James Groppi

James Groppi was born in the Bay View neighborhood on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Italian immigrant parents.

In this working-class community, Giocondo joined others from Italy in Milwaukee's grocery business, opening "Groppi's" store in Bay View, where James and his siblings worked.

He also participated in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference voter registration project in the South, led by Martin Luther King Jr., during the summer of 1965.

With the NAACP Youth Council, Groppi mounted a lengthy, continuous demonstration against the city of Milwaukee on behalf of fair housing.

[5] Throughout this period, he received both physical and moral support from human rights activists like Dick Gregory and Martin Luther King Jr.

Though Groppi was denigrated and arrested on numerous occasions for standing firm in his beliefs, he was instrumental in dramatizing the segregated housing situation in Milwaukee.

In 1966 Groppi acted on common knowledge in the Milwaukee area that most judges and elected officials belonged to the Fraternal Order of Eagles, which at the time did not admit people of color to its membership.

During this period, Groppi also worked for passage of legislation which would outlaw discrimination in the buying and renting of homes (in 1968 such a law was passed on the federal level, known as the Fair Housing Act).

Cited in a bill of attainder for "contempt of the State Assembly" and sentenced to six months in jail, Groppi appealed to the federal courts, which quickly reversed his conviction.

[11] From 1975 to 1976, Groppi worked for the Tri-County Voluntary Service Committee, where he was responsible for recruiting and supervising VISTA volunteers in Racine, Kenosha and Walworth counties.

However, his lifelong commitment to Catholicism caused him to question whether it was spiritually possible for him to continue conversion to the Episcopal priesthood, and he aborted that pursuit later that year.