonstrators who supported the status quo of legal segregation. Despite a police escort, the march was targeted by some 5,000 white counter-demonstrators hurling epithets, bottles and stones. He continued marching for 200 nights—in minus 7-degree temperatures that winter—until March 14, 1968. The City of Milwaukee eventually passed an open-housing ordinance.
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Fighting War with Non-Violence
Sept. 24, 1968
Five Roman Catholic priests and nine other activists entered the Downtown Milwaukee offices of the Selective Service, seized draft records and burned them in a nearby public park. The Milwaukee 14, as the men became known, stood together, sang songs and read from the words of Jesus while awaiting arrest. Twelve were found guilty of theft, arson, and burglary.
Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee County Historical Society
Reclaiming Native Land
Aug. 14, 1971
As part of a nationwide series of occupations, Native American activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized an abandoned U.S. Coast Guard station on Milwaukee’s lakefront (1600 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive). AIM established the Indian Community School on the site. The institution, which incorporates indigenous culture into a contemporary curriculum, remains vital today in its new location, 10405 St. Martins Road, Franklin.
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