1967 Milwaukee riot
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, African American residents, outraged by the slow pace in ending housing discrimination and police brutality, began to riot on the evening of July 30, 1967.
The July disturbance also served as a catalyst to additional unrest in the city; equal housing marches held in August often turned violent as white residents clashed with black demonstrators.
During the mid-1960s, there was race-related civil unrest in a number of major US cities, including riots in Harlem and Philadelphia in 1964; Los Angeles in 1965; and Cleveland and Chicago in 1966.
[2][3][4] Milwaukee communities had long been segregated when Alderwoman Vel Phillips, the first woman and African American to hold the position, proposed the first fair housing[a][clarification needed] ordinance in March 1962.
[7]: 392–3 By the summer of 1967, tensions continued to escalate, and protests became increasingly common, including multiple demonstrations outside the private homes of the city's Aldermen.
[8] Mayor Henry Maier, the city council, and school board refused to address civil rights grievances, and relations between the police and the residents worsened.
[10] Around midnight on the evening of July 29, a fight broke out between two black women outside the St. Francis Social Center, on the corner of 4th and West Brown streets.
Squire Austin, who was at a civil rights rally, recalled, "The rumor we got ... was that police had beaten up a kid pretty bad over on Third and Walnut ... that's when the looting and firebombing started.
[16]: 45 By the end of the day businesses, public transportation, utilities and educational institutions had all closed, and deliveries of milk and cattle to the city had halted.
[16]: 41–2 The Milwaukee Sentinel published a piece August 2 describing the plight of those who were restricted by the curfew, saying that they "were outside on their porches or standing next to their apartment buildings, watching.
[16]: 43 On August 4 the mayor postponed the curfew from 9:00 PM to midnight, and announced that liquor stores and bars would be allowed to open and sell alcohol.
[15][17] According to stories published by the Milwaukee Journal on August 2 and 4, more than $200,000 in window damage had been done to businesses, and the cost of mustering and paying the National Guard to intervene amounted to nearly $300,000.
[16]: 43 On August 3, 1967, an alliance of civil rights organizations and male priest held a dinner to tribute Groppi to honor his contributions to the local struggle for racial equity in Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin.
[10] On August 27, 1967, the local NAACP, led by Father James Groppi, held a march of about a hundred into a white neighborhood in protest of the city's housing laws.
[18]On August 29, the curfew was lifted and Groppi led 200 members of the Milwaukee NAACP on a march out of the ghetto and toward Kosciuszko Park, in an area predominately inhabited by white residents.
[5][19] On September 4, Martin Luther King Jr. sent a telegram from Atlanta in support: What you and your courageous associates are doing in Milwaukee will certainly serve as a kind of massive nonviolence that we need in this turbulent period.
[7]: 394 According to Nesbit, the riots "widened the gap between militant blacks and other civil rights activists and the uncompromising white majority in the city.
In an article published August 1, 1967, by the Milwaukee Sentinel, an interview was reported with "John", an anonymous black rioter in his 20s: He's (the white man) out there marching up and down with his guns.
[24] The Clifford McKissick Community School in Milwaukee was named for the black youth killed by police on August 2 as part of the riot.
[11][25] In 1981, his family filed a civil lawsuit alleging excessive force on the part of officer Ralph Schroeder in the shooting death of McKissick.
[11][26] A year after the riots, John Oraa Tucker, a Shorewood High School janitor who lived in the house burned on the morning of July 31 (where Nelsen and a police officer were killed, among four others who were wounded) was charged with 9 counts of attempted murder.
After the longest jury trial in Milwaukee County Court history (17 days of verdict deliberation) he was cleared on the most serious charges, but found guilty of endangering the safety of the public and given a 25-year sentence.
[8][12] Asked about the events and his convictions in an interview two weeks after his release, Tucker remarked "As long as people's minds are in the past, it puts bumps and obstacles in the way of the future.
"[12] In a 1970 case heard before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Interstate Fire & Casualty Co. v Milwaukee, a company sought $506.93 in damages done to a tavern during the riots.
[27]In 1980, twelve years after the passage of Milwaukee's equal housing ordinance, the city ranked second nationally among the most racially segregated suburban areas.
[28] In a July 2017 study by the Wall Street Journal of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, Milwaukee was listed the 11th most segregated city.
